10 Tunisian Jews make aliyah after violent riots

Jewish Agency helps family of 10 move to Israel, while an additional 10 Jews from Tunisia visit until things stabilize at home.

Tunisiariot311 (photo credit: AP)
Tunisiariot311
(photo credit: AP)
A Jewish family from Tunisia made aliya on Wednesday, the first to arrive since the outbreak of violent riots in the Mediterranean country, a Jewish Agency for Israel spokesman said.
According to the JAFI official, the family of 10 had been contemplating immigrating to Israel for a while but the recent political instability was the last straw.
They were accompanied by 10 Jewish Tunisian youths who had come to tour Israel until things stabilized back home.
"The role of the Jewish Agency for Israel is to facilitate aliya to Israel and if Tunisians want to come they can," the spokesman said.
Despite the turmoil in Tunisia, so far there's been no sign of large scale emigration by the country's approximate 1,500 Jews.
The president of Tunisia's Jewish community told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that there have been no attempted attacks on community members of its institutions.