Eliyahu Lillo Arbib (Tripoli, 1911 - Bat Yam, 2003) Ad memoriam

Abstract

Eliyahu Lillo Arbib was a leading exponent of the Tripolitan Jewish Community. In 1931 he was active in the foundation of the maritime school at Civitavecchia of the Betar Movement (the right win of the Zionist movement). In 1947 he represented the Libyan Jewish Community at the United Nations Commission for the protection of Minorities, voting for Libya’s independence. In 1948 he assumed the presidency of the Tripolitan Jewish Community. After the 1948 pogrom, he took part in the meeting on the American aircraft carrier Keaserge, in which there was stipulated the agreement that made possible the mass exodus of the Jewish community to Israel. In 1962 he was among the promoters of a government petition for the protection of the Jewish rights minority. In the weeks that followed the 1967 pogrom, he carried oud an intense activity for the exodus of the Jewish community. He moved with his family first to Livorno and then to Israel. Among his writings: The Jews in Libya between Idris and Gaddafi; “The anti-Jewish pogrom of November 1945”; “The legal status of the Jews of Libya”.