The Jewish communities of Arab countries—primarily Egypt, Iraq, and Morocco—have been the subject of many studies. However, the Jews of Libya have received negligible attention in the literature, and Maurice Roumani's well-researched book seeks to fill this void.

“Coexistence, persecution, and resettlement,” the book's subtitle, were asymmetric historical landmarks in the annals of Jews living in the Arab and Muslim world. For hundreds of years Jews enjoyed a reasonable level of coexistence with the Muslim majority. The transition to colonial rule, emergence of movements for national liberation, and aggravation of the Arab–Zionist dispute in Palestine had adverse effects on the texture of Arab–Jewish coexistence. Jews residing in Arab countries witnessed waves of persecution initiated by extremist minorities and backed by governments that linked Jews to the state of Israel, even if the majority of them were not Zionists. Within several years, the course of their lives was to change dramatically. Jewish communities in Arab countries were dispersed and resettled, and large numbers of them ended up in Israel.

The community in Libya, numbering only 36,000 even as late as 1948, was small relative to communities of Jews in other Arab countries. According to Roumani, the Italian occupation of Libya in 1911 was generally welcomed by the Jewish community in hopes that its situation would improve following the worsening of Arab–Jewish relations at the close of the Ottoman epoch. The occupation period witnessed the growing economic influence of the Libyan Jews, who acted as mediators between local Arabs and European powers. Italian colonial authorities encouraged Jews to assimilate by adopting Italian language and culture. Roumani describes this period as “one that granted [Libyan Jews] freedom and progress but not without a fight for the preservation of the Jewish identity and culture.” Toward the end of Italian rule, “Libyan Jews were clearly disappointed and grew as mistrustful of the Italians as they were of previous rulers” (pp. 36–37).

Roumani also views the colonial era in the context of events occurring outside of Libya, including the rise of Mussolini and Italian fascism's relation to Jews in both Italy and Libya. In July 1938, Italy introduced the “Manifesto of Race” laws, which were fully applied in Libya in 1941. During World War II, many Libyan Jews were sent into forced-labor and concentration camps in Libya and Europe. The death toll among the community was high, and many were reduced to poverty and inhuman living conditions. As Roumani shows, Zionists made headway in Libya during Italian rule, but the transformation of their ideals into practical application only took off under British rule, when in 1943 Jewish volunteers arrived from Palestine and Egypt to help rehabilitate the community. Zionist involvement, however, was interrupted by British authorities, who were fearful of increased tension between Libyan Jews and their Arab compatriots. Their activities were soon replaced by the work of international Jewish organizations, which played a major role in protecting the interests of their Jewish brethren.

Although Jewish community leaders supported Libyan nationalist demands for self-determination, relations between Jews and Arabs had deteriorated by the mid-1940s. The pogrom of November 1945, which coincided with anti-Jewish riots in Egypt and other Arab countries, was a landmark in the history of Arab–Jewish relations in Libya. Roumani does not thoroughly probe the possible links between events in Libya and elsewhere. Some Jewish eyewitnesses argued that British authorities acted with indifference. Why would they do so, especially when, as Roumani clearly shows, they received prior information of the rioters' intentions? However, the author does provide more satisfactory answers to similar questions concerning the next wave of anti-Jewish riots in 1948. The prospect of resettling in Israel was for the vast majority of Libyan Jews a lifesaver following the atrocities they endured in the 1940s. By the onset of the 1950s, most of Libya's Jews had resettled in Israel, leaving behind a few thousand who wished to reestablish a peaceful coexistence with their Arab compatriots.

Roumani describes in detail the obstacles many Libyan Jews faced before arriving in Israel. Libyan Jews soon realized that the road to the Promised Land was not strewn with roses, and in fact, they became a means through which the Israeli political establishment advanced its state-building process. Yitzhak Rafael, head of the Aliyah Department in 1948 and one of the politicians who campaigned to permit their emigration, “reminded some politicians in his party of the importance of Libyan Jewish immigration because it would lead to increased support for the religious Mizrah party.” The Jewish Agency, Roumani reasons, “had to handle a sharp rise in immigration with limited funds, absorption difficulties, and lack of housing” (p. 110).

Many new immigrants from Arab countries were left living in transit camps for several years and were later relocated to Israel's northern and southern peripheries. In Roumani's assessment, this inconsiderate treatment by Israeli authorities was to have long-term repercussions on the development of future generations. The areas “hit hardest by inequality in income, low standard of living and services” were the development towns in southern Israel, “where North African Jews—specifically Moroccans and Tunisians—are found together with Indians and most recently with Ethiopians” (p. 160). Many Libyan Jews established their own moshavim (communal settlements), and others chose to settle in towns. Despite the fact that their standard of living worsened during their first years in Israel, when they were placed in ma’abarot (transit camps) to live in tents and tin huts and were treated unfairly by absorption employees, they endured the pains of absorption because for them Israel was the only choice.

Roumani concludes his book on a more positive note, stating that Libyan Jews gradually bridged the gap and that their second and third generations integrated well into Israeli society, occupying positions in all walks of life. The explanation for their successful integration, he states, is that “they had a tradition of adaptability to a new situation while preserving old elements, strong cultural and religious heritage, family and community solidarity and low expectations” (p. 185). However, the question of whether the societal clefts that the first generation of Libyan and “Mizrahi/Sephardi” emigrants had experienced does or does not exist nowadays in Israel is still controversial. The withering of the Libyan Jewish community, which began in the mid-1940s, reached its end in the late 1960s. Those who chose to remain in Libya found themselves victims of the Israeli–Arab conflict and were forced to leave their homes and properties.

Overall, a short contextual discussion of inter-Libyan politics and the public discourse on Jewish–Arab relations since the mid-1940s, as well as broader references to Libya’s inter-Arab relations and the Palestine question, could have added another useful layer to Roumani's thought-provoking study. Nevertheless, students and scholars of the humanities and social sciences as well as a wide range of other readers will find this book of great interest.