Obj. ID: 1836
Architecture Trabelsia Synagogue in Djerba - Tevah
To the main object: Trabelsia Synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia - Prayer hall
The reader's desk stands opposite the ark, in the centre of the synagogue. It is rectangular furniture formed of a chest topped by an elevated back.
The top of the rectangular cupboard serves as a table, enclosed on its two sides within a banister. The banister is made-up of two front flat columns, which terminates with geometrical finials and connected to a back frame by two diagonal handrails.
The back is an elevated rectangular frame enclosing an ogee arch, reaching to the wooden ceiling. It is divided by a horizontal bar into two parts; the lower is subdivided in its centre into two square panels, on which prayers are hung. The lower wooden bar is decorated with a floral pattern and topped by triangles. While the upper bar is adorned by a pair of graded wooden hooks facing the ark and additional toothed triangles with hooks on its front.
The desk is painted brown.
Two metal blue boxes are placed on the back of the teivah, and are used for memorial candles.
- The reader's desk in the Trabelsiya Synagogue differs in size and structure from the common local tievot in Djerba. The Djerban teivot are massive free-standing wooden structures, reached through a self-supporting arch. However, this reader's desk is rather small combining the small Libyan cupboards, as can be seen in one of the three synagogues of Tigrinah, located one hundred km. south to Tripoli (fig. 2), with an elevated rectangular back which echoes the traditional Djerban arched entrance.
