The Remarkable Tale of Porat: From Caves in Libya to Israel

Porat, a small village in the Sharon region, might look just like any other small village in the area. Few people know the remarkable story of its residents.

If you had wandered here 75 years ago, you would have witnessed a peculiar sight: a few dozen tents scattered across the land with elders, women, and children sitting inside. In the center, young people were bent over the earth, trying to dig large pits. What were these pits for?

Does the surname "Gharyani" ring a bell?

This name originates from the "Gharian Jews" in Libya. Located 92 kilometers south of Tripoli is the region of Gharian. "Ghar" in Arabic means cave. In this region, Jews lived in man-made caves. No one in that area built houses from stones or wood. To build a home, they dug a large pit in the ground, divided it into rooms, left two chimneys, built stairs descending into it, and covered it on top with beams topped with a thick layer of clay. These houses were perfect protection against thieves, cold, and heat. The climate inside was moderate, and thus the Gharian Jews lived there for many, many years.

According to their tradition, they were brought to the Gharian region by Panagar, King of Ishmael, who collaborated with Nebuchadnezzar in the destruction of the Holy Temple, receiving thousands of Jewish slaves in return. All Gharian Jews were originally slaves to non-Jews, and thus wrote Rabbi Abraham Adadi from Tripoli about 200 years ago: "I have heard from elders of the nation, who received from generation to generation, that Panagar, King of Ishmael, brought from the captivity of Jerusalem to a mountain near this city a journey of two days, and sold them to the Ishmaelites, and from there they were drawn into this city, and to this day on the mentioned mountain there is no Jew who does not have an Ishmaelite master and who gives him a set amount, a little, every year without fail. Until King Kostya arrived and seized it from the Arabs about six or seven years ago."

The Jews and Arabs lived well together in Gharian, which is why the Arabs never tried to enforce their "historical" right, as recounted by Rabbi Pejalla Ovadia, a centenarian native of Gharian who immigrated to Israel: "I still remember from my childhood: opposite our house in the mountain lived an ancient sheikh. We always lived in friendship with him. He and his many sons never troubled us. When his time came to depart from this world, he lay on his sickbed for several days. One day, one of his sons came to invite my late uncle to visit the ill sheikh, saying: 'My father has something to tell you.' My uncle went and was admitted to the sick man's room. The sheikh ordered everyone out except for him and my uncle, of blessed memory. The sheikh produced an ancient document, a yellowed scroll, and handed it to my uncle, saying: 'This document I received from my father, who received it from his father for many generations, in this document it is written that you, the Ovadia family, were acquired by us as slaves since you came to this land. This secret that was revealed to me by my father, I did not want to reveal to my sons, and they know nothing of it to this day. We lived together in friendship and brotherhood, and who knows what my sons and grandsons might do or their sons thereafter if this secret were revealed to them. The generations have changed, and relations of brotherhood have weakened, therefore I decided to hand you this document, the only evidence of your family's servitude to ours. From now on, you are free to yourselves. Take this document into your hands and do as you see fit."

Among the residents of Gharian was a famous family of doctors, Rabbi Khalifa Hajjaj, who was a surgeon, and the sheikhs from all over Libya would come to him for treatment, his son Rabbi Yaakov Hajjaj, and his grandson Rabbi Agabany. The rabbis of the place were the Geramon family – Rabbi Shalom Geramon, his son Rabbi Chaim Geramon, and his grandson Rabbi Nehorai Geramon. Once, Rabbi Nehorai traveled to Tripoli, where Bedouins robbed him of all his money. He arrived at the Beit Midrash in Tripoli and said: They took my money, but the words of Torah in my head they cannot take away. He stood and wrote all his insights into a book he named "Yeter HaBaz", and published it there at that time in Tripoli.

In 1949, the Jewish Agency heard of the existence of a Jewish community in desolate Gharian, residents of extraordinary caves unknown to the outside world, and sent their envoy, Baruch Dov Levani, to ask if they wished to ascend to Israel. It was during Chanukah. Kalafu Hajjaj, one of Gharian's wise men, recalled the event years later. He was eighty at that time. He spent the entire day working in his family's olive groves, and upon returning to the caves, all the settlers surrounded him: "Rabbi Kalafu, Mashiach ben David has arrived! A Jew from Israel wants to take us on the wings of eagles to Jerusalem, should we go?" "Of course, we should go!", Rabbi Kalafu replied, and within days, all the people of Gharian, 315 in total, reached the plane that secretly brought them to Israel.

In Israel, they "placed" everyone on a plot of vacant land in the Sharon area, which would later be called Porat, left them with some equipment, food, folded tents, and... left. There weren't many resources available for them during those difficult times.

The residents set up the tents for the elders and women to keep the rain off their heads and turned to excavate caves for living. But the soil in the Sharon isn't like the strong and solid ground of the Gharian region... The young people dug a pit, only for the sand to collapse into it. Trying again and again, they said: What a strange land is Israel? It's impossible to build houses here... Eventually, the agency built stone houses for them, with windows, and they saw that it was good.

The women of Gharian were highly skilled in weaving carpets, and in every cave in the Gharian region was placed a large loom. In Israel, they continued their craft, even adapting to the modern market. The carpets of Porat stood out in world carpet exhibitions during the 1960s. To this day, the community continues to be governed by unity and the spirit of Torah and tradition.