Monastir (Ar. al-Munastīr) is a small coastal town on the Gulf of Hammamet about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) south of Sousse. Known in antiquity as Ruspina, Monastir, like many of the port towns on the Tunisian coast, was originally a Punic–Roman city upon whose ruins the medieval and modern cities were built.

The Romanian Jewish traveler Benjamin II (J. J. Benjamin), who visited Tunisia in 1853 to 1854, mentioned Monastir as a having a Jewish community, but he did not visit the town. Under the French protectorate (1881–1956), Monastir remained a relatively …