Libyan Jewish Women's Lore: From Homeschooling to Formal Education

Abstract

The source of Libyan Jewish women's lore was the environment in which they lived, which was shaped—intellectually, socially, and economically—by the gender norms of Libyan Jews. These norms were based on Jewish traditions and the surrounding Muslim society, which since the mid-sixteenth century was under Ottoman rule until the Italian occupation of 1911. Formal education for Jewish girls became available in Libya from the 1870s, first through European enterprises and from the 1930s also by the community. This paper examines Libyan Jewish women's lore and what was the impact of the developing educational, social, and economic opportunities for growing numbers of Libyan Jewish women, mainly in the urban society, on their cultural capital from the late nineteenth century until the mass Jewish emigration from Libya starting in the late 1940s.