10 — THE BULLETIN — Thursday, October 11, 1979
11
BY CHARLOTTE LONDON
LONDON — Ten years ago Colonel Muammar el Kadafy seized power in Libya. It was a bloodless coup, which toppled the elderly pro-Western King Idris, now living in exile with his wife in neighboring Egypt.
Reports of the anniversary, not surprisingly, make no mention of the
desecrated land, cleared by Ka-dafy's navvies, contained the graves of centuries of Tripolitanian Jews, as well as the bodies of Jewish soldiers who fell fighting with the Eighth Army's Jewish units in the Second World War.
Kadafy wasted no time in fulfilling the desire, mooted in Ar-Raid in June, 1967, "to wipe put the
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country's Jews —a common enough Jewish cemeteries and throw into the
feature with today's coverage of Arab States. In Libya's case, unlike other extremist Moslem regimes such as Syria, Iraq and, latterly, Iran, only a small handful remain trapped in its oppressive vice.
But, while press reports make much of the Libyan President's public-relations program which includes an expenditure of 3500 million on supermarkets alone, it is not irrelevant to ask on what Kadafy, hero of the revolution, has built his brave new Libya, and with what means. Underneath Tripoli's new high-
depths of the sea the corpses of Jewish dead which, even in their eternal immobility, dirty the country."
Ponder, too, upon the confiscation of Jewish property, along with that belonging to other minorities, mainly lulian and Maltese, within a year of Kadafy's coming to power, which is omitted from all accounts. The fact that redeemable bonds were promised in exchange, but have as yet to be honored, is also conveniently forgotton.
What has happened to this now-extinct community, which dated
FORMER LIBYAN JEWS passing the time of day in a Rome cafe. JCNS.
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way and the port's dockland harbor back to pre-Roman times and which.
was once the largest of the town's four Jewish cemeteries. This now-
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earlier this century, boasted more than 44 synagogues in the small coastal capital of Tripoli alone? Most of those were contained within the gates of the town's ghetto, Hara Kebira. The famous Great Synagogue, Sla El Kebira, is now used as a mosque.
According to the 1931 census, over 26 percent of Tripoli's population was Jewish. What has happened to this close-knit community of merchants, small industrialists and artisans who, for centuries, held most of the trade and commerce of the tri-states of Tripoli-tania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan in their hands? 7
Following unification into the Kingdom of Libya, when Britain pitt' the Cyrenaica Senussi tribe leader, Idris, on the throne in 1951, some of the 5,000 or so Jews left trapped in the country after the aliyah floodgates were slammed shut still
managed to maintain some semblance of Jewish life.
Kadafy, we are told, would like to alter his image of supporter of terrorist activities stretching from Northern Ireland to Japan. He would like to turn his Libyan Arab Republic into more than just an easy escape route and haven for the world's political hijackers.
Yet, if the ordinary tourist should venture to inquire about a trip to Libya — which possesses some of the world's most magniificent examples of Roman ruins, at Leptis Magna and Sabratha — he will rudely discover how impossible that is.
established in the 1920s.
This smallest and little known of all North Africa's Jewish communities suffered numerous persecutions over the centuries. In 1510, the
the troubles plaguing their European counterparts in the middle of the twentieth century. They were interned in several camps by both the Italian fascists and the Germans. Many were also transported to labor camps in neighboring Tunisia and some survived the Bergen-Belsen death camp and other European concentration camps.
As if this were not enough, a few months after the Second World War had ended, an ugly pogrom erupted during the British military occupation, killing 130 Jews, including pregnant women and children, and wounding 450 others. Some $520
entire Tripoli Jewish community million worth of damage was caused
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TodayV regime does not welcome tourists, except, perhaps, of the Idi Amin ilk. Where are the Libyan Jews today? When the State of Israel was proclaimed, those fervent Zionists (among whom most of the Libyan Jews could be numbered) who had not already left illegally went to build up the ncMr State. Most now live in Netanya and the south Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam, as well as on a number of moshavim. The late Minister of Agriculture in Rabin's government, Khalfon, was raised in one.
Others fled to Italy, since Libya was once an Italiaii colony and the "^ews felt an-affiiiity Wiirti; it^ >^ 2,000 live in Rome, where they have their own synagogue; 1,000 are in Milan; and there are small pockets living in Florence and Leghorn and a few other towns.
Some went to France and eveii to Britain, although here they are mostly third and fourth generation now. The iate Court and ballet photographer. Baron, a cricketing comrade of Prince Philip's, wasjhe son of a member of one oif the premier families in Tripoli, the Nahums. This family alone provided communal leaders, rabbis and philanthropists, in addition to most, if not all,, of the country's wine from its vast vineyards.
The portrait in oils of another Tripolitanian Jew, philanthropist Eugenio (Aharon) Arbib, still hangs today on a wall in one of the rooms .of London's Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue.
Until recently, little has been documented of this once-thriving community, which dates back to 300 BCE and which, in Cyrenaica, established the largest Jewish settlement outside Palestine at the time. In 115 CE the community rose against the Romans, during Trajan's reign. The revolt was finally quelled two years later.
The community was so devout in its beliefs that, in 1936, two Tripoli Jews were publicly flogged for refusing to comply with a new fascist law forcing them to open their shops on Shabbat.
Many of Libya's Jews spoke fluent Hebrew, in addition to Italian and their own JudeorArabic dialect. In fact, any Hebrew-speaking visitor to Rome's Libyan Jewish refugee community today (which funds a 1,500-pupil school with 52 teachers) should have no trouble in communicating. Even the youngsters speak a more-than-adequate Hebrew.
Tripoli's Jews also produced its quota of illegal immigrants to Palestine. Several trained for their new pioneer life at a Jewish agricultural settlement on the outskirts of the town, Ain Zara, which was
was expelled to Naples by the Spanish (part of King Ferdinand's Inquisition), who among 14 other conquerors, including Carthaginians, Turks, Italians and, lastly, British, dominated the area.
Jewish life re-established itself 40 years later under the guidance of the revered Spanish rabbi, Shimon Ben Labi.
During the subsequent Turkish and Karamanli (Arab) rule, Jews , again had cause to flee for their lives. They made their way to Malta, Sicily and to the Italian port town of Leghorn.
Not all were lucky enough to reach their destination. Some were caught by the Barbary pirates who roamed the Eastern Mediterranean and demanded high ransoms for their human bounty's release.
Nor did the Jews of Libya escape
to Jewish shops and property. Ten synagogues were burned and looted. The Jews were never compensated and the culprits were lightly dealt with.
Less than three years later, in 1948, another pogrom took place. This time 14 Jews were killed, many were wounded, synagogues were again sacked and Torahs destroyed.
And, more recently, at the time of the Six-Day War of 1967, 18 Jews were killed, including two whole families — some thrown from the balconies of their homes — and several disappeared. Their property was destroyed and the remainder were interned in camps "to protect them from the violent mobs," it was said.
Yet another tragic episode in the already tragic history of a once great community. JCNS.
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