The Jewish community of Libya traces its origin back to the 3rd century b.c.e. Under Roman rule, Jews prospered. In 73 c.e., a zealot from Israel, Jonathan the Weaver, incited the poor of the community in Cyrene to revolt. The Romans reacted with swift vengeance, murdering him and his followers and executing other wealthy Jews in the community. This revolt foreshadowed that of 115 c.e., which broke out not only in Cyrene, but in Egypt and Cyprus as well.

The first Jewish National Fund Committee, Tripoli, 1915

With the Italian occupation of Libya in 1911, the situation remained good and the Jews made great strides in education. At that time, there were about 21,000 Jews in the country, the majority in Tripoli. In the late 1930s, Fascist anti-Jewish laws were gradually enforced, and Jews were subject to terrible repression. Still, by 1941, the Jews accounted for a quarter of the population of Tripoli and maintained 44 synagogues. In 1942 the Germans occupied the Jewish quarter of Benghazi, plundered shops, and deported more than 2,000 Jews across the desert, where more than one-fifth of them perished. Many Jews from Tripoli were also sent to forced labor camps. Conditions did not greatly improve following the liberation. During the British occupation, there was a series of pogroms, the worst of which, in 1945, resulted in the deaths of more than 100 Jews in Tripoli and other towns and the destruction of five synagogues.

In 1948 a group of new olim from Libya arrived in Jaffa and sought a room in which to hold religious services. They came upon a Franciscan monk who led them to an abandoned building, told them that it was a synagogue and handed them the keys. Inside they found a prayer room and a mikva. Later they learned that the building had been opened in 1740 by the "Constantinople Administrative Committee for Jews in Eretz Israel" as the first Jewish khan [hostel] in Jaffa and had provided lodgings and a place of worship for Jewish pilgrims. In the 19th century it was abandoned and forgotten. Located on a characteristically narrow, winding street, the restored synagogue continues to serve the Libyan Jewish community and is a favorite venue for weddings in Old Jaffa.

A growing sense of insecurity, coupled with the establishment of the State of Israel, led many Jews to leave the country. Although emigration was illegal, more than 3,000 Jews succeeded in leaving, and many went to Israel. When the British legalized emigration in 1949, more than 30,000 Jews fled Libya.