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Jewish Site, Yifrin Libya
Yifrin (Yafran, Jefren, Yefren, Yifran, Ifrane, يفرن) was a city with three nearby Jewish settlements. Synagogues recorded around Yifrin date as early as 1712. Today there there is no trace of the Jews of Yifrin, except for cemeteries and place names.
Description
Jewish Traders in Yifrin
Yifrin’s market days were Sunday and Thursdays, but the Jews of Yifrin also worked as ṭawwâfa, or mobile peddlers and artisans.1 Mordechai Hacohen (1856-1923) a Tripolitanian Rabbi who worked as a ṭawwâf for many years, describes the activities of the Jewish ṭawwâfa of Yifrin:
“They bring merchandise from Tripoli on the humps of camels: pepper, cumin, coriander, ginger, spice-stems and all kinds of spices; honey, sugar, tea, coffee, tobacco; rose and myrtle flowers' and spikenard and saffron, cassia and cinnamon and all sorts of spices (cf. Song of Songs 4: 14); powders and pure frankincense and incense and the ointments of women (cf. Esther 2: I2); antimony powder for women to darken their eyes; walnut shells for them to paint their lips as a scarlet thread (Song of Songs 4: 3); henna plants to color their hands and feet red; mirrors, hair combs, glass beads and corals, matches, thread, needles and other merchandise too numerous to mention. All the Jews peddle, scattering throughout the district with a bundle on their back, or on a donkey, to barter with the Berber and Arab women for grain, olives, olive oil, figs, butter, lamb's wool, goat hair... chicken eggs and so forth.” (MS 203)2
As indicated by Hacohen, Jewish ṭawwâfa occupied a unique niche in the market because they could sell to Muslim women. As lower-status members of society, Jews could freely enter a Muslim’s house to deal with the womenfolk, while a Muslim man could not.3
Apparently, some Jewish merchants were quite successful, as there are historical mentions of Jews lending money to Muslims in Yifrin and Jews near Yifrin buying land and trees from Arabs and Berbers who needed cash.”4
However, Hacohen also mentions that the whole district of Yifrin was on an economic decline because they were importing twice as much in value as they were exporting to/from Tripoli. He mentions “only barley, figs…linens and mats made in an African weave by the women” as the meager exports that Yifrin sold.5 The date for this statement is unclear.
Population
Listed below are the Jewish and Muslim names of the three Jewish settlements that were located several kilometers NE of Yifrin. Jews lived with berbers in “coupled quarters.”6
(J) = Jewish Name ; (M) = Muslim Name
Liqsir (J) / Elegir or al-Qsir(M)
Disr or Disir(J) / Eshshegarna (M)
Me’aniin or Me-aniyin(J,M) / Elgusbat(M)7
In surveys by various demographers, the Jewish population of Tegrenna was recorded as follows:8
| 1853 | 100 Jewish families |
| 1886 | 795 Jewish people |
| 1902 | 1000 Jewish people |
| 1906 | 2000 Jewish people |
| 1923 | 50 Jewish families9 |
| 1931 | 322 Jewish people (=20 percent of the villages near Yifrin)10 |
| 1936 | 375 Jewish people |
| 1943 | 400 Jewish people |
| 1948 | 399 Jewish people |
There is also evidence for an earlier Jewish presence in Yifrin. Hacohen wrote of synagogues in Yifrin dating from 1712, 1714, and 1742, and of a biblical manuscript found there at the end of the 18th century.11
When Italians retreated from the interior of Tripolitania, there was a period of political instability during which many Jews left Yifrin for Zuara.12 They may have returned when the Italians re-occupied in 1921-23.13
Rachel Simon, a researcher of Sephardic Jewish history, mentions that on special occasions in Jabal Nefusa, Yifrin, and Gharyan (Gharian), Sephardi Rabbi would mention the names of Ge’onim from Spain and other places. The Sephardi Jews would identify themselves by adding ST to their names.14
Today there there is no trace of the Jews of Yifrin, except for cemeteries and place names15
Special Days
Anthropologist Harvey E. Goldberg notes the following names for holidays and other special religious time periods in Yifrin, as part of a larger study on the similarities and differences between tripolitanian Jewish towns:16
| Time | Name in Yifrin |
| Night after the Sabbath | Lilət el ḥadd |
| New Moon of Nisan | None |
| Counting of the ‘Omer | Immē ha ’ūmer |
| Pentecost | Sabu’ōt |
| 18th of Iyyar | Hillūlāt rebbi šim ‘ūn |
| 9th of Ab | Həllai |
| 17th of Tammuz | Nəfs eṣṣīf |
| Solemn New-Year | Rūššana |
| Fast of Gedaliah | Ṣom əgdalya |
| Day after Yom Kippur | Simḥat kohēn |
| Tabernacles | sukka |
Yifrin, Libya
© Mapbox, © OpenStreetMap
Sources
Endnotes
1. Harvey Goldberg, “Ecologic and Demographic Aspects of Rural Tripolitanian Jewry: 1853-1949,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 2, no. 3 (1971): 248, 250.
2. Goldberg, 250.
3. Goldberg, 250.
4. Goldberg, 251.
5. Goldberg, 252.
6. Goldberg, 248.
7. Goldberg, 248.
8. Goldberg, 256 unless otherwise noted.
9. Goldberg, 255.
10. Goldberg, 253.
11. Goldberg, 259–60.
12. Goldberg, “Ecologic and Demographic Aspects of Rural Tripolitanian Jewry,” 258.
13. Goldberg, 258.
14. Rachel Simon, “The Sephardi Heritage In Libya,” Shofar 10, no. 3 (1992): 110.
15. Harvey E. Goldberg, ib. P. 75 (publication unknown)
16. Harvey E. Goldberg, “Tripolitanian Jewish Communities: Cultural Boundaries and Hypothesis-Testing,” American Ethnologist 1, no. 4 (1974): 626.
Bibliography
Goldberg, Harvey. “Ecologic and Demographic Aspects of Rural Tripolitanian Jewry: 1853-1949.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 2, no. 3 (1971): 245–65.
Goldberg, Harvey E. “Tripolitanian Jewish Communities: Cultural Boundaries and Hypothesis-Testing.” American Ethnologist 1, no. 4 (1974): 619–34.
Simon, Rachel. “The Sephardi Heritage In Libya.” Shofar 10, no. 3 (1992): 90–112.