The Jews of Libya

In 1911 Jews in Libya numbered about 20,000. The majority concentrated in the town of Tripoli (c. 12,000), but many were scattered in towns and villages all over the country.

In 1931 there were 24,534 Jews...(4% of the total population). They were dispersed in 15 localities,with about 15,000 of them in Tripoli. In 1936, the Jews suffered from Italians fascist anti-Jewish legislation.

In 1948 about 38,000 Jews lived in Libya, of whom about 20,000 lived in Tripoli. Demographically, the population in Libya was very stable untill 1948 when the State of Israel was established. Unprecedented Jewish mass migration took place by way of Tripoli and Tunisia between May 1948 and January 1949 when about 2,500 left the country.

When the British permitted legal emigration to Israel in 1949, many immediately took advantage of it. At the end of 1951, 30,000 Jews emigrated, leaving about 8,000 Jews in Libya. Most of them lived in Tripoli, about 400 in Benghazi, and none remained in the smaller towns and villages.

"With the outbreak of the coup by Col. Qaddafi on Sept. 1, 1969, the 400-500 Jews remaining in Libya were concentrated in a camp in Tripoli. These included Libyan citizens, bearers of foreign citizenship (British, French, Italian), and those bearing no citizenship. At the end of 1970 only some 90 Jews remained in Libya."

"The Libyan Jewish Holocaust Period begins in 1941 and continues until 1971 with a maximum Jewish population in Libya of 38,000 that shrank to less than 90 people after 1970...."