The riots in Tunis at the beginning of June 1967 were a reaction to the Six-Day War in the Middle East. They were a turning point in the history of the Tunisian Jewish community. A major consequence of the unrest was that most of the Jews who had remained after Tunisian independence in 1956 left the country.

Just before noon, on June 5, 1967, a Muslim mob set the British Library in Tunis afire. That afternoon the mob moved on to the American Library, the offices of Trans World Airlines (TWA), and the American embassy. After that, the mob began to attack Jewish property, mainly automobil…