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Italian School, Misrata, Libya
The Italian elementary school (Scuola Italiani Elementari), in Misrata (مصراتة, מצראתה), Libya (ليبيا, לוב). Built by the Italians, it was attended primarily by Jewish and Italian children. After Italian school, Jewish children would often receive religious instruction in the Talmud Torah in the Slat Lekabira synagogue.
Description
The Jews of Misrata
Historically Misrata was a central market town, although to local farmers, the term “Misrata” tends to refer to the hinterlands around the market and the town itself was simply called suk (market).1 In addition to local trade among the areas south and east of the suk, Misrata was also a caravan trade hub.2 There has been evidence of Jewish settlement in Misrata in 1589 and in the early 18th century.3
The two Jewish areas of Misrata were Yidr (Yidder, 2-4km northeast of the suk) and Maṭin (the Jewish quarter directly west of the central market).4 Yidr was the older settlement.5 It had a large market that was open on Tuesdays and Thursdays; two market days per week suggested that it was very popular.6
According to informants, the first Jews to move to central Misrata from Yidr did not immediately settle in the city itself but in a Jewish quarter they established on the outskirts. Tombstones with Hebrew inscriptions dating from 1142 have been found near Misrata, and the existence of a Jewish community strongly suggests non-agricultural activity of some kind.7 Only later did Jewish settlers move into the city and especially into the Muqawaba neighborhood.
Sunday was the only market day for the suk including Maṭin, until the Italians colonized Misrata and rescheduled its market to occur three days every week. This economic expansion caused Yidr to fall.8
Misrata, Libya
© Mapbox, © OpenStreetMap
Sources
Endnotes
1. Gerald Blake, Misurata: A Market Town in Tripolitania, 1968, 3.
2. Blake, 3.
3. Harvey Goldberg, “Ecologic and Demographic Aspects of Rural Tripolitanian Jewry: 1853-1949,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 2, no. 3 (1971): 259.
4. Goldberg, 249; Blake, Misurata: A Market Town in Tripolitania, 11.
5. Blake, Misurata: A Market Town in Tripolitania, 11.
6. Goldberg, “Ecologic and Demographic Aspects of Rural Tripolitanian Jewry,” 249; Blake, Misurata: A Market Town in Tripolitania, 11, 13–15.
7. Blake, Misurata: A Market Town in Tripolitania, 11.
8. Blake, 13–15.
9. Goldberg, “Ecologic and Demographic Aspects of Rural Tripolitanian Jewry,” 258.
Bibliography
Blake, Gerald. Misurata: A Market Town in Tripolitania, 1968.
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.
Interview with M.G.Z.