The Slat Abn Shaif Synagogue ( he, בית הכנסת צלאת בן שאיף) in
Zliten,
Libya was a historic synagogue and
Lag Ba'omer
Lag BaOmer ( he, , ''LaG Bāʿōmer''), also Lag B'Omer or Lag LaOmer, is a Jewish religious holiday celebrated on the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer, which occurs on the 18th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar.
According to some Rishonim, ...
pilgrimage site for
Libyan Jews. It was built c. 1060.
During the
Ottoman rule, the building was expanded and became a place of pilgrimage and study of the
Zohar
The ''Zohar'' ( he, , ''Zōhar'', lit. "Splendor" or "Radiance") is a foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah (the five ...
. The synagogue was burned in 1868 by disgruntled Muslims of his growing fame and rebuilt in 1870 by the Pasha of Tripoli by order of the Ottoman sultan. Another fire, this time accidentally, destroyed the synagogue in 1912, when Tripoli has recently been under Italian rule. It was rebuilt shortly afterwards. A synagogue in
Benghazi
Benghazi () , ; it, Bengasi; tr, Bingazi; ber, Bernîk, script=Latn; also: ''Bengasi'', ''Benghasi'', ''Banghāzī'', ''Binghāzī'', ''Bengazi''; grc, Βερενίκη (''Berenice'') and ''Hesperides''., group=note (''lit. Son of he Ghazi ...
was built on the same model.
After the mass exodus of Jews from Libya between 1949 and 1951, Libyan migrants in
Israel built a replica of the synagogue in
Zeitan
Zeitan ( he, זֵיתָן) is a moshav in central Israel. Located near Lod and the road to Ben Gurion International Airport, it falls under the jurisdiction of Sdot Dan Regional Council. In it had a population of .
History
During the 18th and 1 ...
, a city they founded near
Lod
Lod ( he, לוד, or fully vocalized ; ar, اللد, al-Lidd or ), also known as Lydda ( grc, Λύδδα), is a city southeast of Tel Aviv and northwest of Jerusalem in the Central District of Israel. It is situated between the lower Shephe ...
.
The Zliten synagogue remained intact until the 1980s, when it was destroyed under the orders of
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...
and replaced with an apartment complex.
See also
*
History of the Jews in Libya
*
Jewish exodus from Libya
References
External links
Hebrew website of the synagogue
Religious buildings and structures completed in 1060
11th-century synagogues
Orthodox Judaism in North Africa
Orthodox synagogues
Sephardi Jewish culture in North Africa
Sephardi synagogues
Destroyed synagogues
Synagogues in Libya
Zliten
1980s disestablishments in Libya
{{Synagogue-stub