Escape from Benghazi

Diary of an Imposter
Meghnagi, Elia 

Meghnagi takes us on a cultural and political tour of Benghazi and its Jewish community in the twentieth century under Italian, British and Arab regimes. In doing so he reveals with a masterful and at times funny touch his personal story as a boy growing up in Benghazi, and how he escaped to study in the UK rebuilding his personal life.
Professor Maurice M. Roumani, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

The last time Elia Meghnagi saw his childhood home in Benghazi, he was only seventeen years old. A member of the endangered and fast-shrinking millennia-old Jewish community of Libya, in 1958 Elia was forced to flee, finding refuge in Cambridge as a foreign student. It would be years before he saw his parents and siblings again.
Always one to rise to a challenge, Elia built a new life for himself in England, finding friends, community, lasting love, and a career in telecomms engineering that would take him across the globe to such far-flung places as South Korea and Mexico, until—missing too much of life with his growing family back home—he swapped his high-flying career for one, no less challenging, in the kosher food business.
In this fascinating memoir, Elia looks back on his action-packed life as a square peg in a round hole. Full of nostalgia for his native land and pride in his Sephardi roots, he carries us to the sun-drenched streets of Benghazi and introduces us to its vibrant culture and history, before sharing with us the ups and downs of life as a foreign student and refugee and, eventually, a citizen, in England.
Clear-sighted, compassionate, and often humorous, Elia introduces us to a wide array of the fascinating characters he has met, and the challenging situations he has faced. Perhaps most profoundly, in a narrative suffused with wonder and optimism, Elia shares his experience of fitting smoothly into other cultures while never compromising on his own religious principles or practice.

220 pages 49 illustrations

Copyright: 20/07/2022