Mordechai Ha-Cohen, who received his formal education at a Talmud Torah religious school in Tripoli, eventually became the most important historian and documentarian of Libyan Jewry in the early 20th century. He was born in Tripoli in 1856 to a family of Italian origin, and was still very young when his father passed away. His natural curiosity drove him to educate himself and acquire books associated with the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment, to continuously expand his knowledge. He knew Italian from home.
As a young adult, Ha-Cohen began to teach in a Talmud Torah school. To supplement his income, he repaired watches and worked as an itinerant merchant in the city of Tripoli and the surrounding villages. After getting married, he diligently studied rabbinic rulings in Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic and eventually was accepted as a halakhic jurist.
In the early 20th century, Ha-Cohen began compiling Higgid Mordechai, his comprehensive book on the history of Libya and its Jews, including their institutions and customs. The book covers a wide range of topics and relied on diverse sources. Some of it draws on the unpublished manuscripts of Abraham Khalfon (1741-1819) in Judeo-Arabic, while other parts are influenced by the writings of Abraham Hayyim Adadi, who served as the presiding judge of the rabbinical court in Tripoli for nearly 30 years during the 19th century. Ha-Cohen’s insights about the first half of the century came from his interviews with elders of his time and from his own research and observations.
A special section of the book is dedicated to the Jews living near the small market towns scattered throughout the rural communities of Tripolitania, with whom Ha-Cohen interacted as a traveling merchant. Another section describes the Jewish community in Benghazi, where he served as a dayan (a judge in a rabbinical court) from 1919 until the end of his life. It also includes a description of the Italian occupation of Tripoli in the fall of 1911.
In 1906, Ha-Cohen met Nahum Slouschz, a researcher of Eastern Jewish communities, who had been sent from Paris to Tripoli on behalf of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. During their meeting, Ha-Cohen presented the latter with a manuscript of his work, which he had not yet completed but had finished more than half of it. Slouschz was impressed by Ha-Cohen’s abilities and knowledge and invited him to join his travels outside Tripoli as a guide and translator, and to document them. Ha-Cohen accepted the offer, and together they embarked on two journeys: one eastward to Benghazi and the other deeper into the country, heading south and west.
In September 1906, Slouschz left Libya after spending about two months there. He and Ha-Cohen corresponded until February 1910. As agreed, Ha-Cohen sent Slouschz his travel journal and, at his request, shared excerpts from the manuscript of his book. Slouschz incorporated these into his publications over the next 30 years but downplayed Ha-Cohen’s contributions.
After Slouschz left Tripoli, Ha-Cohen resumed working on his book. By that time, he was sending articles to HaYehudi in London, and as tensions increased around Italian interests in Libya, he also began submitting articles to Ha-Herut. His correspondence included accounts of military developments during the Italian occupation, which began in September 1911. The situation in Tripoli stabilized relatively quickly, and Ha-Cohen decided to finalize his work with four sections (chapters) reporting on the occupation of Tripoli and Benghazi (the resistance against Italy in the countryside continued for many years).
Over time, Ha-Cohen’s book, Higgid Mordechai, was published. The Italian Colonial Office, which governed Libya, undertook to translate the section of the book focusing on institutions and customs. Martino Mario Moreno, an Italian linguist and scholar of Eastern studies, translated it in collaboration with Ha-Cohen.
In 1915, Ha-Cohen signed a contract with Moreno to work on the translation, although they were likely in contact before this. The publication of this book in collaboration with Moreno seems to be the only time Mordechai had the opportunity to follow the publishing process, from when a manuscript was completed (and reviewed) till it was brought to the printing press. In 1924, the work was published in Benghazi and included notes by Ha-Cohen and by the translator-editor, Martino Mario Moreno.
During World War II, Ha-Cohen’s family got to know the historian Professor Ephraim Elimelech Urbach, who arrived in Libya while serving as a British Army chaplain. He attended to the needs of British soldiers, particularly Jewish ones, including those who volunteered from Mandatory Palestine – the Land of Israel.
The family entrusted the manuscript to Urbach, who then submitted it to the National Library in Jerusalem. A few members of the Ha-Cohen family came to Israel during the great Aliyah (immigration to Israel) including Libyan Jewry, bringing with them a collection of his personal documents. Later, these were also donated to the NLI, and approval for the manuscript to be held by the Library permanently was issued in 1967. The manuscript of Higgid Mordechai is written in Solitreo—a traditional Sephardi version of Hebrew cursive script.
Initially, the work attracted the attention of only a few scholars, among them Haim Zeev Hirschberg. It wasn’t until 1979 that the book was published as a volume by the Ben-Zvi Institute, edited by myself based on anthropological research among Jews from Libya.
During his time in Tripoli, Ha-Cohen witnessed rapid technological advancement—accessible water services and sewage systems, regular mail from abroad, and telegraph services. At the same time, he and the wider Jewish community were gradually exposed to both Jewish and broader culture from overseas. His book consciously reflects the literature and language of the Eastern European Hebrew Enlightenment, which is evident in the choice of topics it covers. He praised the values of the Enlightenment while simultaneously defending traditional Jewish positions. Ha-Cohen saw himself as a partner in the effort to revive the Hebrew language and even suggested turning to Arabic as a source for renewing words in a once-dormant language. This perspective also influenced his approach to research. His pan-Jewish outlook was expressed in letters written in Hebrew that he sent to newspapers abroad. There are more than 80 documented articles of his from 1897 to 1914, mostly for the newspapers Ha-Herut and Ha-Yehudi (published in London), in which he reported on what was happening in Libya as well as various other issues.
Copies of other articles written by Rabbi Mordechai Ha-Cohen can be found in his archive at the National Library of Israel.
Ha-Cohen aspired to belong to an international circle of scholars and felt he was fulfilling this ambition through his connection with Nahum Slouschz. His passion for uncovering the treasures and history of his land was well known; visitors and tourists from various countries were referred to him, and he provided them with information. However, within his own community, his commitment to science wasn’t always appreciated and some felt his writings expressed criticism of Jewish life. In response, he expressed faith in those who valued the unbiased search for knowledge, whoever they were and wherever they could be found. He strove for accuracy in his historical writing—concerning dates, for example—and in describing the Jewish communities of his time, he sought the most up-to-date demographic information possible. He didn’t hesitate to indicate whenever there was any uncertainty involved. When matters were unclear to him, he presented only the facts he knew without drawing conclusions.
An example of this can be seen in a photograph of a page from his correspondence notebook, in which Rabbi Mordechai recorded the number of Jews by communities: א(A) = Jewish communities in Libya; ב(B) = Jewish communities in the world: some categorized by country (for example, “Persia”), and some by city (for example, “Aleppo”); ג(C) = Jewish communities in the Land of Israel.
The archive consists of three components: copies of letters, legal materials, and writings including excerpts from unfinished essays.
The letters—most of which Ha-Cohen sent rather than received—are written in Hebrew, with some in Judeo-Arabic, and they don’t represent all of his correspondence. The documents in the collection are mostly written in Solitreo, with some written in what is known as Rashi script. At the center of the collection of letters is a notebook with 60 pages, mainly consisting of copies of letters; some weren’t created by Ha-Cohen but preserved by him. There are also a few documents beyond the notebook.
Ha-Cohen had extensive correspondence with five individuals. One was Rabbi Hezekiah Shabtai, who served as the Hakham Bashi, or Ottoman Chief Rabbi, in Tripoli from 1904 to 1908. Shabtai drafted a letter of approval for Mordechai’s book, and after Shabtai moved to Aleppo in Syria, the two exchanged information about their respective cities and communities.
The second most frequent correspondent was Nahum Slouschz, and the third was Martino Mario Moreno, who translated Ha-Cohen’s book into Italian. Ha-Cohen also corresponded with two Italian rabbis: Shmuel Tzvi Margaliot, who visited Tripoli in the early years following the Italian occupation, and Eliyahu Shmuel Hartom, who served as the Chief Rabbi in Tripoli from 1920 to 1923. With the latter, Ha-Cohen discussed halakhic issues in his capacity as a judge in the rabbinical court in Benghazi.
Other letters from Ha-Cohen were addressed to a wide range of recipients, reflecting his broad perspective. His active interest is evident in the variety of topics he covered and in his writings preserved in the archive. Two of these are manuscripts written in small notebooks: Netzach Yisrael and Rabbeinu Gershom Meor HaGolah. They were both composed in Benghazi around 1925 but differ in purpose.
The first, which is 22 pages long, addresses “the political and religious progression of the ancient Israelite people since it became a nation.” It is written in Hebrew, using Rashi script, and Ha-Cohen appears to have written it to contribute to education in general, perhaps hoping it would reach readers outside Libya.
The target audience of the second manuscript was the local Jewish community. The background is incomplete, but in 1922, a judge in the Jewish rabbinical court in the city organized the Chevra Kadisha (community volunteers who prepare bodies for Jewish burial) under the name “Rabbeinu Gershom Society.” An annual feast was held in honor of Rabbeinu Gershom, marking the Chevra Kadisha’s contribution to the community. Ha-Cohen took it upon himself to educate the Jews of Benghazi about the historical significance of Rabbeinu Gershom. This work is written in Rashi script, but the language is Judeo-Arabic.
Rabbi Mordechai Ha-Cohen passed away in 1929. He was a man of many talents, but aside from the publication of Higgid Mordechai, many of his initiatives didn’t come to fruition.
The archive of Rabbi Mordechai Ben Yehuda Ha-Cohen of Tripoli has been cataloged and made accessible at the National Library of Israel, thanks to the kind donation of the Samis Foundation, Seattle, Washington, dedicated to the memory of Samuel Israel. Special thanks to Noa Reichmann for her assistance in registering the archive and making it accessible.