The assertion that the Jews of Tripoli are “very backward and full of superstition” was made here by Governor Italo Balbo in an exclusive interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Discussing reform measures to which orthodox Jewish merchants in the city’s European quarter are opposed since they are forced to keep shops open on the Sabbath, the Libyan Governor declared;
“I count a number of Jews among my closest friends, and as you are doubtless aware, there is a highly respected Jewish community in my native town, Ferrara (a city of 65,000 in northeastern Italy), for which I have the highest regard.
“In Tripolitania, I have tried in my three years as Governor to organize Jewish handicrafts and promote the physical development of the Jewish youth by sports organizations. The Jewish population, however, is still in a condition similar to 2,000 years ago, very backward and full of superstition. The older generation particularly refuses to recognize the necessity of reforms.”
Asked whether an order prohibiting the closing of shops on Saturdays in the central districts of Tripoli and Bengazi, capital of Cyrenaica, would be relaxed, Governor Balbo gave no definite reply. (Refusal to abide by this order resulted last December in the arrest of 214 Jewish merchants, the “symbolical” flogging of two before a large crowd and the jailing of a German-Jewish refugee doctor who protested.)
“I find the closing of shops two days a week,” he said, “means a big less to the Jewish shopkeeper, but the order also aims to give a more modern character to the appearance of the central and new districts of Tripoli.”
The opinion prevails in Jewish circles here, however, that the order prohibiting Saturday closing, if not completely revoked, will not be scrupulously applied. A satisfactory symptom is seen in the fact that trade licenses which were withdrawn from a number of Jewish merchants after promulgation of the order, for refusing to keep their shops open, are now being restored.
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