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Responses to modernity in two North African Jewish centres—Jerba in southern Tunisia and Tripoli in Libya—are compared. The paper first demonstrates the close cultural connections between these communities during the past several centuries. It then shows how Jerba developed as the more active community, in terms of rabbinic culture, in the late 19th century. Next, it points to the main directions the two communities took in response to contact with Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries—sustained resistance on the part of the Jews of Jerba and pragmatic accommodation, while maintaining attachment to tradition, on the part of the Jews of Tripoli. Particular attention will be paid to the way rabbinic culture interacted with wider communal religious culture in each instance. Finally, various explanations for this difference are considered, while citing comparative material from Tunisia and Tripolitania.