ROME (EJP)--- Forty years after their expulsion from Libya, the Jews of Tripoli, Bengasi and Misurata now living in Rome have celebrated the freedom they found in Italy.

THE SINGER: KOBI REUBEN

Patronised by Rome’s City Councillor for multiculturalism, the celebration took place in the Auditorium on March 6.

The space, designed by architect Renzo Piano, hosted some 600 Libyan Jews and their friends and families who remembered their great and ancient history through music and dance, through the screening of old footage and the sale of books on the Libyan Jewry’s history, culture and cuisine.

“This is certainly not a nostalgic event, rather the celebration of a newly found freedom and of the integration with the pre-existing and also very ancient Roman Jewish Community,” said the organizers, belonging to the Bnei Sheva association, to Rome’s Jewish Community and to Bat Yam’s Or Shalom Museum – but

Music was at the heart of the celebrations. Climo Dus, Koby Reuven and David Levi –Israeli singers of Libyan origin- recreated traditional sounds and atmospheres, including those of the henna, the prenuptial ceremony held by Libyan and other Arabic-speaking Jewish communities.

Century of history

A short movie by young Italian Jewish director Daniel Bedusa – also of Libyan heritage – told the audience about the last 100 years of Libyan Jews’ history, starting from the Italian occupation of the North African country in 1911.

The colonial endeavor boosted to the commercial activities of the local Jews, who mediated between the Arabs and the occupying power.

Twenty-five years after, however, the racial laws imposed by the Fascist regime (1938-1943) caused great suffering.

The post-war anti-Jewish pogroms under the British rule of Libya (133 Jews lost their lives in 1945) triggered waves of Zionism. Of the 38,000 Jews living in Libya in the 1930s, only 4,000 were still living there in 1951.

In 1967, after the outbreak of the Six Day war and the new pogroms, the last Jews finally (6,300) left the country - then ruled by King Idris - after over two thousand years of uninterrupted presence.

Some 5,000 Italian-speaking Libyan Jews chose Rome as their final destination, instilling new life into the ancient local Jewish community.

Explosion of Jewish life

In 1966, Rome counted two kosher supermarkets and four synagogues. Today, they are twelve and fifteen respectively.

Moreover, the integration between Libyan and Roman Jews has proven to be a great success to the point that six out of twenty-eight members of the Jewish Community Board are of Libyan heritage.

In 1980, Rome’s government granted the Italian nationality to the Libyan refugees.

Beyond the joyous celebration, an issue is still open today, regarding the goods that the Jews were forced to leave behind when they left, estimated to be worth billions of euros.

The property, repeatedly threatened with nationalization by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has in fact been "frozen" and filed by the government.

Over the past year, a series of top-level meetings on the issue of compensation were held in Tripoli between a delegation of Libyan Jews and top officers of the Tripoli government. Though well-aware and informed on the talks, the Italian government does not play any active role in the compensation issue.