Frija Zoaretz

Frija Zoaretz was born in 1907 in Libya

Zoaretz was born in Tripoli, Libya, the first son after three daughters. He studied in a synagogue school and later at the Yagdil Torah school, mainly Talmud and Jewish law. At 21 he was sent by the Tripoli rabbinate to serve the community of Al-Khums as cantor, preacher, slaughterer and Hebrew teacher.

He was a Zionist activist who founded and edited the religious Zionist weekly Hayenu, and he wrote poems and books on Libyan Jewish life. Accused of spying because of his ties to the Land of Israel, he was held in an Italian internment camp in the Libyan desert from 1940 to 1943.

He immigrated to Israel in 1949 and lived in the Shevut Am transit camp, where he taught and later ran the local school. Active in Hapoel Hamizrachi, he was elected to the Knesset in 1955 and re-elected in 1959 and 1961. He lost his seat in 1965 but returned that December, and left the Knesset after the 1969 elections.

In the Knesset he sat on the education and public services committees and chaired the public complaints committee. He also co-founded the Libyan Communities Committee and established a yeshiva named for Rabbi Avraham Haim Adadi. He died in 1993 and was buried in Netanya, where a street is named for him.