"...and a synagogue" Top 5 Page for this destination Tripoli Things to Do Tip by TheWanderingCamel

Partially restored in 1999, the Tablets of the Law and Stars of David on its facade but locked and with its windows sealed, Tripoli's last remaining synagogue stands a mute reminder of the city's once large and prosperous Jewish community, one of the oldest in North Africa. Jews began living in Tripolitania over 2000 years ago, and by the 1930s they made up some 25-30% of the city's population, worshipping in 44 synagogues scattered around the city.

The 1930s saw the fortunes of this ancient community begin to change forever as Mussolini introduced restrictive laws. With the arrival of the German army in 1942, Jews were evicted from their homes, many were sent to labour camps whilst others were force marched across the desert where they perished. Pogroms in the years of British occupation following the war brought more tragedy - death and the destruction of several synagogues. Changing attitudes and the establishment of the Jewish state in Israel meant all who could emigrated so that by the time Ghaddafi staged his coup no more than 500 Jews remained in the city. The confiscation of Jewish property under the revolution was the last blow and by 1974 all but a tiny handful had left. Now there are no recognized Jews living in the city, or in all Libya.

Bab al-Jedid in the south-west corner of the medina walls once led out of the Jewish quarter to the Jewish cemetery. The habitable houses that remain in the old Jewish quarter in this part of the medina are now occupied by poor immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa and synagogues have been turned into mosques. A beautiful Jewish school dating from Ottoman times has been restored and now houses the city's archives. And the last synagogue? No-one knows what will happen to that ...

Directions: The Jewish School (now called Dar Ahmed Nayib al Ansari) is on Sharia al Akwash, not far from the old British Consulate