The present study is a grammatical description of the Arabic dialect of the Jews of Tripoli (Libya). Jews in North Africa adopted Arabic as their native speech during the first (pre-Hilalian) period and their dialects therefore preserve archaic features no longer present in the dialects of their Muslim neighbours. The Jewish dialects are also distinguished by the use of many words of Hebrew and Aramaic origin. In Tripoli the difference between the Jewish and Muslim vernaculars manifests itself not only in the vocabulary but also in the language type: The Jewish dialect represents the sedentary type while the Muslim dialect belongs to the Bedouin type. After the immigration of Tripolitanian Jewry to Israel the use of the Arabic dialect has become reduced, and it is estimated that the youngest generation who can still speak it is in their forties. It is obvious, therefore, that in a few decades the Arabic dialect of the Jews of Tripoli, like other Judaeo-Arabic vernaculars, will cease to exist. The present study which also contains texts and a glossary may contribute to preserving a vanishing Arabic dialect.

In June 2017, the Jews of Libya commemorated the jubilee of their complete exodus from this North African land in 1967, which began with a mass migration to Israel in 1948–49. Jews had resided in Libya since Phoenician times, seventeen centuries before their encounter with the Arab conquest in AD 644–646. Their disappearance from Libya, like most other Jewish communities in North Africa and the Middle East, led to their fragmentation across the globe as well as reconstitution in two major centers, Israel and Italy. Distinctive Libyan Jewish traditions and a broad cultural heritage have survived and prospered in different places in Israel and in Rome, Italy, where Libyan Jews are recognized for their vibrant contribution to Italian Jewry. Nevertheless, with the passage of time, memories fade among the younger generations and multiple identities begin to overshadow those inherited over the centuries. Capturing the essence of Libyan Jewish cultural heritage, this anthology aims to reawaken and preserve the memories of this community. Jewish Libya collects the work of scholars who explore the community’s history, its literature and dialect, topography and cuisine, and the difficult negotiation of trauma and memory. In shedding new light on this now-fragmented culture and society, this collection commemorates and celebrates vital elements of Libyan Jewish heritage and encourages a lively intergenerational exchange among the many Jews of Libyan origin worldwide.

Libyan Twilight is a short memoir that discusses the forgotten Jewish community of Libya. As a child growing up in Benghazi, Raphael Luzon experienced the pogrom that followed the 1967 Six Day War between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The Libyan Jews were forced to abandon their homeland and seek refuge overseas as a result. The narrative jumps between the present and past, starting in 2012 where Raphael finds himself in a jail cell in post-revolution Libya amidst political chaos. He rewinds 45 years to a time when Libya was his home, just before the Muslim community ousted the 'Arab Jews'. They spoke in a Libyan dialect of Arabic and had been rooted in North Africa since the destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem in 586BC right up until 1967. Left with no choice, the Libyan Jews were forced to flee Benghazi and find settlement elsewhere, leaving a rich culture behind in Saharan sands. Luzon tells the story with an air of dignity rather than resentment. He opens the lid on a box of memories that reflect on the repercussions he and his community experienced over the last 50 years. As a memoir of exile, Libyan Twilight bursts with nostalgia and gives voice to a forgotten tragedy. Shackled to his Libyan heritage, Luzon relives his life in Italy, Israel and London through a series of charming anecdotes. Sentiments aside, Libyan Twilight is about a man's quest for justice. On a self-assigned mission, Luzon strives for closure on the deaths of his family in Tripoli during the pogrom. Nobody was convicted, nor were they granted a funeral. Luzon's honorary pursuit for redemption places revenge aside, as he sets out to achieve a trial, a conviction and a funeral for the lost Libyan Jews.

This tripartite volume with 18 contributions in English and French is dedicated to Tunisian and Libyan Arabic dialects which form part of the socalled Maghrebi or Western group of dialects. There are ten contributions that investigate aspects of Tunisian dialects, five contributions on Libyan dialects, and three comparative articles that go beyond the geographical and linguistic borders of Tunisia and Libya. The focus of "Tunisian and Libyan Arabic Dialects" is on linguistic aspects but a wider range of topics is also addressed, in particular questions regarding digital corpora and digital humanities. These foci and other subjects investigated, such as the syntactic studies and the presentation of recently gathered linguistic data, bear reference to the subtitle "Common Trends – Recent Developments – Diachronic Aspects".

The soul of this book is not just linguistic. The author creates an innovative approach, combining language with anthropology and history, and this can serve a medley of researchers in interdisciplinary fields. The texts introduce the long and rich inheritance of the Arabic-speaking Jews of Tiberias. They have lived there for centuries with only brief interruptions, and have spoken Arabic as their mother tongue. The author continues here his research on other communities in Galilee where Arabic has been spoken by Jews, such as Haifa, Safed and Pqi'in. The book pays homage to these people, their heritage and language, before all sink, alas, into the limbo of forgotten things. These are the last vanishing voices, which speak out, tell and still breathe. Hopefully they will still serve as evidence in the future of a once glorious but dying culture, whose existence, paradoxically, may even come to be doubted in future times.

A fascinating record of Libyan Jewish life written by a Talmudic scholar, teacher, itinerant peddler and amateur anthropologist named Mordechai Hakohen. Composed in the early years of the twentieth century, it covers domestic life, religion, trade, as well as relations of Jews to Arabs, Berbers, and the Italians who invaded in 1911. The manuscript was partially published in Italian, then ignored for many years until Dr. Harvey Goldberg's recent discovery of it. ethnographically oriented portrayal of North African Jewish life of this period. Also, as Dr. Goldberg points out, Hakohen's work helps to resolve some broad problems of ethno-history, such as the distinction between Arab and Berber and the position of Jews in North African Society. To accompany his 1978 edition in Hebrew, Dr. Goldberg has now translated the most important sections into English, adding extensive commentaries and notes.