Moroccan Jews constitute an ancient community. Before the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, there were about 250,000 to 350,000 Jews in the country, which gave Morocco the largest Jewish community in the Muslim world, but by 2017 only 2,000 or so remain. Jews in Morocco, originally speakers of Berber languages, Judeo-Moroccan Arabic or Judaeo-Spanish, were the first in the country to adopt the French language in the mid-19th century, and unlike the Muslim population French remains the main (and, in many cases, the exclusive) language of members of the Jewish community there.
It is possible that some Jews fled to North Africa after the destruction of the First Temple in the sixth century BCE or the destruction of the Second Temple in the first century CE. It is also possible that they arrived on Phoenician boats (1500 BCE - 539 BCE).There is also a theory, supported by Ibn Khaldun, that Moroccan Jews were indigenous Imazighen (Berbers) who converted to Judaism, although the question of who converted them remains, and this theory has been rejected by most scholars. The Jewish community of Ifran, from the Tamazight word ifri meaning cavern, is supposed to date back to 361 BCE and is believed to be the oldest Jewish community in what is now Morocco.
Since the city of Fez was founded in 808 CE, it attracted a diverse kind of population from all around the area, among those new newcomers came the Jews who contributed their commercial capabilities to the new developed economy. They settled in the medina of Fez, and formed a stable community, which was an integral part of the city life. The golden age of the Jewish community in Fez lasted for almost three hundred years, from the 9th to 11th centuries. Its yeshivot (religious schools) attracted brilliant scholars, poets and grammarians. This period was marred by a pogrom in 1033, which is described by the Jewish Virtual Library as an isolated event primarily due to political conflict between the Maghrawa and Ifrenid tribes.
As a result of the Pogroms of 1391, the Alhambra Decree of 1492, and the Spanish Inquisition, numerous Sephardic Jews—speakers of Spanish dialects: Ladino and Haketia—migrated from Iberia to Morocco, where they were referred to as the megorashim (מגורשים "exiles") or the rūmiyīn (Romans, i.e. Europeans"), in contrast with the older autochthonous Amazigh and Arabized Jewish communities in Morocco, referred to as the toshavim (תושבים "residents") or the bildiyīn (natives). The Sephardic megorashim were officially welcomed by the Sultan Mohammed al-Shaykh, though they had difficulties settling in Morocco. Arriving with their wealth and unable to defend themselves in the new land, they were seen as easy targets for criminals, and suffered theft, rape, and violence.
In 1641, Muhammad al-Haj of the Sanhaja Amazigh Dilā' Sufi order of the Middle Atlas occupied Fes.
This time was particularly difficult for Fessi Jews. A Jewish chronicle of the time recounts that in 1646 synagogues were ordered to close and were subsequently desecrated, damaged, or destroyed. The city was not receptive to the Dilā' either, and for a brief period in 1651 they rebelled and invited Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Sharif, one of the early Alaouite sultans, to take control of the city.
The condition of the Jewish community was unchanged under Mohammed III (1757–89), who distinguished himself by his attempt to introduce European culture into his kingdom. The Jews counciliers of Mohammed Ben Abdelah helped United States between 1776 and 1783 through Intelligence operations coordinated by Luis de Unzaga 'le Conciliateur' and his brothers-in-law Antonio and Matías de Gálvez via Canary Islands and Louisiana. The Sultan's eldest son, Moulay Ali, governor of Fez, courageously opposed his father's suggestion to impose a tax upon that city in favor of his other brothers, which tax was to be paid by the Jewish community. He stated that the Jews of Fez were already so poor that they were unable to bear the present tax and that he was not willing to increase still further their misery. His minister was the Jew Elijah ha-Levi, who had at one time fallen into disgrace and had been given as a slave to a smuggler of Tunis, but had been restored to favor. The accession to the throne of Yazid, on the death of Mohammed III in 1789, led to a terrible massacre of the Moroccan Jews, having refused him their support in his fight with his brother for the succession.
There were, indeed, quite a number of such Jewish officials, negotiators, treasurers, councilors, and administrators at the Moroccan court, whom the European is inclined to call "ministers", but whom in reality the ruler used merely as intermediaries in extorting money from the people, and dismissed as soon as their usefulness in this direction was at an end. They were especially Jews from Spain, the megorashim, whose wealth, education, and statesmanship paved their way to the court here, as formerly in Spain. One of the first of such ministers was Shumel al-Barensi, at the beginning of the 16th century in Fez, who opened the "state career" to a long succession of coreligionists ending in the 19th century with Masado ben Leaho, prime minister and representative councilor of the emperor in foreign affairs. It would be erroneous to suppose that these Jewish dignitaries of the state succeeded in raising the position and the influence of their fellow believers, or that they even attempted to do so. They were usually very glad if they themselves were able to remain in office to the end of their lives.
There are traces of two thousand years of history during which Morocco’s Jewish community expressed immeasurable vitality, contributing to Morocco’s political, economic, cultural, and scientific life. In addition to the abovementioned Jewish personalities who enriched the country’s history, one must also mention others; some of whom are still active today, such as André Azoulay, economic advisor to King Mohamed VI, the diplomat and former Tourism Minister Serge Berdugo, the founder of “Transparency Maroc” Sideon Assidon, the artist Deborah Benzakine or the singer Haim Botboli. There are others who have left Morocco, however reiterating on many occasions their bond with their origins as is the case with Israeli politician David Levy, the French actor Gad El Maleh or the French physicist Serge Harouche (2012 Nobel Prize for Physics).
Jews currently living in Morocco are citizens with equal rights and duties compared to their Muslim compatriots. Freedom of worship and the possibility of resorting to Rabbinic courts to solve their controversies is a fully acknowledged right. In fact, Morocco remains the only Arab-Muslim country in which Jewish religious functions are still celebrated in synagogues (Yoshayaho Pinto is Morocco’s Grand Rabbi), while the judicial system includes rabbinic courts that are still employed today.
A few years ago, the Moroccan authorities, under the aegis of the King himself, inaugurated large sites for the restoration of all places of interest for Jewish culture. These initiatives also concern education with the introduction of the history of the Jews in Morocco in books used in state schools, while the Museum of Moroccan Judaism opened in Casablanca in 1997.
In the cities of Tel Aviv, Ashdod, or Natanya, the cuisine, the parties, the street names, the music, the traditions and customs have remained almost intact, packed up from Morocco and moved to the heart of Israel. With Massoud, as so often happens when two compatriots meet abroad. The customs of our shared Moroccan culture protected jews from the aggravation of broaching subjects that would divide them.
The researcher Emanuela Trevisan Semi commented on the Moroccanisation of Israeli space, saying “When, in 1992, King Hassan II said that few countries could boast 750,0000 children acting as ambassadors in Israel, this was not just rhetoric. He was instead alluding to an already ongoing process; the introduction of Moroccan locations, objects, stories and times into Israel”[9]
Another revered Moroccan who has rightfully entered the Israeli fabric and in particular the Yad Vashem museum, is the late King Mohamed V (grandfather of the current ruler, Mohamed VI), considered Righteous Among the Nations for his decisive role in protecting Moroccan Jews from persecution during the Vichy regime. Mohamed V refused all segregation or deportation of Moroccan Jewish people by the Gestapo declaring that “There are no Jews and Muslims in Morocco, there are only Moroccans.”
