Unleavened Bread and Kosher Wine

Abstract

By using literary sources and the administrative correspondence, I question the construction of a Jewish identity in colonial Tunisia through food products and their distribution networks. Unleavened bread and kosher wine were two staple products in the daily life of the Tunisian Jewish community. The merchant networks selling these products were numerous. In the travel narratives, the French colonial elites did not always link the Jewish community to these products. Unleavened bread and kosher wine, however, remained essential identity markers of the community, and their sale was used to finance the relief and charity fund created in 1905 by the colonial authorities through a system of taxes. Unleavened bread and kosher wine production were managed by the Chief Rabbi and the various stakeholders who contested that monopoly used economic and religious arguments.