194 · Rachel Simon
independent Jewish educational institutions continued to exist and de-
velop further, such as the Zionist Hebrew studies in the framework of
the cultural department of the Zionist organization “Ben Yehudah” in
Tripoli.
After World War II, Hebrew education was further developed on the
basis of previous activities and with the help of the Palestinian Jewish
soldiers. This activity focused on Tripoli and Benghazi, but existed also
in some smaller towns. This soon became a political issue when the Brit-
ish wanted to integrate Jewish education within general Arab education.
While the Jews were ready to educate their children to be loyal citizens
and to know Arabic and Libyan history, they refused to be part of the
Arab educational system. Whereas many Jews regarded European ed-
ucation, either Italian or French, as an appropriate cultural challenge,
their attitude toward Arab culture was different. Despite being close to
Muslims in their vernacular language and customs and at times even
in their popular religious beliefs, Jews were not ready to completely in-
tegrate in their culture with its predominantly Muslim character. This
reservation increased with the strengthening of the national character of
both cultures and their educational systems. In addition, the Jews viewed
the culture of their local Muslim neighbors as inferior to theirs and re-
garded the Arab schools as having lower standards than theirs or the
European schools. Following the decision of the Jews to operate a private
educational system, community members had the choice between Jewish
schools, the Italian state schools or those of the AIU, which operated in
Libya until 1960.
Cultural life of the adult population in Libya took place on separate
spheres as well. There was no mutual scholarly activity of Jews and Mus-
lims. They published separate periodicals in their own languages and
scripts, and conducted separate study and cultural circles. When reach-
ing outside the community, Libyan Jews maintained ties with the Jewish
world and Italy. These contacts were at first mainly religious, economic,
and familial. They were later complemented by contacts with the Zionist
movement and the Hebrew press. Jews were hardly involved in Libyan
or regional Arab politics, press, or literature. Jewish-Muslim relations
in Libya were thus different from those in some Muslim countries (e.g.,
Egypt and Iraq) in which Jews were involved in local culture and politics.
The political and cultural marginality of Libya and the fact that political
and cultural life had a late start there contributed to this dissociation.