Libyan Jews...who knew?

There used to be as many as 38,000 Jews in Libya.  Now there is one who came back and is trying to re-start the Jewish community, but problems have appeared.

Death threats and government indifference are conspiring to prevent David Gerbi from restoring the destroyed synagogue.  It seems the rampant secular democracy affecting all the Arab countries has yet to make it to Libya.

Any day now, Gerbi.  Any day now.


From AFP/Yahoo October 3 by Michael Mainville

Returning Libyan Jew says threatened over temple

A Libyan Jew who returned from exile as Moamer Kadhafi's regime fell said on Monday he is facing death threats over his attempts to restore Tripoli's abandoned and crumbling main synagogue.

David Gerbi, a 56-year-old psychoanalyst who fled with his family to Italy at the age of 12, said he was facing discrimination and being ignored by Libya's new authorities in his efforts to reopen the Dar Bishi synagogue and gain recognition for Jews who fled Libya during Kadhafi's rule.

"This already happened 44 years ago and now it's happening again," Gerbi, wearing a yarmulke on his head and Star of David pendant, said.

"They think they can make threats, that they are going to kill me, but I'm not going to give up. Like they did not give up to Kadhafi, I'm not going to give up to them."

Gerbi said he was told on Monday when he showed up to work at the synagogue that he would have to leave for his own safety.

A man claiming to represent the authorities told him his efforts were provoking anger in the country and that death threats had been made.

"He said 'there are many coming now, they are coming with guns, if they come you will be killed'," Gerbi said, adding that he had been told that a major demonstration against his efforts was being organised in Tripoli for Friday.

He left after four men armed with assault rifles showed up at the synagogue and its door was locked.

The religion of peace strikes again.  But the moderate Muslims are on their way to explain to these men, and the crowd planned for Friday how they have gotten Islam all wrong.  Aslan? Hooper? Ahmed? Mogahed? Anybody?

"I just wanted to clean the synagogue because I don't like to see it full of garbage, desecrated in the eyes of God," he said.

Gerbi said he had begun his efforts at the weekend, paying residents to help clean the temple, which is strewn with rubbish and covered in graffiti after decades of neglect.

He said the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) needed to back his efforts to establish its democratic credentials.

"They need to say to these people: we are pluralistic," Gerbi said. "You want democracy, you want justice, you want pluralism, you want social rights, you need to take the whole package."

Good luck, David.  You'll need it.

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