Many faiths share a belief in fate, divine intervention, that there is no such thing as chance.

Dr. David Gerbi, a Libyan-born, observant psychologist living in Italy, spent the summer in a Libyan rebel encampment, joining the revolutionary forces and providing them psychiatric care. But their gratitude didn’t last for long. He was nearly lynched and then booted out of the country when he tried to clean up a desecrated synagogue that hadn’t seen a Jew since Muammar Gaddafi took over the country 42 years ago.

Dr. Gerbi, international director of the World Organization of Libyan Jews, was the first Jew to cast his lot with the Libyan rebels when he joined the Benghazi Psychiatric Hospital staff to teach the techniques of healing post-traumatic stress disorder among the fighters. Throughout the summer, Dr. Gerbi, holed up with the revolutionaries, assisted rebel leaders in formulating strategies and restoring unity within their ranks when internal conflicts arose.

After Gaddafi was ousted, the interim government, the National Transitional Council, talked about giving him a position in the soon-to-be-formed parliament, as an official voice for religious tolerance in a country run by an extremist despot for four decades. >>

Gaddafi was gone but he left his virulent anti-Semitic brainwashing as a legacy.

Although the new Libya is struggling for a more democratic identity, Gaddafi’s 42-year rule succeeded in brainwashing the public with virulent anti-Semitism, propagating the myth that the Jews absconded with the country’s wealth to Israel — when in reality Gaddafi had kicked out all the Jews who remained after the Arab riots of the 1960s. He then confiscated all Jewish property, worth about $500 million, adding it to his private fortune estimated at $200 billion, which he amassed by embezzling Libya’s wealth.

While Gerbi waited for a new government to take shape, he decided to spend the High Holidays in Libya. For Rosh Hashanah, he traveled to Tripoli along with the rebels, where he was to deliver letters from the World Organization of Libyan Jews to Mustafa Abdul Jalil, leader of the revolution and president of the interim government. At that point, he was being treated as a future member of parliament.

But a man like David Gerbi is not one to idle away his precious days in the newly freed country of Libya. Gerbi sought to become the first Jew to pray in the abandoned, decaying Dar Bishi synagogue in Tripoli, where his forebears had prayed. That simple act of devotion proved that undoing Gaddafi’s work would not be simple after all.

When Dr. Gerbi peered into the interior of the shul, he was confronted by a horrifying sight. The entrance was blocked by a brick wall, and the house of prayer that had displayed its glory before the expulsion of Libya’s Jews had turned into a den of iniquity, a place desecrated by society’s degenerates. Piles of refuse were strewn throughout the sanctuary.

“When I entered the shul, the first words that came out were charam kabir — a grave offense. I could not tolerate that God's Name had been defaced in such a way,” Dr. Gerbi told Mishpacha on his return to Rome.

Dr. Gerbi activated the connections that he had amassed in the previous months, including four sheikhs, to clean out the synagogue. “I spoke with the police force and with members of the army who knew me. We were all friendly after all the time I had spent in the area. They permitted me to clean out the shul and to pray there.”

The only way to remove the accumulated trash was to demolish the wall that blocked the synagogue’s doorway. “I bought equipment for ten people to work together — brooms, hammers, work tools, and cleaning supplies.” In the meantime, a team of photographers and journalists stood by as Gerbi brandished his sledgehammer and struck the wall repeatedly. Perspiration streamed from his brow; the job wasn’t easy. At one point, Gerbi even burst into tears and promised that he would not allow himself to be broken until he entered the shul and carried out his mission.

It was now Monday, the fifth of Tishrei. Dr. Gerbi had set a goal of rendering the shul usable by Yom Kippur at the end of the week. He recruited a team of six additional men and paid them each 4,000 dinars. He also brought his own Book of Psalms and a sign inscribed with the phrase "Shivisi Hashem l’negdi tamid -- I place God before always, that is traditionally mounted in many shuls.

Gerbi spoke with Sheikh Jamal, one of the most influential religious figures in the new Libya. The sheikh agreed to the shul’s restoration and agreed to accompany Gerbi on his visit to the cleaned-up shul.

Gwynne Robbins, David Gerbi and Tahirih Matthee

A chance meeting between Dr David Gerbi (who has served as the 2004 Witness for Peace mentor for the UN High Commission for Refugees  and as its 2007 Ambassador for Peace in South Africa) and Gwynne Robins, secretary of the Cape Town Interfaith Initiative (CTII), led to an on-going relationship with the CTII  which has resulted in the organisation achieving international recognition.

On 16th June 2011 Dr David Gerbi dedicated  his talk for the  Italian organisation Religions for Peace at the Foreign Press Association in Rome to the Cape Town Interfaith Initiative!!

In 2006, Dr David Gerbi came from Italy to deliver a presentation at a Cape Town medical conference. Through a series of chance meetings, he landed up in Gwynne’s office who promptly took him to a CTII meeting and a match was made!