The Jewish Community of Gharian
Also known as Gharyan
Arabic : غريان
A city in northwestern Libya
HISTORY
Jewish settlement in this region dates from the 16th century and includes a group of three settlements: the town Gharian, Tigrina ( 4-5km/3 miles to the south) and Beni-Abbas (14 km/9miles to the north). The first settlers were refugees from Tripoli who fled to Gharian in 1510 when the capital city was occupied by the Spanish.
One of the most unique aspects of the Jewish community of Gharian is the fact that the Jews lived in underground caves in the mountains. These homes were dug 6 meters (about 20 feet) into the rock, and surrounded a central courtyard. One cave was inhabited by the same family for centuries, dating from 1616. Both the Jewish and Muslim inhabitants of the region used the caves to protect themselves and their animals from Bedouin marauders, and throughout the 16th century the Gharian cave community served as a safe haven for Jews escaping from persecution; among those who fled to Gharian was a Jewish man named Hajj'aj' who fled from Oran, in Algeria, and became a respected member of the Gharian community.
THE OTTOMAN PERIOD (1551-1911)
During this period two synagogues were built in Tigrina, one in Beni-Abbas, and another in Gharian. Additionally, cemeteries were consecrated in all three locations. The land and the buildings were officially recognized as property of the Jewish community.
In 1837 an outbreak of the bubonic plague claimed the lives of large numbers of Jews. As a result, most of the inhabitants of Beni-Abbas abandoned their homes and moved to Tripoli, leaving only a few families in the village.
Between 1839-1855 local Muslims and Jews participated in the rebellions against the Ottoman authorities; Jewish metalworkers repaired the rebels' weapons and a local Jewish doctor treated their wounded. The rebellion was squashed by Ottoman forces in 1855, after which the Jews were pardoned and the doctor was appointed as head of the Gharian community. In addition, he became the official doctor for the Ottoman soldiers that were stationed there.
Gharian’s strategic location on a crossroads resulted in the city’s development as a commercial and administrative center. The Jewish community benefitted from the city’s increasing prominence. Many worked as tradesmen and artisans. A smaller number owned and worked plots of land, but during the latter part of the 19th century their crops were subject to high tax rates and many sought other forms of work.
In 1885 the Jews of Tigrina were permitted to build a new synagogue above the ground, in addition to the older one in the cave.
The community was governed by a committee of elders and notables who also acted as judges for minor offences (serious crimes were referred to the Ottoman governor). The governor appointed the president of the Jewish community, the sheikh, or hakham; the president acted as mediator between the Jewish community and the authorities, and was responsible for collecting the poll tax that exempted the Jews from military service. The hakham also served as the religious leader of the community, and appointed the kosher butcher (shohet), the mohel who circumcised the baby boys, and the children’s teacher in the synagogue.
In 1906 Nahum Slouschz visited the Gharian community where he found a class of 20 children who studied reading and Bible with the teacher, Agbani Hajjaj.
In 1886 the Jewish population of the Gharian area totaled 550. Bu the turn of the century, however, the population had dropped to approximately 300.
ITALIAN RULE (1911-1943)
Towards the beginning of Italian rule, in 1914, the Jewish population of Gharian was 300.
Following the Italian invasion of Libya, the Muslim population revolted which led to a period of instability and suffering for the Jewish community. Because of the revolts, Italian authorities sealed off the region from the coastal area, which resulted in epidemics, famine, and draught. However, with the final consolidation of Italian control over the inland region in 1922, the Gharian community began to enjoy political stability, along with improvements in security and public services.
Italian influence of the Jewish community was minimal. Gharian’s Jews continued to live in their cave dwellings, wear traditional clothes, and center their social lives around the synagogue. Most of the adult population learnt to speak Italian only for business reasons, though many of the children were sent to Italian elementary schools where they studied the language. The resistance to learning Italian on the part of the adults was also partially economic; the Jewish community depended on the purchasing power of the local Muslims, and so preferred not to show public support for the Italians.
During the 1930s a large Italian defense force was stationed in Gharian to protect residents from Bedouin marauders; as a result, a number of Italian farmers settled in the region. These newcomers provided an additional source of income for the local Jewish tradesman and craftsmen, who opened new shops and workshops.
Berchani Zigadon served as the hakham during this period, and functioned as the head of the community until the British conquest in 1943. Though his role as a mediator between the Jewish community and the authorities was minimal, since the rights of the Jewish community were recognized by law, he was wealthy and popular and was therefore accorded the respect of a community leader. Zigadon encouraged members of the community to study in yeshivas in Tripoli in order to become qualified to act as kosher butchers and mohels for circumcisions. He also provided the community’s children with a teacher, who taught daily.
Gharian’s adult male population had a basic Jewish religious education. The synagogue contained 32 Torah scrolls in 1923, which were written by religious scribes from Tripoli or other distant communities. Printed Jewish books were also brought in from Tripoli, Djerba, or Livorno, in Italy. Towards the end of the 1930s, many of the community’s leaders began to embrace Zionism, and books were sent from Palestine to teach Hebrew in the synagogue school.
In 1936 the Jewish population of Gharian was 419. In 1943 it was 520 (approximately 1% of total population of the Gharian region).
WORLD WAR II (1939-1945)
After Italy allied with the German forces in 1940, discriminatory racial laws began to be enforced in Libya, and many Libyan Jews were imprisoned in forced labor camps. The largest of these camps was Giado, where many Jews from Tripoli and Cyrenaica were held as prisoners, while several hundred were taken to camps in Gharian and Tigrinna due to lack of space in Giado. Additionally, a garrison of General Erwin Rommel's Africa Corps was stationed in Gharian.
Beginning in 1942 a number of Jews fled to Gharian in order to escape the Allied bombing of Tripoli as the war against Germany in North Africa progressed. The Jewish population of Gharian reached 520 in 1943. These Tripolitanian Jews brought Torah scrolls and other religious objects with them. The Gharian community gave them shelter in the caves, and also tried to provide food for Jewish prisoners in labor camps.
BRITISH RULE (1943-1952)
In January 1943 British forces reached Gharian and released the Jewish Cyrenaican prisoners from Giado. After providing them with food, the former prisoners were gradually returned to their homes in Benghazi and the surrounding area.
The British authorities pressured Zigadon, who was, by then, elderly, to appoint a successor. The community’s next hakham was Khlafu Huga Hassan, who held the position until the exodus of the community to Israel. Relations between the Jews, the Muslims, and the British authorities were very tense as a result of the violence in Palestine, and Khlafu was required to exercise diplomacy to the best of his ability in order to protect the Jewish population. He managed to forge good relationships with the British by entertaining soldiers in his restaurant, and his economic status enabled him to provide supplies to the British authorities.
During the violent riots that erupted in 1945 against Jewish communities throughout Libya, Khlafu succeeded in preventing loss of life in Gharian. On the night of November 7, when major pogroms broke out, Jewish property was vandalized and burned, but many of Gharian’s Jews were able to find refuge in the home of the local Muslim sheikh.
After Israel declared statehood in 1948, the vast majority of Libya’s Jews, including those from Gharian, left for Tripoli en route to Israel.
GARIANI
(Family Name)GARIANI
Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country).
Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birth place, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.
This family name is derived from Gharian (also Garian), the name of a city in north-west Libya. The place was the home of an ancient Jewish community. The meaning of the Arabic/Hebrew suffix “-i” is “from”, “of”.
Gariani is documented as a Jewish family name with Moshe Gariani (b. 1957), an Israeli international footballer.
Zawia
(Place)Zawia
Zawiyah; in Arabic: الزاوية
An urban settlement on the coast of the Mediterranean, about 45 km west of Tripoli, north-west Libya.
The place is an oasis, with a rich fertile land, and it has a small port. Jews settled at the place apparently in the 17th century, following the destruction of the nearby Jewish community Sorman. At first the Jews settled at a place called Al Sharafa, which today is a suburb of Zawia. The Jews enjoyed the protection of the heads of Bedouin tribes in the area, and the relationship with the Moslems was good. With time, Zawia became the center of the Islamic scout movement in the district, and with the rise of Islamic fanaticism in the locality hostility and persecution against the Jews set-in in the 18th century.
In 1780 the old synagogue, which stood on the limit of the Jewish quarter, collapsed. The Jews began to rebuild it but the Moslems turned to Ali Pasha, the then ruler of Tripoli, and complained that the Jews were building without the necessary permit. The work stopped. In 1798 the Jews started the building of a synagogue in the house of Joseph Srur, one of the rich persons of the community. But the Moslems again approached the ruler, rioted in the Jewish quarter, destroyed what had already been built and tore the scrolls of the torah. The Jews of Zawia demonstrated in front of the ruler’s palace in Tripoli. They declared they would leave Zawia if they had no synagogue in the place. The ruler then allowed them to continue with the work. In the course of the 19th century the place calmed down and the traveller Benjamin II who visited Zawia in the 1850’s reported having found proper relationships with the Arabs and an operating synagogue . In 1879 there were again riots against the Jews. The synagogue was desecrated, scrolls of the torah were thrown out to the street and some of them were set on fire. In the 1890’s the Jews sought to build a synagogue on the site where the old synagogue, which collapsed in 1780, had stood. The fanatic Moslems again obstructed but the Jews succeeded in keeping on the reconstruction and the synagogue was completed in 1895. The Jews of Zawia now had two synagogues.
The Jews of Zawia were merchants, peddlers, and artisans. The principal families at that time were Sheleg, Arbiv, Srur, and Hayoun. More Jewish families came from neighboring communities - Djerba (Tunisia), Gharian, Amrutz, Zuara and others. The prominent families of the new-comers were Cohen, Jarbi, and Bukhritz from Djerba, Hajaj from Gharian, and Makhluf from Amrutz.
The synagogue was the centre of the community’s life. Acute disputes in the community brought about two rival factions - Mubahiriya, the northerners, and Muqabiliya, the southerners, corresponding to their place of residence. Each faction had it own shohet. At that time, Rabbi Itzhak Houri, of Djerba, was the community’s rabbi and judge. After his death in 1868 the rabbis came from outside Zawia. The rabbis until the 20th century were Rahamim Magidesh from Iffren, Khalifa Jarmun from Gharian, Khamus Hazan from Djerba, and David Cohen Jonathan from Tataouine, who held the position until 1912.
Troubles against the Jews of Zawia occurred also at the beginning of the 20th century. The researcher Nahum Slouschz who visited Zawia in 1906 reported desecrations of the Jewish cemetery and heavy taxation on the Jews. The head of the community, Farajalla Sheleg, was assassinated in that year, when leaving the synagogue. He was one of the rich men in the area and the governor of the district Jalil Bey was looked upon with suspicion. Upon the intervention of Nahum Slouschz, the authorities of Tripoli arrested the killers and removed the governor.
The Italian occupation in 1911 did not bring respite to the Jews. In 1915 Jews fled from Zawia following the events of the Arab revolt against the italians. Some of them found refuge with the Bedouin tribes. A number of Jews were caught by robbers and all of them were killed. The Sheikh Iubay Ubayda gave shelter to 30 Jewish families and provided them with food until the insurrection was suppressed. In 1923 Jews began to return to Zawia and in that year 120 Jews were living at the place.
After the revolt the community began to reform its organization and rehabilitate its economy, but the strife between the two factions continued. In 1922 Rabbi Khamus Sofer of Zarzis in south Tunisia was appointed chief rabbi. He served as rabbi and teacher until the emigration of the community to Israel in 1949. He fostered the life of the community, refurbished the Al Bahariya Synagogue, formed reading circles, a choir, and a team of teaching assistants.
During World War II (1939-1945) Zawia served as a refuge for the Jews of Tripoli, accommodated them in public buildings and even rented apartments for them from Arab residents. The chief rabbi of Zawia was exiled by the Italian authorities to his town in Tunisia.
The economic condition of the community deteriorated following the British occupation of Libya at the beginning of 1943. Many moved to Tripoli and Benghazi in search of a living. Jewish welfare organizations such as the Joint and Oze extended help and set up a soup kitchen and a clinic. Rabbi Khamus Sofer returned from exile. Both heads of the rival factions, Gavri Ezra and Saul Bukhritz, were active in the managing committee. The head of the community at that time was Rahamim Ba’adash.
The widespread pogroms against the Jews of Libya in November 1945 struck also the community of Zawia. Arab youth set fire to Jewish homes and shops and 10 Jews were murdered and 18 wounded in the course of one night. An army captain by the name of Granoth, who served in a Jewish company of volunteers from Eretz Israel in the British army, then stationed in Zawia, came out into the streets, saved many lives and attended to the wounded. As soon as the riots subsided Jewish youth of the community began looking for ways to organize illegal immigration to Eretz Israel but actually the Jews of Zawia made Aliyah to Israel only after 1949, following the arrival from Israel of the Aliyah emissary Baruch Duvdevani. By 1951 all the Jews of Zawia settled in Israel, most of them in the Moshav Alma.
Iffren
(Place)Iffren
Ifrin, Jefren, Yifran, Ifrane; in Arabic: يفرن
The core of a number of Jewish mountain settlements in the Tripolitanian highlands, Jabl Nefusa plateau, about 170 km south-west of Tripoli, north-west Libya.
In the past a dense Jewish settlement existed in the Jabl Nefusa Plateau, one of the oldest in Tripolitania. According to their tradition, the Jews had come to the region after the destruction of the Second Temple. In the 4th and 6th centuries Jews from the coastal towns arrived and settled at Iffren following oppressions. Later, Judaism spread among the Berber tribes in the area owing to their special relationships with the Jews. In the 16th century most of the ancient Jewish settlements disappeared, leaving only ruins of synagogues and inscriptions on gravestones. Three settlements however remained, all in the region of Iffren: El-Me’aniyin, El Qsir, and Disir. In these settlements, stone buildings were densely built on the steep slopes, which prevented easy approach and thus provided some protection. Under the Ottoman occupation (1835-1911) safety in the mountain region improved, and the Jews enjoyed economic well-being. They played a central role in the trade with places across
the Sahara and with central Africa, particularly in spices, coffee, tea, honey, perfumes, sugar and tobacco. The majority of the Jews were peddlers who handled groceries, jewelry and embroideries of the Jewish women. The wandering Jewish peddlers enjoyed the protection of the Berbers. The women extracted olive oil, weaved carpets, knitted woolens, and made wine and spirits from figs. Many Jews were expert in slaughtering animals also for the Moslems, and some specialized in natural medicine. The first estimate of the number of Jews in the three settlements, 100 in all, is of the year 1851. In 1886 the figure was 785 and rose again to 1,000 in 1902. The number in 1917 was 900. In 1931 the number diminished to 302 and in 1944 it was 400 Jews in the three settlements.
The Jews and the Berbers lived in the same quarters. The houses had no windows and olive branches covered the arched ceilings. At the head of the Jewish community stood the president, who was also called sheikh. He was responsible for collecting the poll tax for the authorities. During the period of the revolts against the Ottomans (1837-1856) the Jewish doctor Atiya was the president. Khalifa Amar was the president of the village Disir. The Jewish sheikh in 1850 was Rabbi Itzhak Ma’adina. At the time of Nahum Slouschz’s visit in 1906, Rabbi Jacob Magidish was the hakham bashi (chief rabbi). Each of the three communities had a community fund, whose income came from donations. The funds kept the synagogues and the religious functionaries. Iffren had a number of synagogues, some of them ancient. The oldest and most famous was El-Gariba, named after the synagogue at the island of Djerba. This synagogue was inside a dug cave at El-Me’aniyim and in 1742 it was rebuilt above ground. In 1858 the structure was enlarged. The income from an olive grove next to it served to maintain the synagogue. Another synagogue was built in 1714 at disir by Moshe ben Shimon. Some of the Jews of El-Me’aniyin came from a Jewish village called Taqerbos that was abandoned in 1850, but they continued to hold their public prayers at their old synagogue in Taqerbos. The synagogue at El-Qsir was built only in 1904 and until then the local Jews used to go to El-Me’aniyin for praying.
When the Italians occupied the region (1911) many Jews escaped to the coastal region, especially to Zuara, and never returned to Iffren. Those who stayed continued in their traditional way of life and did not learn Italian. Most of them made their living as before, as traders and craftsmen. Thanks to the improvement in security, there were Jews who bought lands and grew olives and wheat.
In the course of World War II (1939-1945) many of the Jews of Tripoli escaped to the mountains and some reached also Iffren. The italians set up in the area a small detention camp, where Jews from Cyrenaica were held. In 1943 the camp was vacated and until the pogroms of 1945 the local Jews continued their former style of life. Following the pogroms the Jews of Jabl Iffren left their homes and moved to Zuara, Gharian and Tripoli, and from there emigrated to Israel after 1949.