Origins in the
Anti-Atlas, known to Jews as
Oufrane, is believed to be the oldest Jewish community in Morocco, speculatively dated to the year 361 BCE. 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). Emily Gottreich contends that Jewish migration to Morocco predates the full formation of Judaism, as the
Talmud was "written and redacted between 200 and 500 CE." As
Christianity was adopted by the Roman state, the church
Councils of Carthage adopted policies that discriminated against adherents to Judaism. The Justinian edict of persecution for North Africa, issued after Vandal rule had been overthrown and
Mauretania had come under the dominion of the
Byzantines (534), was directed against the Jews as well as the
Arians, the
Donatists, and other dissenters. In the 7th century, the Jewish population of Mauretania received as a further accession from
Iberian Peninsula those who wished to escape Visigothic legislation. At the end of the same century, at the time of the great
Arab conquests in northwestern Africa, there were in Mauretania, according to the Arab historians, many Jews.
Arab conquest and the Idrisids (703–1146) Since the city of
Fez was founded in 789 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 the
1033 Fez massacre. However, it is described by the
Jewish Virtual Library as an isolated event primarily due to political conflict between the
Maghrawa and
Ifrenid tribes.
Under the Almoravids The
Almoravid dynasty () was an imperial
Berber Muslim dynasty originating in the
Sahara whose empire eventually extended from
Lisbon and
Valencia to
Awdaghust and
Gao. Their religious fervor and fighting capabilities enabled them to establish a formidable empire in the
Morocco and
Muslim Spain in the 11th and 12th centuries. Their theological Islamic zeal is attributed to
Yahya ibn Ibrahim, their spiritual leader, as well as to the
'alim (religious scholar)
'Abd Allah ibn Yasin. In the Sahara, the Almoravids probably had minimal contact with Jews, though there were Jewish merchant communities in oases and towns. As the Almoravids incorporated the cities of
Sijilmasa,
Awdaghust, and
Aghmat, they came to rule over their Jewish communities. Unlike the problems encountered by the Jews during the rule of the
Almohads (the Almoravids' successor dynasty), there are not many factual complaints of excesses, coercion, or malice on the part of the authorities toward the Jewish communities. It is known, however, that
Yusuf Ibn Tashfin forbade Jews living in the capital city
Marrakesh. It was allowed for them to trade there, but if a Jew was caught in the city during night hours it was punishable by death. Under the Almoravids, some Jews prospered (although far more so under
Ali III, than under his father
Yusuf ibn Tashfin). Among those who held the title of "vizier" () or "nasih" () in Almoravid times were the poet and physician Abu Ayyub Solomon ibn al-Mu'allam, Abraham ibn Meïr ibn Kamnial, Abu Isaac ibn Muhajar, and Solomon ibn Farusal. From the traditional Iberian historiographical perspective, the Almoravids and Almohads are seen as having disrupted the
convivencia of medieval Iberia.
Maimonides, who was staying in Fez with his father, is said to have written to the communities to comfort and encourage his brethren and fellow believers in this time of oppression In the above-mentioned elegy of
Abraham ibn Ezra, which appears to have been written at the commencement of the period of the
Almohads, and which is found in a Yemen siddur among the kinot prescribed for the Ninth of Ab, the Moroccan cities
Ceuta,
Meknes, the
Draa River valley, Fez, and
Segelmesa are especially emphasized as being exposed to great persecution.
Joseph ha-Kohen relates that no remnant of Israel was left from
Tangier to Mehdia. Due to the nature of the forced conversions, the later Almohads were no longer content with the repetition of a mere formula of belief in the unity of God and in the prophetic calling of Muhammad. The third Almohad Prince, Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur, spoke on this matter, saying "If I were sure about the sincerity of their Islam, I would let them mix with the Muslims..., and if I were sure of their unbelief, I would kill their men, enslave their offspring, and declare their property spoils for the Muslims. But I am uncertain about their case."
Under the Marinids The
Marinid dynasty (
Berber:
Imrinen,
Arabic:
Marīniyūn) was a dynasty of
Zenata Berber descent that ruled
Morocco from the 13th to the 15th century. The Marinids overtook the
Almohads controlling Morocco in 1244, and briefly controlled all the
Maghreb in the mid-14th century. They supported the
Kingdom of Granada in
Al-Andalus in the 13th and 14th centuries; an attempt to gain a direct foothold on the European side of the
Strait of Gibraltar was however defeated at the
Battle of Salado in 1340 and finished after the
Castilian conquest of
Algeciras from the Marinids in 1344. During Marinid rule, Jews were able to return to their religion and practices, once again outwardly professing their Judaism under the protection of the dhimmi status. They were able to re-establish their lives and communities, returning to some sense of normalcy and security. They also established strong vertical relations with the Marinid sultans. When the still-fanatic mobs attacked them in 1275, the Merinid sultan
Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd Al-Haqq intervened personally to save them. The sovereigns of this dynasty benevolently received the Jewish ambassadors of the Christian kings of Spain and admitted Jews among their closest courtiers. Of these Jews, Khalifa b. Waqqāsa (Ruqqasa) became steward of the household of the sultan
Abu Yaqub Yusuf an-Nasr and his intimate counselor. A victim of palace intrigues, he was put to death in 1302. His nephew, who was also named Khalifa, held the same office and suffered the same fate (1310). However, there were no repercussions against the Moroccan Jews as a result of the execution of their powerful coreligionists. They were the principal factors in the prosperity of the country. The Sahara gold trade, which was of primary importance, and the exchange with the Christian countries were completely under their control. Their relatives and associates in the kingdom of Aragon financed, when necessary, the navies which defended the Moroccan ports. In addition to the jizya (tax paid by non-Muslims), they paid enormous sums to the treasury in customs duties for their imports and exports. In the outlying areas, particularly in the Atlas region where there were large concentrations of Jews of early origin, the Jews wielded great influence in both the political and spiritual domains. Jewish physicians enjoyed well-deserved renown. The study of Kabbalah, as well as philosophy, was then in vogue. The last Moroccan philosopher of the Middle Ages was Judah b. Nissim ibn Malkah, who was still alive in 1365. Numerous Fessi Jews converted to Islam throughout the premodern period, but the conversions spiked in the mid-fifteenth century. Powerful families, such as the
Bannānī, Ibn Shaqrūn, Bannīs, Barrāda, and Gassūs families, adopted Islam. In 1438, under pressure from the
shurafāʾ, Sultan
Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq made Jewish merchants with businesses in the
qaysāriyya (the main market of
Fes el Bali) abandon them and move to the
mellah near
Dar al-Makhzen in
Fes Jdid. They demanded the Mufti (Islamic legal expert), under threat of death, to issue a Fatwa (legal opinion) to permit the killing of Jews. The Mufti had no choice but to make these killings permissible. However, the traditional Moroccan account by historian
Ahmad Ibn Al-Qadi does not feature a mufti at all, calling the narrative into question. Thus, began the
1465 Moroccan revolution, one of the worst riots in Morocco's history The native Jewish community in Morocco had shrunken, having been possibly massacred. However, this narrative is disputed because no Jewish source from before the nineteenth century makes any mention of a massacre. Furthermore, as there is documentation of a thriving Jewish community in Fez in the 1470s, Garcia-Arena is skeptical that there was any pogrom against the Jews at all. A hundred years later, in 1492,
King Ferdinand II of Aragon and
Queen Isabella I of Castile issued the
Alhambra Decree - an edict ordering the expulsion of practicing Jews from Spain. Consequently, the Jews were driven from Spain, and later from Portugal in 1496 following a similar decree by
King Manuel I of Portugal. The sudden inroad of Jews into Morocco and the whole of North Africa was then repeated on a much larger scale. The Jewish community in Morocco then swelled with the waves of refugees arriving from Spain and Portugal after 1492, increasing the cultural and economic power of the Moroccan Jewish community considerably. Incoming Sephardi Jews tended to be economically better off than their native counterparts, bringing with them specific ideas of culture shaped by centuries of life on the Iberian Peninsula. As a result, the Sephardic scholarly mercantile elite were quick to dominate Jewish communal life in Morocco. A number of natives from Fez fled to Spain over the course of the fifteenth century and returned to Fez following 1492, acting as a unique bridge between the native Jews of Morocco and the newly arrived Sephardim. Among this group, the most outstanding representatives were the Ibn Danan family. Fleeing from Fez in either 1438 or 1465, the Ibn Danans settled in
Granada where Rabbi Moses Maimon Ibn Danan and his son Saadiah achieved fame as scholars. Saadiah returned to Fez after the Spanish expulsion and served as a spiritual guide for other exiles, whilst identifying himself with the native Jews. The Ibn Danan family was among the intellectual and financial elite of Fez for centuries, creating alliances across Sephardi families and maintaining a prominent synagogue in Fez. The arrival of Spanish Jewish refugees brought important changes in city life and within the preexisting Jewish community. Jewish life in the Muslim interior of Morocco became dominated by the Sephardic plutocracy that continued to maintain control of the Moroccan Jewry up until modern times. Each local community had a
rigid, or
shaykh al-Yahud, who was appointed by the government. The chief figure in the larger Jewish community was the
Nagid of the capital, who was invariably a court Jew. However, the influx of refugees also caused overcrowding in the larger cities of Morocco and aroused uneasiness among both the Muslims, who feared an increase in the price of necessities, and the Jews already settled there, who had hitherto barely succeeded in creating a livelihood in handicrafts and petty commerce. in
Fez While many Spanish Jewish exiles to Morocco were able to successfully integrate into the larger community in part due to their relative wealth, the problem of poverty among exiles still left a significant number of Jewish refugees vulnerable. Many died of hunger and some returned to Spain; most fled to Fez, where new challenges awaited them. More than 20,000 Jews died in and around Fez following a terrible fire and subsequent famine in the Jewish quarter of the city. A new group of New Christians came to Morocco through the establishment of the
Inquisition in Portugal under
Pope Paul III in 1536. In 1508, Portugal had come to occupy parts of Morocco, succeeding in conquering the old seaport town of
Safi, which had a large number of Jewish inhabitants and had subsequently become an important commercial center. In 1510, Safi was besieged by a large
Moorish army. Following this, some Portuguese Jews brought assistance to the besieged with ships manned by coreligionists and equipped at their own cost. Their reign over the entirety of Morocco began with Sultan Mohammed ash-Sheikh in 1554, when he vanquished the last Wattasids at the Battle of Tadla. Saadian rule ended in 1659 with the end of the reign of Sultan Ahmad el Abbas. In Marrakesh, a Sa'di ruler established a
Mellah, or Jewish quarter, in the mid-16th century. In Marrakesh, the
mellah was created in the area of the sultan's stables. Scholar Emily Gottreich argues, however, that the creation of the
mellah of Marrakesh was not a singular event, but rather a process that took place over several years. Gottreich proposes that this process, referred to as
mellahization, occurred between 1553 and 1562. In practice, the
mellah of Marrakesh never served as an exclusively Jewish quarter. Non-Jews frequently traveled to and from the
mellah and elite foreigners even stayed in the
mellah during their visits to Marrakesh in the early years of the
mellah. Gottreich argues that the Sa'di dynasty established the
mellah of Marrakesh following the unification of northern and southern Morocco to legitimize their rule of Morocco through the creation of a lavish capital that mirrored Fez and included a defined space for dhimmi. When, in 1578, the young king Sebastian with almost his whole army met death, and Portugal saw the end of her glory, in the
Battle of Alcazarquivir, the few nobles who remained were taken captive and sold to the Jews in Fez and Morocco. The Jews received the Portuguese knights, their former countrymen, into their houses very hospitably and let many of them go free on the promise that they would send back their ransom from Portugal.
Samuel Pallache of the Sephardi
Pallache family, having earned the confidence of
Zaydan An-Nasser, had a significant role in
Morocco–Netherlands relations, serving as the interpreter for his ambassador
Hammu ben Bashir in a journey to the
Dutch Republic, then again with
Ahmad ben Abdallah al-Hayti al-Maruni, which led to the signing of the
Dutch-Moroccan Treaty of Friendship and Free Commerce in 1611.
Megorashim and toshavim As a result of events in Spain, such as 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 ( "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 ( "residents") or the bildiyīn ( "natives"). The Sephardic
megorashim were officially welcomed by the Sultan
Mohammed al-Shaykh, though they had difficulties settling in Morocco. At first the Sa'dis appeared to be fanatical religious zealots who were intolerant of non-Muslims. They imposed heavy taxes on the local Jewish community. As they consolidated their authority in the country, however, they gradually evinced greater toleration toward the Jewish minority. Like their Wattasid predecessors, the Sa'di sultans now employed Jews as physicians, diplomatic emissaries, and interpreters. Beginning in 1603, Abraham bin Wach and later Judah Levi served as ministers of the treasury. Members of the Jewish aristocratic Cabessa and
Palache families were recruited by the sultan's court as agents and negotiators with European merchants who entered the country. Whereas the authorities increasingly proved to be friendly toward the Jews, the same could hardly be said of the Muslim masses as well as local urban and rural chieftains and governors. In 1641,
Muhammad al-Haj of the
Sanhaja Amazigh
Dilā' Sufi order of the Middle Atlas occupied Fez. 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.
Under Moulay Rashid and Moulay Ismail charm against scorpions from Morocco The Jews suffered much during the great conquests of
Moulay Rashid, who united the separate parts of Morocco into one single state, and wished to add to it all northwest Africa. According to in 1787, when Al-Raschid took the city of
Marrakesh in 1670, at the desire of the inhabitants he caused the Jewish counselor and governor of the ruling prince Abu Bakr, together with the latter and his whole family, to be publicly burned, in order to inspire terror among the Jews. He also tore down the
synagogues of the city, expelled many Jews from the Berber region of Sus and treated them tyrannically. His demands on the Jews in the way of taxes were enormous; he had them collected by Joshua ben Hamoshet, a rich Jew, to whom he was under obligations for various services and whom he appointed chief over the Jews. He even ordered the Jews to supply wine to the
Christian slaves. In 1668 the Jewish community of Chaouya settled in Fez after Mulai Rashid attacked the town of Chaouya. They were given three days to leave and left with their rabbi Maimon Aflalo. They numbered around 1300 households and possessed great wealth. After they moved to Fez they were granted their own
synagogue. The Jews, who served as tax-collectors on the whole coast, used to give Ismail a golden riding-outfit as an annual "present"—an inducement to keep them in office—and a hen and a dozen chickens fashioned in gold as a tax payment for the whole Jewish community. Ismail had another way of securing money: for a certain sum he would sell to an aspirant for honors the position and wealth of one of his favorites. In one such transaction Maimaran, who was chief ruler over the Jews of the realm, feared a rival in Moses ibn 'Attar, and offered the sultan a certain sum for his head. Ismail then let Moses ibn 'Attar know how much had been offered for his head, whereupon Ibn 'Attar offered double the sum for the head of his opponent. The sultan took the money from both, called them fools, and reconciled them to each other, whereupon Ibn 'Attar married a daughter of Maimaran and shared with his father-in-law reign over the Jews. The same Moses ibn 'Attar was Moorish plenipotentiary in the making of a compact with Great Britain in 1721. After 1700 Fez no longer attracted as many Jews as in the previous centuries, while others still continued to arrive, other retained residence in Fez, while spending their time elsewhere. The Sultan's eldest son, Moulay Ali, governor of Fez, opposed his father's suggestion to impose a tax upon the Jewish community of Fez, concerned that they were unable to bear the present tax. He had a Jewish minister named
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, after the death of Mohammed III in 1789, led to a terrible massacre of the Moroccan Jews, in part due to the Jewish community refusing to support him in his fight for succession with his brother. As a punishment the richer Jews of
Tetouan, at his entry into the city, were tied to the tails of horses and dragged through the city. Many were killed in other ways or robbed, and Jewish women were raped. The Spanish consul, Solomon Hazzan, was executed for alleged treachery, and the Jews of
Tangier,
Asilah, and
Alcazarquivir were condemned to pay a large sum of money. Elijah, the minister of the former king, who had always opposed Yazid in the council, quickly embraced
Islam to avoid being persecuted, but died soon after. The persecution reached its climax in Fez,
Rabat, and
Meknes. In
Mogador, tension grew between Jews and the city judge on the one hand, and the Moorish citizens on the other over Jewish clothing. Finally the Jews were ordered to pay 100,000 piasters and three shiploads of gunpowder; and most of them were arrested and beaten daily until the payment was made. Many fled beforehand to
Gibraltar or other places; some died as
martyrs; and some converted to Islam. The notables and the Muslim masses then rose to intervene on behalf of the Jews. They hid many of them in their houses and saved a great many others. In Rabat, the governor Bargash saved the community from the worst. The sanguinary events of the year 1790 have been poetically described in two kinot for the Ninth of Ab, by Jacob ben Joseph al-Mali? and by David ben Aaron ibn Husain. , by
Darondeau (1807–1841). From the second half of the 18th century, there are various accounts of travels which give information concerning the external position of the Jews. In
The Present State of Empire of Morocco Chénier describes the Jewish community: The Jews possess neither lands nor gardens, nor can they enjoy their fruits in tranquillity. They must wear only black, and are obliged when they pass near
mosques, or through streets in which there are sanctuaries, to walk barefoot. The lowest among the
Moors imagines he has a right to ill-treat a Jew, nor dares the latter defend himself, because the
Koran and the judge are always in favor of the Mohammedan. Notwithstanding this state of oppression, the Jews have many advantages over the Moors: they better understand the spirit of trade; they act as agents and brokers, and they profit by their own cunning and by the ignorance of the Moors. In their commercial bargains many of them buy up the commodities of the country to sell again. Some have European correspondents; others are mechanics, such as goldsmiths, tailors, gunsmiths, millers, and masons. More industrious and artful, and better informed than the Moors, the Jews are employed by the emperor in receiving the customs, in coining money, and in all affairs and intercourse which the monarch has with the European merchants, as well as in all his negotiations with the various European governments. of the
Atlas Mountains, c. 1900. There were many Jewish officials, negotiators, treasurers, councilors, and administrators at the Moroccan court who the ruler used merely as intermediaries in extorting money 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. Moroccan Jews were employed also as
ambassadors to foreign courts. At the beginning of the 17th century Pacheco in the Netherlands;
Shumel al-Farrashi at the same place in 1610; after 1675
Joseph Toledani, who, as stated above, concluded peace with
Holland; his son Hayyim in England in 1750; a Jew in Denmark. In 1780
Jacob ben Abraham Benider was sent as minister from Morocco to
King George III; in 1794 a Jew named Sumbal and in 1828
Meïr Cohen Macnin were sent as Moroccan ambassadors to the English court. Another event that led to a population decrease among the community was the two-year exile of the Jews from the mellah in 1790–1792, during the brief reign of sultan Malawy yazid. The whole community was forced to go to Qasba Shrarda which was on the other side of Fez. After their departure, the mellah was radically transformed. A
mosque was built on the site of the main synagogue. Under the order of yazid, tomb stones from a nearby Jewish cemetery were used to build the mosque, and the cemetery was moved to the entrance of the Muslim quarter along with the bones of the saintly rabbis. The exile lasted for two years. After the death of yazid, the
qadi of Fez ordered the mosque to be torn down and the Jews were permitted to return to the mellah. as industrial imports from Europe drove traditional Jewish crafts out of the market. As a result,
Moroccan Jews started migrating from the interior to coastal cities such as
Essaouira,
Mazagan,
Asfi, and later
Casablanca for economic opportunity, participating in trade with Europeans and the development of those cities. Some impoverished migrants to overpopulated urban
mellahs (Jewish quarters) struggled to survive as shopkeepers, peddlers, artisans or beggars. Morocco's instability and divisions also fueled conflicts, for which Jews were frequent scapegoats. The
First Franco-Moroccan War in 1844 brought new misery and ill treatment upon the Moroccan Jews, especially upon those of
Mogador (known as
Essaouira). When the
Hispano-Moroccan War broke out on September 22, 1859, the
Mellah of
Tétouan was sacked, and many Jews fled to
Cádiz and
Gibraltar for refuge. Upon the
1860 Spanish seizure of Tetouan in the
Hispano-Moroccan War, the pogrom-stricken Jewish community, who spoke archaic Spanish, welcomed the invading Spanish troops as liberators, and collaborated with the Spanish authorities as brokers and translators during the 27-month-long occupation of the city. File:Jüdische Hochzeit in Marokko-1024.jpg|
Jewish Wedding in Morocco by
Eugène Delacroix, 1839,
Louvre, Paris File:Delacroix - Musiciens juifs de Mogador, RF1651.jpg|
Jewish Musicians of Mogador by Eugène Delacroix, 1847,
Louvre, Paris File:Edme Alexis Alfred Dehodencq - Musiciens juifs dans les rues de Tétuan 1859.jpg|
Jewish musicians in the streets of Tetouan by
Alfred Dehodencq, 1859 File:Alfred Dehodencq - Execution of a Jewess in Tangiers c1861.jpg|
Execution of a Jewess in Tangiers by Alfred Dehodencq, c. 1861—the 1834 execution of
Sol Hachuel as imagined by the European painter 27 years later. Morocco was one of the countries where the AIU was most active; it opened its first school in
Tétouan in 1862, followed by schools in
Tangier (1864),
Essaouira (1866), and
Asfi (1867). Over time, the AIU in Morocco was more and more closely associated with French colonial influence; one of its assistant secretaries-general later noted that its "close, even organic relations with the (French foreign ministry) were an open secret." While the AIU failed to achieve much in increasing Moroccan Jews' political status, it did succeed in giving a significant minority of them modern French-language educations and in initiating them into French culture. This included a transformation of many Moroccan Jews' gender and sexual norms. For many centuries, Moroccan Jews and Muslims had shared such customs as polygamy, segregation of the sexes, early ages of female marriage, and a tolerance for men's love of male youths that was in contrast to both Jewish and Islamic scriptural prescriptions. The AIU set out to Europeanize Moroccan Jews' marriage patterns and family forms, combating prostitution, eliminating Jewish women's traditional head coverings, and reining-in on what it saw as Jewish men's promiscuity and homosexual tendencies. These changes required, in the words of an AIU alumni association in Tangiers in 1901, that Jewish mores be "disengaged from the Muslim spirit" – thus helping, like the AIU's activities generally, to increase Moroccan Jews' distance from an emerging Moroccan national identity.
Abraham Levy-Cohen founded the first francophone newspaper in Morocco,
Le Reveil du Maroc, in 1883 to spread French language and culture among his coreligionists. Both were both subsequently executed after confessions extracted by torture. Sir
Moses Montefiore and the Board of Deputies of
British Jews received a telegram from Morocco from Safi's Jews, who had appealed to the
Makhzan, the local governor, without success, before turning to foreign Jewish organizations. Montefiore interceded on behalf of those imprisoned in relation to the accusation, and several other imprisoned Jews. although he was unsuccessful in his goal of abolishing the
Dhimmi status of Jews in Morocco. This edict of emancipation was confirmed by
Mohammed IV's son and successor,
Moulay Hasan I, on his accession to the throne 1873 and again on September 18, 1880, after the
Conference of Madrid. Pro-Jewish reforms were often not executed by local magistrates in the fragmented sultanate, however, and even if they were they reignited animosity toward the Jewish population. Thus, for example, the sultan
Sulaiman (1795–1822) decreed that the Jews of Fez might wear shoes; but so many Jews were killed in the streets of that city as a result of the edict that they themselves asked the sultan to repeal it. According to a statistical report of the AIU, for the years 1864–80 no less than 307 Jews were murdered in the city and district of Morocco, which crimes, although brought to the attention of the magistracy upon every occasion, remained unpunished.
Migration to South America During this century and up to 1910, around 1000 Moroccan Jewish families migrated to the Amazon, in northern Brazil, during the
rubber boom.
Pictorial essay of Jewish community Early photographs of Moroccan Jewish families, taken in the early 20th century by German explorer and photographer
Hermann Burchardt, are now held at the
Ethnological Museum of Berlin.
Conversion attempts Jews in Morocco were targeted by the
London Society to Promote Christianity Amongst the Jews, which sought to convert them to Christianity during the famine of 1877–1879.
20th century Organized
Zionism, the 19th century European
ethnocultural nationalist movement to establish a Jewish state through the
colonization of
Palestine, arrived in Morocco from Europe around 1900–1912 in the period just before Morocco's colonization. Zionist associations appeared in coastal cities in direct contact with Europe: Shivat-Zion ('Return to Zion') Association founded by
Russian physician Dr. Ya'akov Barliawsky in Tétouan around 1900, Sha'are Zion in Mogador (now
Essaouira), and Ahavat-Zion in
Asfi. In 1912, amid the insurrection that followed the disclosure of the
Treaty of Fes, thousands of rebelling Moroccan soldiers entered and pillaged the
Mellah of
Fez, stopping only after French artillery rounds pounded the Jewish quarter. The
Dahir of 1918 first organized the Jewish courts and established a legal organization for the Jewish communities in Morocco. In Casablanca, the Hadida brothers edited ''
Or Ha'Maarav, or La Lumiere du Maroc (1922–1924), a Zionist newspaper printed from 1922 until the French authorities shut it down in 1924, in two versions: one in Judeo-Arabic with Hebrew script and one in French. As a community, Moroccan Jews sent significant numbers of children to receive an education in French, at institutions such as the schools of the
Alliance Israélite Universelle, a generation or two earlier than Moroccan Muslims.
World War II In 1940,
Résident Général Charles Noguès implemented antisemitic decrees coming from Nazi-controlled Vichy government issued excluding Jews from public functions. Sultan
Mohammed V reportedly refused to sign off on "Vichy's plan to ghettoize and deport Morocco's quarter of a million Jews to the killing factories of Europe," and, in an act of defiance, insisted on inviting all the rabbis of Morocco to the 1941 throne celebrations. The racist laws had a negative effect on Moroccan Jews and put them in an uncomfortable position "between an indifferent Muslim majority and an anti-Semitic settler class." philanthropic organizations, including (OSE),
ORT, and others, implemented a massive aid program for children in the areas of nutrition, health, and education. A large majority of children benefited from this policy, infant mortality decreased, epidemics such as ringworm, trachoma, and tuberculosis declined dramatically, and a large number of children were enrolled in school. Small structures created by private initiatives, especially by the Zionist advocate
Samuel-Daniel Levy and financially supported by the international organizations, The Dahir of 1918 was replaced by the
Dahir of 1945, which democratized the internal political process of the Jewish communities. It called for yearly meetings of the leaders of the country's Jewish communities to discuss their common issues, and the was the organ through which those discussions took place.'' Some of the 40,000 Moroccan Jews who had migrated to Israel following its independence faced racism, and 2,000 of them returned to Morocco.
Oujda riots In June 1948, after the
declaration of the State of Israel and in the midst of the
1948 Palestine war,
riots against Jews broke out in
Oujda and
Jerada. The two towns, located near the border with
Algeria, were departure points for
Moroccan Jews seeking to reach Israel—at the time they were not permitted to do so from within Morocco—and "in the eyes of many Moroccans, they would join the ranks of enemy combatants against the Arab armies." The apparatus was administered by
Jewish Agency and
Mossad Le'Aliyah agents sent from
Israel, with assistance from local Moroccan Zionists.), an Israeli policy that imposed criteria for immigration that discriminated against poor Moroccan Jews, families without a breadwinner in the age range of 18–45, and families with a member in need of medical care.
Moroccan independence There were Moroccan Jews who supported and aided the
Moroccan nationalist movement in its struggle for independence. Rural pre-Sahran Jews provided support to the
Army of Liberation of the South. However, emigration to Israel jumped from 8,171 in 1954 to 24,994 in 1955, increasing further in 1956. Beginning in 1956, emigration to
Israel was prohibited until 1961, although it continued illegally until it was officially resumed. When
Mohammed V died, Jews joined Muslims in a national day of
mourning. In 1958, the liberal government of
Abdallah Ibrahim of the
Istiqlal led a new administration that joined the
Arab League and became very involved. The government also intervened in economic affairs, especially to disengage the country from France economically, which may have disadvantaged Jewish business elites. In 1961, with the coronation of
Hassan II, the government relaxed the laws on emigration to Israel and even facilitated it. From 1961 to 1964, almost 90,000 Moroccan Jews were migrated to Israel in
Operation Yachin, an Israeli-led initiative in which the
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society paid King
Hassan II a sum per capita for each Moroccan Jew who migrated to Israel. Moroccan Jews in Israel, far more numerous, enjoyed less upward mobility: 51 percent were blue-collar in 1961 and 54 percent as late as 1981.
21st century Despite their current small numbers, Jews continue to play a notable role in Morocco. The
King retains a Jewish senior adviser,
André Azoulay. They are well represented in business and even a small number in politics and culture. Jewish schools and synagogues receive government subsidies. Several Jewish museums throughout the country cater to the growing interest in preserving Moroccan Jewish heritage and history. However, Jews were targeted in the Casablanca bombings of May 2003. King
Hassan II's pleas to former Moroccan Jews to return have largely been ignored. In 2004, Marrakesh had an aging population of about 260 Jews, most over the age of 60, while Casablanca had between 3,000 and 4,000 Jews. A 2014 figure says there are about 2,500 Jews still living in Morocco. As of 2018 the total of Jews in Morocco is 2,200. In 2019 the total of Jews in Morocco is 2,100 In 2025 the Jewish Population in Morocco numbered 1,000 around 5% of the nation's total population. In 2013, it was revealed that there is a rapidly growing trend of Moroccan-Jewish families sending their sons to study at the
Jerusalem College of Technology in Israel. Most of these students opt to take up Israeli citizenship and settle in Israel after graduating. Conversely, a small trickle of criminals from Israel have been settling in Morocco, exploiting the lack of an extradition treaty between the two nations. However, most of these are not of Moroccan descent. There are still many Jewish citizens in Morocco who choose to raise their children in the Jewish faith, and most of those children are sent to the
Alliance Israélite Universelle school. However, the majority of students at this school pursue higher education in other countries and leave Morocco. In 2019 the Jewish Population in Morocco numbered 2,100 Morocco
formally normalized relations with Israel with the
Abraham Accords. In late 2021, marking the first anniversary of the re-establishment of diplomatic ties between Morocco and Israel, King Mohammed VI launched an initiative to restore hundreds of historical Jewish sites throughout the country. The plan envisions the renovation of hundreds of synagogues, cemeteries and other Jewish heritage sites in a number of Moroccan cities, including the Jewish cemetery in Fez, which counts thousands of graves. It was also reported that the king had decided that the original names of a few of the country's Jewish neighborhoods were to be reinstated. The initiative was lauded by Israel and the
European Jewish Congress. In November 2022, Morocco opened the first university synagogue of the Arab world at the
Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in
Marrakesh. The project was led by the
Mimouna Association and the
American Sephardi Federation. It was inaugurated by
Rabbi Elie Abadie. In May 2025, the last Jewish resident of
Essaouira, Josef Sebag, died. == Gallery ==