Jewish Life in Libya: Remember the Past, Live the Present, Trust the Future
A public talk with David Gerbi & Penina Meghnagi Solomon
Meet two resilient individuals, in a public talk with Dr. David Gerbi and Penina Meghnagi Solomon, who not only survived but found ways to thrive after the violent destruction of their 2500-year-old Libyan Jewish community.
Discover 2500 years of Jewish life in Libya from the Greek and Roman empires through the 20th century. Learn of the community’s violent demise under Muammar Qaddafi’s dictatorship. Hear about Dr. David Gerbi’s courageous efforts to preserve his community’s history and protect its last survivors. Listen to Penina Meghnagi Solomon’s oral testimony about the joy of her early life and the trauma of surviving antisemitic mobs in her homeland, and her resilience through the creative arts. Find out about Dr. Gerbi’s continuing work to recover his ancestors’ bones after their graves were demolished to make way for roads and skyscrapers.
Join us Monday, March 4th, 2024 at 6pm AKST in the BP Design Theatre located on the fourth floor of the Joseph E. Usibelli Engineering Learning and Innovation Building on the University of Alaska Fairbanks Troth Yeddha’ Campus at 1764 Tanana Loop, Fairbanks, AK 99709. Parking on campus is free after 5 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.
If you are not able to join us in person, consider joining the conversation online via Zoom at the date and time of the event: https://alaska.zoom.us/j/86478448791
Dr. David Gerbi, born and raised a Jew in Libya, is a published author, psychoanalyst, and physiotherapist specializing in trauma resolution and dreams. An ambassador for peace and a representative of the millennia-old Jewish Libyan community, he met with the Pope and Qaddafi to free the last members of the Libyan Jewish community, he joined the Arab Spring, and he assisted in the Abraham Accords negotiations.
Penina Meghnagi Solomon survived the 1967 anti-Jewish riots and violence in Libya.
As a writer and painter, she has coped with the trauma of antisemitic expulsion from
her birthplace and homeland through the arts, rendering the world she was forced to
leave.
This event is brought to you by the UAF Department of English.