Slat Abn Schaif Synagogue
The Slat Abn Schaif Synagogue ( Hebrew בית הכנסת צלאת בן שאיף, Arabic كنيس صلاة ابن شيف) was a historically significant Jewish house of worship built in the 11th century in the Libyan port city of Sliten . It was destroyed by Muammar al-Gaddafi in the 1980s .
The synagogue, built around 1060 AD, was an important place of pilgrimage for the Libyan Jews on the Lag baOmer festival . During the Turkish occupation the building was expanded and over time it became an important place for studying the Zohar . In 1868 the Slat Abn Schaif Synagogue was burned down by angry Muslims due to its growing importance. By order of the Ottoman Sultan, the Pasha of Tripoli had the building rebuilt in 1870. Another fire during the Italian patronage , this time accidentally ignited, destroyed the synagogue again in 1912. The building was restored shortly afterwards and served for the Orthodox Sephardim . The architectural model of the Slat Abn Schaif Synagogue was adopted for the construction of a synagogue in Benghazi .
After the mass emigration of Jews from Libya from 1949 to 1951 built Libyan immigrants in Israel a replica where they founded Moshav Zeitan near Lod .
The synagogue in Sliten survived until the 1980s when it was destroyed and replaced by a residential complex on the orders of the head of state Muammar al-Gaddafi.
Web links
- Judith Roumani: From Zliten to Zetan: The Journey of a Libyan Jewish Community and a Tale of Lag B'Omer. In: Covenant. August 2009, accessed February 14, 2013 .
- Hebrew website of the synagogue