The Borgel Cemetery

The Borgel Cemetery, named after Rabbi Éliaou Borgel, opened in 1894. Containing more than 30,000 graves It is the largest Jewish cemetery in North Africa. A wall inside the cemetery separates the Grana (Livornese) from Touansa (native Tunisian) graves. In 1958, Jewish graves from the old Avenue Rostand cemetery in Tunis (today the Habib Thameur Garden) were transferred to the Borgel. The Borgel is divided into twenty-four sections. Many well-known Tunisian-Jewish personalities are buried in the Borgel. This includes Habiba Mssika, Cheikh El Afrit, David Scialom and Rabbi Haï Taïeb. In the 1920s a war memorial was created to honour Tunisian Jews who had died fighting for France during the First World War. In1948 a war memorial was erected inside the Borgel cemetery to commemorate the Jews of Tunisia who were killed during the Nazi Occupation. While the cemetery belongs to the Jewish Community of Tunisia, today Henda Haddad is the Borgel’s caretaker. Henda Haddad has initiate knowledge of thousands of the Borgel’s graves.