Jews have lived in Tripolitania (the region of modern-day Libya surrounding Tripoli) since ancient times. We don’t know exactly when they arrived, but ancient Jewish Libyan rebellions against the Roman government are recorded in history, and Tripoli has hosted a sizable Jewish community over the ages.

Notably, Rabbi Shimon Ben Lavi (1486–158?), famous for writing the popular Lag BaOmer song Bar Yochai, stopped off in Tripoli on his way to the Holy Land. That stopover ended up becoming permanent, as Rabbi Ben Lavi stayed to buoy the community’s spiritual life. During his tenure, Tripoli became a thriving Torah center.

Less famous, however, are the Jewish villages of Troglodytes (“cave dwellers”) who lived in the frontier of Tripolitania, in the Jabal Gharyan mountains, about 60 miles away from Tripoli.

While we don’t know exactly when Jews started living in the caves, we know that communities of cave villages existed in the Jabal Gharyan region from at least the Middle Ages. During periods of upheaval and persecution, Jewish families fled to the safety of these out-of-the-way dwelling places. There, they formed villages composed of cave dwellings, similar to those found in surrounding Muslim villages.

What Were the Caves Like?

Each cave village contained a cluster of buildings, their entrances dug into the mountainside. Bushes helped conceal the entrances from unwanted visitors. Upon opening the door, one descended into a narrow, winding tunnel, designed as a defense mechanism to force any hostile tribe or marauding gang to proceed single-file. Continuing through the tunnel, one encountered the stables, then the storage area and workshop. This was a further defense mechanism in case of danger, as the disturbed animals would raise the alarm, alerting the inhabitants that they had uninvited guests.

Finally, one would emerge from the 30- to 40-foot-deep tunnel into an open-air square courtyard containing a water cistern. Around the sides of this courtyard were six to eight cave pits, each housing one family. Each cave pit contained several rooms. Branching off from one building’s central courtyard was the village’s sla (synagogue), and kutab—the school where boys were given their Jewish education.

Given the remote location, the cave-dwelling Jews were not privileged to the same level of education provided in larger cities, and indeed, many cave dwellers had limited Torah knowledge. Yet, they were deeply committed to Judaism. They prayed all the daily services in the sla, observed Shabbat and the holidays, and slaughtered their meat according to Jewish law.

How Did They Live?

Some were farmers, cultivating olives, dates, citrus, and sharp peppers. Others raised flocks. Some were smiths, who fashioned farming utensils and metal implements for their Muslim neighbors, who typically avoided metalworking.

Due to the remote location and harsh environment, goods and services were typically paid for with produce, rather than hard currency. A few cave-dwelling Jews became merchants, selling whatever they produced to surrounding villages and the big city of Tripoli. Because these Jews were slightly more cosmopolitan than their counterparts, they often assumed positions of leadership in their villages and served as the community’s liaison to the government. As such, they were accorded the title “Shiekh.” The shiekhs were also tasked with the job of collecting taxes, both for the government and the self-imposed kehillah (community) dues. The shiekhs also ensured that religious practice was kept, and upon their order, offenses could be punished with lashes.

Regardless of social status though, all Jews were the same in the eyes of their Muslim neighbors, who treated them as Dhimmi – “protected” non-Muslim second-class citizens. Although the Cave Jews were mutually beneficial for the neighboring Muslim villages, tensions did exist. This included expropriation of Jewish land, and in one case, the expropriation of an ancient Jewish cemetery. Harvey Goldberg relates the following in his book, Cave Dwellers and Citrus Growers:


One old man told me that at Jehisha, the Muslims used to put frogs in the pots of the Jews when the Sabbath meal was cooking. It would thus be ruined. Eventually the Jews decided to leave and come to Tigrinna.1

He also relates an alternative version of events:

Another man told me that at Jehisha, the Arabs would steal the meal and leave the Jews without food for the Sabbath. The Jews then decided to trick the Arabs, and one Sabbath placed frogs in the pots. The Arabs ran off with the pots only to find later that they had stolen nothing but frogs.2

Either way, it’s clear that Jewish life in the Gharyan region wasn’t easy.

Eyewitness Account of the Troglodyte Jews

Living as they were, in a remote region, cut off from the technological advances shaping the rest of the globe, it would have been natural for the story of the Gharyan Jews to fade into oblivion. We owe our gratitude to one Nachum Slouschz for preserving their story.

Slouschz (1872-1966) was a Russian-born writer, researcher, and archeologist, who spent 10 years during the early 20th century travelling through North Africa to discover firsthand the conditions of Jewry there. His book, Travels in North Africa, is a fascinating read even a century later.

Slouschz visited the Jewish cave villages and wrote about them extensively. He explains that in earlier years, Jewish communities formed the bulk of the region’s inhabitants, but by the 20th century, the Jews had been reduced to a few villages: Tigranna, Ben Abbas, and Tagsot. He interviewed local leader, Rabbi Hailfa Hajaj, who said:

We know with certainty that the first ancestor of the Hajaj family came, some seven centuries ago, from Maghreb el Aksa (Morocco). Like myself, he was a physician and a rabbi, but he was no less a warrior. He took part in the struggles which were then laying waste to the country, and, having taken possession of the Tigrena fort which dominates the countryside, he succeeded in having himself proclaimed the chief of the Gharyan.

For several centuries, our ancestors governed the country; then came the Ishmaelites. With them came bloodshed and pillage, which were destined never to leave our unhappy country. Our family was gradually impoverished, declining in numbers and in importance. Today, all that is left to me is my medical practice and the honorary title of Chacham Bashi or Grand Rabbi, which was already borne by my grandfather.

But G‑d is just … May it be His will to deliver us from the hand of the Barbarians, to take us out of the galut (exile). Amen!3

Slouschz also describes an interesting scene in the rabbi’s cave house, which must have been typical of every other house in the village as well:

We conversed in Hebrew, which this rabbi of the caves spoke fairly well, while poultry strutted on every side of us, a young he-goat skipped about, asses brayed, and several black sheep rubbed against us—all this swarming at the bottom of the underground pit where the rabbi’s wife was busy preparing a meal over a fire lit in a heap of stones in the shape of a primitive pit.4

The rabbi’s house did contain some luxuries unknown in the rest of the village:

After I had satisfied his curiosity as to the condition of the Jews in the far north countries, Rabbi Halifa invited me to his “drawing room,” a cave cleaner than the others, where a curious spectacle unceasingly unfolded itself before my eyes.

At the entrance there was a mezuzah, near that hung a piece of ground glass; through this the doctor examined certain cases of illness. Inside, on a plank suspended by the wall, I discovered a number of manuscripts in Hebrew and Arabic, and even some printed books. On the floor was laid a straw mat and a beam, which served as a table when any patient had to lie down.

But still stranger was the opposite wall. There, in place of an ornament or painting, stood a straw chair, battered and worn out. This chair, Halifa told me, he brought from Tripoli in order to astonish everyone with a luxury unknown in this country. My umbrella, moreover, broken as it was, did not fail to evoke amazement by its complicated mechanism.5

What Happened to the Cave Jews?

In 1911, the Italians launched a campaign to occupy Libya.

With the rise of Mussolini’s Fascist government, antisemitic legislation was introduced. Many Jews escaped once again to the Gharyan caves, but many others were rounded up and deported to Italian labor camps. Some Libyan Jews who held foreign citizenship were eventually deported by the Nazis to Bergen-Belsen. The precarious situation of Libyan Jewry was relieved in 1943 by the British occupation, which restored the region to a state of relative calm.

It didn’t last long. Violent pogroms broke out against the Jews in 1945, and then again in 1948 with the founding of the State of Israel.

The Jews of Tripolitania began to realize that they were no longer welcome. When the British authorities granted the right for Jews to immigrate to Israel in January 1949, the Jewish Agency sent a representative to Tripoli to organize a mass Jewish migration.

When the first ships departed, the exuberant olim sang Az Yashir, the same song that the Jews sang after crossing the Red Sea so many years ago.

In Israel, the new arrivals were housed in a ma’abarah (transit camp) in Binyamina. There, they wrote to their friends and family back in Libya, encouraging them to request temporary settlement as well, in the Binyamina ma’abarah.

Their brethren followed. In 1950, the remaining Cave Jews emigrated to Israel. Today, their descendants have fully integrated into Israeli society.