Alfonso Arbib, now the chief rabbi of the Jewish community of Milan, was born in Tripoli in 1958 as the eldest child of Yusef and Ester (Rina) Baranes. His original name is Hlafo, a very common name among Tripolitan Jews that is derived from the Judeo-Arabic version of the Arabic name Halfalla, which means “he whom God has redeemed” (Pedatzur in Hebrew). He grew up in central Tripoli in a family of Italian culture and language that was deeply immersed in Jewish traditions: kashrut, Shabbat, and attending the Bet-El synagogue. Although he only spent his childhood in Libya, Rav Arbib clearly recalls the difference between the Jews of the old city, the hara, known for their stricter religious observance, and those in the modern part, who took a more flexible approach to maintaining traditions.
Until June 1967, Rav Arbib and his three sisters attended the Italian school. With his family, he experienced a peaceful and affluent childhood, thanks to the economic boom generated by the discovery of oil in Libya in the 1960s. This was a different Libya from the one experienced by previous generations, who had faced greater hardships. He learned from his mother’s stories about the life of Libyan Jews before his birth when the community was rebuilt by Jewish soldiers from Palestine, who promoted the teaching of Hebrew and youth associations. However, it was only in adulthood that he found out about the internment measures and deportations that the Jewish community had suffered during World War II.
On June 5, 1967, while Rav Arbib was at school, the Six-Day War broke out. Violent anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli demonstrations swept through the streets of Tripoli. His father picked him up from school, but it was too dangerous to cross the capital’s streets, so they took refuge with friends living nearby. Once they had finally managed to return home, the Arbib family was forced to stay confined for twenty days, surviving thanks to food brought by Yusef’s friends. The local authorities unsuccessfully attempted to transfer them to a gathering camp on the outskirts of Tripoli, where many other Jews had agreed to move in search of refuge. Shortly after, on June 25, the Arbib family left Libya for Rome, arriving as stateless persons — a situation common to many other Libyan Jews.
We didn’t have passports, Jews didn’t have passports
Transcript
Interviewer:
What passport did you use to leave?
Alfonso Arbib:
We didn’t have passports, Jews didn’t have passports; at least, the vast majority of Jews didn’t have passports. They had a travel document, [for which] a visa was required each time. A few Jews had a Libyan passport—for example, my uncle had a Libyan passport—and others had Italian, British, [or] French passports, and then there were Jews who had other passports. But normally, there was no passport; normally Jews were not entitled to a passport, they had a travel document.
Interviewer:
So what was your nationality?
Alfonso Arbib:
Well, when we arrived here, we were stateless.
Interviewer:
But when you were there?
Alfonso Arbib:
None.
Interviewer:
Without nationality?
Alfonso Arbib:
Without nationality, we didn’t have a nationality. That’s why I talk about dhimmi: It’s not like you leave [Libya], you have a nice house…but you still don’t have the right to a passport. Another thing: in Tripoli, families couldn’t all leave together; someone had to stay behind as a hostage.
Interviewer:
This was in ’67?
Alfonso Arbib:
Even before, in ’67, without a doubt. But before ’67, if we had to go to Italy, the whole family couldn’t go. Someone had to stay in Libya, and they could also tell you “no,” they could tell you that you couldn’t leave.
The arrival in Italy marked a moment of liberation for Alfonso Arbib. The family’s knowledge of Italian and their comfortable situation eased their adaptation, although he noticed the difficulties that many other families faced in rebuilding their lives. In those uncertain times, the Piazza Bologna in Rome became the meeting point for Tripolitan Jews searching for news, work, and a new sense of community.
In Italy, Rav Arbib continued his studies at the Italian school while attending the Italian Rabbinical College in the afternoons under the guidance of Rome’s chief rabbi, Elio Toaff. Here, he first obtained the title of maskil and later received semikhah, becoming a senior rabbi. In 1986, he began to teach Jewish subjects at the high schools of the Jewish school in Milan, and in 2005, he succeeded Rav Giuseppe Laras as the chief rabbi of Milan.
