The history of Libya is, in reality, the history of three distinct geographical regions – Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan – populated by different tribes, between which there is practically no connection, except during the periods in which they were under foreign domain.

It is believed that the name Libya derives from the name of the Berber Libu tribe, which in ancient times lived in Cyrenaica. Egyptian documents from the 13th century BC already mention it and the ancient Greeks used the name Libu for the entire region, from North Africa to western Egypt. By the 7th century BC Phoenicians and Greeks had established trading posts in the region of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, respectively. Archaeological finds dating back to the 6th century BC attest to the presence of Jews in the region, probably merchants who operated between Africa and the Middle East. 

There are historians who fix the fall of the First Temple, in 586 BC, as being the date for the first Jewish settlements in present-day Libya. Herodotus, a Greek historian from the 5th century before the present Era, mentions them in his work. And, according to Flavius ​​Josephus, Ptolemy Lagos, of Egypt, in the 4th century BC, settled Jews in Cyrenaica, then an important center of Hellenistic culture, and then in Tripolitania. Jewish objects discovered in Zliten, a village near Tripoli, confirm this presence.

As early as the 1st century BC, the majority of Cyrenaica's population was made up of Jews, and, in fact, it constituted the largest Jewish settlement outside of Eretz Israel. A highly Hellenized Jewish elite lived from commerce, while the majority had crafts as a means of subsistence. According to Strabo, a Greek historian, the Jews of Cyrene, the main Greek city in Cyrenaica, in addition to enjoying equal rights, had a different classification and some even occupied government positions. Inscriptions found in Benghazi, then called Berenice, and other places in the region, dating from the beginning of Roman rule, attest to the existence of a solid and organized Jewish community. It is known that in the year 56 of the Common Era they built an amphitheater and an imposing synagogue.

This presence increased in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE by the Romans. The following year, Titus deported 12 boats full of prisoners from Judea to Cyrenaica, where, according to Flavius ​​Josephus, 500 Jews already lived.
 
They revolted against Rome in 73 and 115, being defeated on both occasions. The revolt of 115, the so-called War of the Diasporas, had dramatic consequences. The rebellion began when the Jews retaliated against an attack by the local population and spread to other parts of the Empire, turning into a total war. Jews from Cyrenaica, Egypt, Cyprus, Crete and Syria organized legions to face Rome, being initially victorious. The Christian writer Eusebius, from the 4th century, reports: “Against them, the emperor sent Marcius Turbo... He waged war, without rest, against the Jews... killing many thousands of them...”. In 117, Roman violence resulted in hundreds of thousands of Jewish deaths, of which more than 200 were killed in Cyrenaica alone. Those who survived took refuge with the Berber tribes of Sirte, in Tripolitania.

For the Jews of North Africa, the 1st and 2nd centuries were a period of economic and cultural stagnation. But, as soon as the Pax Romana was reestablished, the Libyan Jewish community reorganized and entered a new period of development and prosperity. In the 5th century, Augustine of Hippo, Saint Augustine, wrote about the large Jewish community of Osea (today, Tripoli) and the fame of its great scholars.

Libya remained a Roman province until it was conquered in the 5th century by the Vandals. In the following century, with the reconquest of the region by the Byzantine Empire, its anti-Jewish political intolerance led Jews to seek shelter in the interior of the country, among Berber tribes. Over time, a process of Judaization of some tribes began as a result of the close relationship between the two communities.

Arabic rule

In the year 642, the Arabs expelled the Byzantines. During the first centuries, the invaders had to face fierce resistance from the Berbers. The Arab historian Ibn Khaldun reports in his work that, in the period from 688 to 693, one of the leaders was a woman called Kahhena, chief of the Judaizing tribe of Jerawa.

The life of the Jews was no different from that led by their co-religionists in other regions under Arab rule. They lived in conditions of dhimmis. This implied acceptance of the supremacy of Islam and consequent submission to the Muslim State, in exchange for which they were guaranteed life, property and the right to move around and practice their religion. As dhimmis they were subject to paying a series of taxes, complying with numerous orders and, in many cases, enduring harassment and humiliation.

There is little information about the Libyan Jewish community during the first centuries of Muslim rule. It is known, however, that in the 10th century there were around 800 Jews in Tripoli. In the following century, some communities flourished in Cyrenaica, including those of Gadame, Lebds and Barce. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Jewish life suffered the impact of the rule of the Almohads, Berbers from North Africa, who, guided by an unconditional intolerance against the “infidels”, spread terror among the dhimmis.
 
From the 13th century until the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, our sources on Jewish life in Libya are silent. When, in 1510, Spain conquered Tripoli, 800 Jewish families lived in the city, several of which were of Iberian origin. In 1530, the Knights of Malta took over, remaining in power until the arrival of the Ottomans in 1551.

Under Christian rule, the lives of Jews became significantly worse, becoming the target of the Inquisition. Countless families leave Tripoli. Some move to Rome and, once again, hundreds take refuge with the Berber tribes in Jewish settlements, hidden in villages created in caves in the mountains of Gharian and Tajuria.

ottoman empire

When, in 1551, the Ottomans conquered Libya, they were faced with a Jewish community weakened, economically and spiritually, by Christian rule. But at the same time, on his way to Eretz Israel, Rabbi Shimon Labi, a Spanish kabbalist known for his contributions to the Zohar. Upon realizing the difficult situation of the Jews, he decided to stay in the city, managing to revitalize the community and the study of Torah.

The Ottoman period gave new impetus to Jewish life. Families who lived in the interior moved to Tripoli and others, who lived in Rome or had been deported to Naples by the Spanish, returned, occupying a prominent place in commerce and the community. In 1628, the Slat El Kebira synagogue was opened in Tripoli. Still in the 17th century, the arrival of Jews from Livorno gave the community new impetus.

In the following century, the Jews of Tripoli twice escaped great danger. In 1705, they were saved from extermination, when the troops of the governor of Tunis, Ibrahim Sherif, about to conquer the city, fell victim to an epidemic and were forced to retreat. To remember the events, Libyan Jews celebrate the Purim Sherifon the 23th of Tevet. Other Purim, called the Burghul, is celebrated on the 29th of the same month, in remembrance of the day, in 1795, when Ali Burghul, an Algerian pirate, was deposed, who in the brief period in which he ruled Tripoli had installed a true reign of terror against the Jews.

Despite these two events, the 18th and 19th centuries were a period of growth and economic development for the Jewish community. Their communal life was organized in a similar way to communities in Tunisia and Algeria. They were led by a member of the most prominent families, with the title of qaid - Where sceich, whose authority was only limited by the Chacham Bashi, chief rabbi. In 1850, the Romanian Jew Benjamin II arrived in Libya, and reported in his work “Cinq Années in Orient (1846-51)”, that, in Tripoli, there were a thousand Jewish families and eight synagogues; and, in Benghazi, one hundred Jewish families and two synagogues.

The economic activities of the Jewish elite included maritime trade (particularly with Livorno, where henna, wool, grains, etc. were sent) and textile products, overland, with caravans that went from Fezzan to Nigeria. Much of the Jewish population, however, was poor. In Tripoli, they lived in the Jewish quarter of the old city, called Hara Kebira.

At the end of the 19th century, the impact of Ottoman reforms, the entry of investments, goods and businesspeople from European industrialized nations, and European political interference in the Ottoman Empire put pressure on the lives of the entire Libyan population. Among Libyan Jews, these pressures result in a deep division between the “traditionalists”, who resisted any type of change in their way of life, and the “modernists”, who aimed to bring the community out of the backwardness in which it found itself.

The first decades of the 20th century

For the Jews of Libya, the 20th century will be marked by profound and dramatic changes, which will define the future of the community. In the early years, according to data from the Alliance Israélite Universelle, there were 18 Jews in Libya - 2 in Benghazi and 12 in and around Tripoli. Tripoli's 8.500 Jews represented a third of its population. The Libyan Jewish community had 21 synagogues, 21 yeshivot – 11 of which were in Tripoli, 19 prayer and study centers in private homes, which was considered an honor and a privilege. Its network of welfare and religious education institutions covered the entire country.

The Jewish elites, mainly in Tripoli, centralized all trade in the region, in addition to being involved in financial activities. This part of the community, made up mainly of Jews of European origin – the majority Sephardic, among whom many were Italian or “Italianized”, lived in the new part of Tripoli and had adopted the European style and habits of life, including the way they behaved. wear. The remainder of the Jewish population was largely made up of local Jews, who spoke Arabic and whose way of life did not differ much from that of their Muslim neighbors. The majority lived with great difficulty, in villages or cities, Jewish neighborhoods – the stud – and his life revolved around his religious beliefs, deeply linked to old traditions, customs and superstitions.

Relations between the Muslim and Jewish population had already deteriorated, mainly because of the role of Jews as mediators between Arabs and Europeans, and their growing economic influence. Increasingly, Jews and their property were victims of arson and violent attacks, as well as acts of vandalism in cemeteries, robberies and looting. It is in this climate of insecurity that Italy emerges as the liberating power.

Due to its geographical proximity, Italy began to see Libya as the ideal colony, and as soon as Turkey opened its ports to international traffic, Italians sought to establish themselves in the country. For Jews, convinced that only under a non-Muslim government could they obtain a more dignified and secure civil status, Italy was the ideal colonizing country. Because it was the country with which they had the most relations and affinities, so much so that the Italian language was already used within the community itself and countless Jewish children attended the Italian school in Tripoli.

The community's feelings were described as follows by a journalist from The print: “The Jews tolerate with restrained anger... the painful conditions in which they find themselves. The distance between their wealth and culture and Arab poverty and ignorance makes the injustice even more bitter. The situation persists because the Turkish rulers are Muslims... they support their Arab co-religionists (...). Among European nations, Jews prefer Italy (...), because, among others, the richest and most prominent members of the Jewish community have been, for generations, Italian subjects.”

The increasingly close relations between Jews and Italians caused the relationship with the Muslim population to deteriorate even further. Violent episodes of Muslim intolerance against Jews are worsening. On the eve of the Italian occupation, Jews are attacked, their homes and shops looted, pillaged and set on fire.

Beginning of Italian occupation

In 1911 Italy invaded Libya. The Muslim population, still massively composed of different tribes spread across its vast territory, saw the Italians as “Christendom” that challenged Islam. This meant that the Italians faced, during the first two decades, fierce resistance to their presence, mainly in Cyrenaica. The Jewish population, on the other hand, welcomed them with open arms. They saw Italian rule as the end of their status as second-class citizens. Many Jews had quickly entered the colonial economy, working in civil and military administration or in Italian companies.

The arrival of the Italians coincides with the creation, in 1912, of the first Zionist organization, in Tripoli. The future of Libyan Jewry would be, to a large extent, defined by the Zionist movement, which had arrived in Libya earlier than in other Arab countries. Libyan Jews had met Theodor Herzl on his visit to Istanbul in 1892.

From the 1920s onwards, the movement grew, mainly in Benghazi and Tripoli, where the Circolo Sion, Macabi and KKL. Ben Yehuda, an organization that aims to promote the study of Hebrew, including among adults, was created in Tripoli in 1931.

At the beginning of Italian rule, relations between the Jewish community and the colonial authorities were good, but these will change as fascism grows in Italy. In 1922, Mussolini became Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy and three years later assumed the title of Il Duce. With the fascists in power, the excesses of the “black shirts” against the Jews are growing in Tripoli, but they are still isolated cases. Relations between the community and the Italian authorities remain cordial. Proof of this, in April 1928, on his first official visit to Libya, Vitorio Emanuele III, king of Italy, participated in the inauguration of the new synagogue in Tripoli, the Slat Dar Bishi, No.Hara Kebira. Along the motorcade's route, a flag with the Star of David flies alongside the Italian flag.

This event would mark the end of a period, as the following decades were disastrous for Libyan Jews. Deprivation and suffering began that triggered events that led to mass emigration and the end of the Jewish community in Libya.

Bibliography:
Prof. Roumani, Maurice M., The Jews of Libya: Coexistence, Persecution, Resettlement, Sussex Academic Press, 2008.
Prof. Roumani, Maurice M., The Final Exodus of the Libyan Jews in 1967, article published in Jewish Political Studies Review 19:3-4, 2007.
Lybia: An Extinct Jewish Community, Beth Hatefutsoth, The Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora.