Obj. ID: 3517
Architecture Rabbi Shalom Synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia
The Rabbi Shalom Synagogue (Slat Rabbi Shalom) was built by Shalom Haddad, one of the sons of Rabbi Aaron Haddad, who was well known for representing Hara Kebira during the conflict with the Cohanim in 1805 (Bismuth-Jarrassé and Jarrassé, Synagogues de Tunisie, p. 158). The synagogue was likely constructed in the second half of the 19th century, while the adjacent yeshiva only in the 1960s or later (Bismuth-Jarrassé and Jarrassé, Synagogues de Tunisie, p. 158).
The synagogue complex consists of a large prayer hall and classrooms/yeshivah buildings situated around a courtyard. On its west, there is a Jewish cemetery.
The synagogue courtyard has three entrances, on the southern, eastern, and northern sides. The southern entrance and the entrance to the prayer hall are stressed by arcades. Benches lining the walls are decorated with tiles.
Along the eastern and western sides of the courtyard, there are classrooms of the local yeshivah. A large room on the southern side serves as a small prayer hall. They were probably built in the 1960s (Bismuth-Jarrassé and Jarrassé, Synagogues de Tunisie, p. 158).
The prayer hall is a single-story rectangular basilica-like building with a clerestory or skylight, located at the northwestern comer of the complex. Its southern wall borders the courtyard and contains a rectangular entrance door. The northern wall borders a storage area. The western side forms the outer wall while the eastern side borders a corridor.
On the southern wall of the hall, two pairs of rectangular windows appear to the east of the door while one rectangular window appears at its very west (from the other side of the classrooms/yeshivah building). The western wall has five rectangular windows, two elongated ones flank three smaller windows. The eastern wall has a rectangular door at its south leading to a store room. It is surmounted by a rectangular window. The northern wall has two narrow doors and a rectangular window in between, all blocked.
sub-set tree: 
Djerba’s Jews have historically lived in two neighborhoods: Hara Kebira (“large quarter”) and Hara Seghira (“small quarter”). According to Abraham Udovitch and Lucette Valensi, the instance when Hara Kebira was mentioned on the Italian map was in 1587 (Diarna, http://archive.diarna.org/site/detail/public/1650/). It is important to mention, that historians and travelers often romantically misdated Djerban synagogues to the 15th or 17th centuries. However, architectural evidence proves many actually date to the second half of the 19th century, the early 20th century, or even as late as 1930 (Bismuth-Jarrassé and Jarrassé, Synagogues de Tunisie, p. 125).
In 1952, there were roughly 50 synagogues in Djerba. Today (2010), no fewer than 20 still exist (Bismuth-Jarrassé and Jarrassé, Synagogues de Tunisie, p. 122-25). According to the report of a journalist Raphaël Valensi, in 1952, the Jewish population of Djerba was recorded as being around 4,000 people (Bismuth-Jarrassé and Jarrassé, Synagogues de Tunisie, p. 125). A mass exodus to France and Israel in the 1940s and 50s drastically reduced their numbers. Afterward, the neighborhood became predominantly Muslim and was renamed al-Sawani ("irrigated gardens") (Diarna, http://archive.diarna.org/site/detail/public/1650/).
Bismuth-Jarrassé, Colette and Dominique Jarrassé, Synagogues de Tunisie: monuments d'une histoire et d'une identité (Le Kremlin-Bicêtre: Esthétiques du divers, 2010)