David Gerbi said he went to clean garbage from the synagogue on Monday, a day after he broke through the entrance with a sledgehammer to great fanfare. A messenger at the scene warned him, however, that armed men were coming from all over Libya and would target him if he did not leave the area.

Gerbi said he was told a mass anti-Jewish demonstration was planned for Friday in the capital’s central Martrys’ Square, which used to be named Green Square under Qaddafi’s regime.

Breaking down in tears, he criticized Libyan authorities for withdrawing their support, calling his efforts a test of the post-Qaddafi regime’s commitment to democracy and tolerance.

“If they want to prove that it’s different from Qaddafi ... they need to do the opposite,” he told reporters after leaving the synagogue in the old Jewish quarter of Tripoli’s walled Old City.

The head of the National Transitional Council that is governing the country was dismissive of the issue when asked about it at a news conference, saying it was too early to worry about rebuilding a synagogue when revolutionary forces were still fighting supporters of fugitive leader Qaddafi.

“This matter is premature and we have not decided anything in this regard,” Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said. “Everyone who holds Libyan nationality has the right to enjoy all rights, provided that he has no other nationality but Libyan.”

Libyan-born Gina Bublil-Waldman, president of the San Francisco-based JIMENA, or Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, agreed it was too soon to try to return.

“I really do not believe that the Libyan people are ready to reconcile with the past and their history and the wrongs that they have done to the Jewish community,” she said, although she called Gerbi’s efforts sincere and honorable.

Gerbi, who fled with his family to Italy in 1967, said he was surprised because he had permission from the local sheikh and verbal permission from NTC representatives. Gerbi’s colleague Richard Peters said several men armed with assault rifles later appeared to guard the building, although none was visible later Monday.

It was not clear who was ultimately behind the warnings of violence against Gerbi, although he said the man who gave him the message said there was a Facebook and YouTube campaign against him.

Gerbi said people who had supported him were now distancing themselves.

The 56-year-old psychoanalyst appealed to the new leadership to set an example of tolerance, saying that while Qaddafi “wanted to eliminate the diversity, they need to include the diversity.”