The Associazione Concordia e Progresso (Association of Unity and Progress) represented the older, established leadership of the Community Council of Tripoli immediately before and after the Italian occupation of Libya in 1911. It was challenged by a newly founded organization of young Zionists, Circolo Sion, soon after the Italian occupation.

The rift between the two factions, which degenerated into a crisis and paralyzed the Jewish community for almost a decade, was due to fundamental disagreements about the future of Libyan Jewry. The older o…