It began with the appeal of Rabbi Yosef Boukris of France, requesting the RCE’s assistance for the Jewish community of Djerba, due to harassment against the Yeshiva Or Torah and its Rosh Yeshiva, RabbiMatzliach Hadad.

In the vicinity of the Yeshiva lives a woman who identifies herself with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard,and set herself the goal of making trouble for the Yeshiva and its students. She opened no less than 60 criminal charges against Rabbi Hadad, following which he was sentenced to three months’ conditional imprisonment. Rabbi Hadad was forced to declare that he could not continue to lead the Yeshiva.

In 2002 the community appealed to Eli Yishai, Minister of Industry and Commerce, and to Silvan Shalom, the Finance Minister, to come to their aid in solving the problem. They did not respond, and the threats increased.

Then the Rabbinical Centre of Europe Israli branchentered the scene, and took action in various ways. On the political level, the Centre contacted Rabbi Yaakov Cohen of Yahadus Hatorah, who brought up the subject as a matter of urgency on the parliamentary agenda. At the same time the request was passed on to the Foreign Ministry. The Foreign Minister, Mrs. Zippi Livni, contacted the Tunisian President and Foreign Minister, requesting that they investigate the matter and abolish the sentence.


In addition, RCE staff publicised the story and made the public aware of the anti-Semitic occurrence, and the story caught the headlines both in electronic mail and in newspaper reports.

Their efforts bore fruit, and as a result of the RCE actions to mobilize the correct contacts, all criminal charges against Rabbi Hadad were closed, and his jail sentence was abolished. It is noteworthy that the Yeshiva in Djerba today continues to function normally, the voice of Torah continues to resound through its corridors.

The RCE maintains a warm contact with Rabbi Meir Mazouz,formaly from Tunisia, Head of Kisei Rahamim Yeshiva, and consults with him about the continued handling of the situation.