Jews in Islamic Countries: Libya

Jewish Population
1948: 38,000    |    2025: 0

Jews had a presence in Libya at least since the time of Hellenistic rule under Ptolemy Lagos in 323 B.C.E. in Cyrene. Once home to a large and thriving Jewish community, Libya is now empty of Jews due to anti-Jewish pogroms and immigration to Israel.

A substantial Jewish community once lived in Tripoli, working as businesspeople and goldsmiths. 

A savage pogrom in Tripoli on November 5, 1945, killed more than 140 Jews and wounded hundreds more. Almost every synagogue was looted. On June 12, 1948, rioters murdered another 12 Jews and destroyed 280 Jewish homes.

Thousands of Jews fled the country after Libya was granted independence and membership in the Arab League in 1951. After the Six-Day War, the Jewish population of 7,000 was again subjected to pogroms in which 18 were killed and many more injured, sparking a near-total exodus that left fewer than 100 Jews in Libya.

When Muammar Gaddafi came to power in 1969, all Jewish property was confiscated, and all debts to Jews were canceled. At this point, practically all Jews were forced to flee, some leaving behind all their property.

In the 1940s, the Jewish community of Tangier contributed to renovating the local synagogue in Tripoli. The synagogue remained active until the 1960s. In 1999, it was renovated but not reopened. As of 2025, the former synagogue near the Arch of Marcus Aurelius has been turned into an art gallery.

The last Jew living in Libya, Esmeralda Meghnagi, died in February 2002. This marked the end of one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities, which traced its origins to the 3rd century B.C.E.

Sources: Howard Sachar, A History of Israel, (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 400; Norman Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times, (NY: Jewish Publication Society, 1991), p. 145.
Encyclopedia Judaica, CD-Rom edition, 1997.
U.S. Department of State, 2000 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, Released by the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Washington, DC, September 5, 2000.
Jerusalem Report, (March 11, 2002).
Sergio DellaPergola, “World Jewish Population, 2021,” in Arnold Dashefsky and Ira M. Sheskin (eds.), The American Jewish Year Book, 2022, (Cham: Springer Nature, 2023).
Asaf Kamar, ““I Was Afraid to Be Exposed”: The Israeli Who Traveled to One of the Most Dangerous Countries in the World,” Ynet, (February 27, 2025). [Hebrew]