The Tunisian Butcher: A Community Saved by a Sacrifice

Tunisia, roughly 170 years ago, in the bustling market street. Muslim merchants and vendors routinely mocked and harassed the Jewish residents, who were powerless to stop them. That day, after a Muslim man bullied a young Jewish boy, stealing his money and driving him out of the shop, something changed. Samuel Batto, the Jewish butcher, stepped out of his store and declared, "No more, I will not tolerate this behavior any longer." Batto was a tall, robust man, known for his ability to cleave a cow in half with a single knife stroke. He emerged from his butcher shop, looming over the shabby store of the Muslim vendor. With one hand, he lifted the vendor, and with the other, he retrieved the stolen money, slamming the vendor hard onto the counter, tightening his grip just enough to send a message. That particular vendor did not bother the Jews again anytime soon.

From that day forward, Batto’s imposing presence cast a shadow over the anti-Semitic elements in the Tunisian markets. Before anyone thought of exploiting a Jew, they checked to see if the intimidating butcher was around. This naturally irked them, and they plotted to bring him down. One day, they succeeded. A passerby got into a spat with Batto, and when things weren’t going his way, he suddenly cried out, "Muslims, this despicable Jew cursed the Prophet Muhammad and the religion of Islam." This claim was, of course, false, but the enraged crowd cared little for the truth. They surrounded Batto with threats and jeers. Holding his knife, Batto managed to ward them off momentarily, but he stood no chance against the multitude and was taken to the Sharia court, where the mufti accepted the "testimonies" against him and sentenced him to immediate execution.

The Jewish community didn’t give up. Nissim Shmama, a member of the community who served as the finance minister for the Bey, the ruler of the region, turned to the French consul for assistance. The consul, Leon Roches, who leveraged the Bey’s significant debts to the French government, asserted that Batto was a French citizen, and hence untouchable. However, religious Muslim envoys confronted the Bey, warning him that shielding a Jew accused of disgracing Islam could imperil his own life. Consequently, Batto was executed in the summer of 1857.

A savage mob of Muslims began to disgrace Batto’s corpse. Nissim Shmama, wishing to avert this dishonor, directed his servants to scatter coins from the windows. The mob paused, drawn away from the body to gather the coins, giving other servants the opportunity to seize Batto’s body and whisk it away to a Jewish burial place. When the angry mob realized the trick, they threatened to wreak havoc on the entire Jewish community. At this juncture, the French consul intervened again, threatening the Bey that tolerating such pogroms would be tantamount to a declaration of war against the government of His Majesty Napoleon III. Thus, while one proud Jew lost his life, the rest of the community was spared from the brutal wrath of the Muslim barbarians.