LIBYA: Former exile starts to restore Tripoli synagogue.
A once-exiled Libyan Jew fulfilled his lifelong dream by starting the ambitious project of restoring Tripoli’s main synagogue Sunday, crying as he broke down a concrete wall blocking the entrance and surveyed the damage.
David Gerbi was 12 when he fled with his family to Rome. It was 1967, and Arab anger was rising over the Mideast war in which Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Two years later, Moammar Gadhafi expelled the rest of Libya’s small Jewish community.
Gerbi returned to his homeland this past summer to join the rebellion that ousted Gadhafi. He wants to rebuild the destroyed Dar al-Bishi synagogue in Tripoli’s Old City.
“He tried to eliminate us,” Gerbi said of Gadhafi. “I want to bring the legacy back. I want to give a chance to the Jews of Libya to come back.”
SYRIA: Dissidents create council in move toward unity.
Syrian dissidents on Sunday formally established a broad-based national council designed to overthrow President Bashar Assad’s regime, which they accused of pushing the country to the brink of civil war. Syrians took to the streets in celebration, singing and dancing. The announcement of the Syrian National Council in Istanbul appeared to be the most serious step yet to unify a deeply fragmented opposition.
In DenverDenver Post wire services
