Moroccan Jews Moroccan Jews

 The Jewish Moroccans, also known as the Moroccan Jews, are the Moroccans who convert to Judaism, and although many of them have immigrated, they still preserve their ancient religious temples, in addition to the old neighborhoods in which they used to live, known as Al Mallah. The number of Moroccan Jews was in the range of 250 thousand in 1940, and that number represented 10% of the total population of the country, then their immigration began to various parts of the world, such as Canada, the United States and Western European countries, including Israel, but they still had a connection to the culture of their country The original even among members of the second or third generation of immigrants, and many of them continued to hold the Moroccan passport in addition to the nationality

The total census

Exceeds a million

Distinctive regions of existence

Israel 900,000

  France 150,000

  Canada 20,000

  Spain 10,000

  US 10,000

  Morocco 3,000

Languages

Hakitiya

Arabic (Moroccan accent)

Amazigh

Hebrew

French

Spanish

English

Religion

Jewish

A Moroccan-Jewish wedding in Meknes (1839 AD)

The Jewish presence in Morocco is as old as Judaism, and it is believed by a number of studies that their arrival in North Africa came in the aftermath of the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BC, and then the migrations followed, while another belief goes that Judaism spread among the early inhabitants of Morocco, and this is reinforced by some Recent studies of the genetic marker (haplogroup), while subsequent migrations strengthened the Jewish population in Morocco during the fall of Andalusia in the late fifteenth century, which came after the appearance of signs of exile, deportation and expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Andalusia in 1492 and Portugal in 1497. There are about 36 synagogues in Morocco. Morocco and a significant number of Jewish shrines and shrines in various Moroccan regions, the most famous of which are in Fez (the Denan Synagogue), Essaouira, Ouazzane, Marrakesh, Taroudant, Sefrou, Jeddah and Tetouan. In line with the Moroccan nationality laws, the Moroccan state issued a decision in 1976 not to revoke the Moroccan nationality from Moroccan Jews who immigrated in the previous stages, so that they can return to their country whenever they want as Moroccan citizens

The first statistics indicated that the number of Moroccan Jews living in Morocco amounted to about 200 thousand, which was about 10% to 15% of the population of Morocco, the current estimates on the number of Moroccan Jews currently residing in Morocco are not known precisely, some studies indicate about 70 A thousand, of whom 10 thousand are Jews who are distributed in the main Moroccan cities, particularly in Casablanca, only half of whom are permanently residing in Morocco, while the second half have secondary residency only in Morocco. In other estimates, according to a report issued in 2010 by an American organization concerned with monitoring religions and the rights of minorities in the world, called the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life - they constitute - less than 0.1 percent, that is, less than 10 thousand of the total number of Moroccans identified in about 35 million people. [2] Many sources indicate that the number of Jews in Morocco ranges from 2,000 to 2,500 people. [3] Researcher from the Hebrew University Sergio Della Pergola estimated that there were 2,300 Jews in Morocco as of 2015.In 2015 the World Jewish Congress estimated the number of Jews in Casablanca at about a thousand, followed by Marrakesh with about 250 people, Meknes with about 250 people, and Tangier with About 150 people, Fez with about 150 people, and Tetouan with about 100 people. [4]

The Jews in Morocco have great activity, whether in the economic or political sphere. A number of Jews were participating in the Moroccan authority, including Serge Berdigo, who was Minister of Tourism, and King Hassan II had a Jewish advisor for economic affairs called André Azoulay, who still held the same position during his reign. King Mohammed VI, and in 1986, the Jewish representative in parliament (Joe Ohana) was appointed in the Moroccan parliament for the Essaouira region and as secretary of the Parliament Presidency Fund

Date

Judaism entered the Maghreb region in the 6th century BC, and the Jews were able to live among the Berbers and adopt their language through direct influence between the Jewish groups and the Amazighs, and they mastered all the pillars of economic life as herding and industry, in addition to the trade from which they made enormous fortunes, especially trade in luxury and slave Jews accept agriculture and are interested in other professions that generate quick profits and do not require resettlement. On the level of social life, the Jewish community in Morocco was not a closed society, as is common for Jewish societies, but was in constant mixing with the country's residents in their daily lives. Rather, they lived under the existence of a system of neighborhood or protection by the Berber tribes. After the introduction of Islam to Morocco in 710AD and the Jews' awareness of this control, they entered into the protection of Muslim Berber rulers since the beginning of the second century AH.

The Jews of Morocco acquired many of the customs of the Muslims, as evidenced by the fact that in the Moroccan cities they believed in polygamy, although this is forbidden in their religion. As for the Jews in the villages and mountains, they were affected by the Berbers and were satisfied with monogamy. Evidence for this is the emergence of a manuscript in Marrakesh dating back to the year one thousand AD which talks about the prohibition of polygamy

The origins of the Moroccan Jews

Berber Jews from the Atlas Mountains in 1900

The Star of David is on a wall in the ancient quarter of the old city of Essaouira. The Jewish quarter of Moroccan cities is known as Hay el-Mallah

The majority of Moroccan Jews are descended from the Jewish refugees who arrived with Carthaginian merchants on the coast of North Africa during the 6th century BC after the Babylonian Chaldean Emperor Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed the Kingdom of Judah in 586 BC. As well as the Jewish refugees who fled from the Inquisition in the Iberian Peninsula during the 16th century AD after the fall of Andalusia in 1492 AD and the areas surrounding the Mediterranean, especially northern Morocco, and the Oran region in western Algeria, which has large numbers of Spanish speakers of the Eastern Jews, while Tunisia was Algeria is home to Jews with Italian roots from the middle of the commercial square in Livorno. In the three countries, the Jewish population spoke Judaism, Berber and Arabic, although these languages ​​were largely obliterated under the influence of the French language in that period of time mentioned. There were also smaller numbers of new immigrants from Europe.

The Moroccan Jews are divided into two parts: the Maghurashim (meaning in Hebrew, the persecuted), which are the Jews of Andalusia, and the Tashabim, who are the original Jews who inhabited Morocco before Christ. Christmas, without a doubt, many of them found their way to North Africa with Carthaginian merchants

The (former) Jewish quarter of Fez

The Jewish cemetery in Fez, near the Mellah neighborhood The Maghrasim are the Jews who came from Spain (Andalusia) and Portugal after they were expelled by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492 (although many came earlier, when each Andalusian city fell). It is estimated that the Jewish community in Morocco at that time exceeded 100 thousand, while about 25 to 30 thousand came from Spain and Portugal, and many of these still carry the family names of Spanish cities that go back to them, and it is possible to notice that the Jews of Gibraltar, as well as most of the Jews of the city of Ceuta Melilla, they are also grandchildren of those who were expelled from Spain. Some settled in Genoa and northern Italy and went to Gibraltar after the British victory in 1704, while some came from Tetouan. Then they came from Gibraltar again to Morocco from 1840 onwards. Most of them have the same family names as their Moroccan religious counterparts. The Jews of Andalusia tended at that time to isolate themselves and to have separate temples in the big cities, and even to live in separate neighborhoods called the later neighborhoods of the Mallah

A sign at the entrance to the Ibn Danan Synagogue, which was built by Sultan Al-Rashid bin Ali Al-Sharif in 1666 after he brought a large part of the Jewish community from Ait Ishaq to revive the economic activity of the city of Fez. It is currently used for some prayers and as a tourist shrine

The Jews were distributed among its historical cities, in addition to Fez, Marrakech and Essaouira. They also built many smaller cities, such as Sefrou (the suburbs of Fez), Damnat (east of Marrakesh), Wusan, and Tinghir (near Errachidia). The Jews gathered in private residential neighborhoods called the Mallah. References indicate that the Jews in the city of Essaouira made up at one time more than half of the city's population in a unique precedent, as they were divided between the old navigator and the new navigator. The city of Oujda was an exception, as the Jews mixed in the same neighborhoods as the Muslims, and did not allocate their own navigator. The Jewish quarter was also famous in the center of the old city of Casablanca, which is a large neighborhood with more than 30 houses, in which many Moroccan Jews live. It is an old neighborhood surrounded by walls and has several outlets, and it was in the past reserved for the Jews, who abandoned it later.

Under the rule of the Almoravids, the Jews of Andalusia and Morocco held high positions in the state, including economic and diplomatic posts. In the beginning of the Almohad state when they entered the city of Marrakesh in 1062, which became the capital of a vast empire extending from Morocco to Spain, Jews were prevented from residing there at night, and the reason for the emergence of some of these policies was the imbalances that occurred in cases of strife and turmoil in the transfer of power and the change of states 6] But soon, the Jews of Agmat, located 75 kilometers from Marrakesh, began arriving in Marrakesh for trade. Jews were allowed, starting in the twelfth century, to reside in Marrakesh, and a large community grew there, and continued even after the emergence of the Marinids. With the stability of the rule of the Marinids, many Spanish Jews sought refuge in Morocco and settled in different parts of it, especially after the events of 1431, when anti-Jewish riots spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula. Following the expulsions of 1492, waves of immigrants from Spain continued throughout the sixteenth century, and they settled across the country. The Jewish population of Fez grew strongly, and the first navigator was established in the city in 1438

After the birth of the Saadia state, and since the era of the first founder of the dynasty, it pursued a policy that dealt with the Jews with remarkable steadfastness, whereby the local communities in the Kingdom were treated well, [8] and emigration to Morocco was encouraged. Some Jews obtained important positions at the court, and they also helped support them in confronting the forces present on the border with Algeria. The victory of the Moroccans in the battle of Wadi al-Makhzen had a great impact on the Jews, as Sebastian, King of Portugal, in the event of his occupation of Morocco, was intending to kill all the Jews on its land, and the defeat of the King of Portugal left the Jews a feeling of gratitude to the Sultan of Morocco.

Jews have shrines, sacred cemeteries and temples in a number of smaller villages from Tanfou in the suburbs of Zagora (southeastern Morocco), to Ourika (south of Marrakesh), to Oujan (the suburbs of Agadir). Some of them chose to live in the countryside and mountainous regions, and some of them lived in the Berbers of Morocco and mastered their language.

In addition to these, the number of Moroccan Jews was enhanced by the arrival of tens of thousands of Jews displaced from Andalusia at the end of the fifteenth century after the fall of the state of Beni Al-Ahmar. These are distributed in particular between Tetouan, Rabat and Fez.

And if most of the Moroccan Jews lived a modest life and mastered various traditional crafts, then their elite was associated with commerce, money and business. Indeed, a study by Nicole El-Serfati confirms that the Wattasid, Saadian and Alawite sultans who ruled Morocco over the past five centuries relied in their financial, commercial and advisory matters on Jewish experiences, despite the fact that the Jews were a minority in the countries of Islam