The only known Jewish museum in the Arab world is hidden in a residential neighborhood of Morocco’s economic metropolis of Casablanca, guarded by a lone soldier.
Among other items, the museum contains black-and-white photographs of Jewish life in Morocco from the 1920s and 1930s. The pictures show artisans at work, celebrations and family life. Display cases include Torah scrolls and clothing, some old manuscripts – all relics from a time when Morocco still had a large Jewish community.
When the State of Israel was established in 1948, about 300,000 Jews lived in the Arab country, which at the time had a population of 7 million. Most people then fled, prompted by anti-Jewish pogroms in the cities of Oujda and Djerda that same year, in which more than 40 Jews died. About one million Israelis of Moroccan origin live in the Jewish state today. About 3,000 to 5,000 Jews remained in Morocco, most of them living in Casablanca.
Although Jews represent a small minority in terms of numbers, synagogues and kosher restaurants are still part of Casablanca’s urban landscape today.
‘It is normal for Jews, Christians and Muslims to live together’
Moroccan historian Jamal Amiyar told Telquel magazine, “Jews are an essential part of society. Thus they have created a special relationship between Morocco and Israel.”
For a long time the country struggled to officially recognize this special relationship. It was not until the 2011 constitution that Jewish culture was recognized as a rich element of Moroccan identity, along with the traditions and language of the Amazigh, who in the past were often referred to as Berbers.
“For us, it is normal for Jews, Christians and Muslims to live together,” Brahim Dargha, a forty-year-old man who works as a driver, says in an interview with DW.
Dargha is a Muslim from the Rif Mountains, a marginalized region of northern Morocco. He lives with an Israeli friend in Casablanca, he says, proudly emphasizing his Amazigh heritage. He says, “We, the Jews and the Amazigh, are the original Moroccans; the Arabs came later.”
The first Jews arrived in Morocco after the destruction of the Jewish Temple in ancient times and mixed with the native Amazigh. Following the Reconquista, the recapture of the Iberian Peninsula by Christian kingdoms from the Moors in the late 15th century, many Jews from Spain sought refuge from persecution in Morocco. King Mohammed V, who ruled the country at the time, protected the country’s Jewish minority during World War II, after the Vichy regime imposed anti-Semitic laws. He treated the Jews as his subjects and opposed their extradition from Morocco.
But over the years, relations between different communities have not always been conflict-free. There have been attacks on Jews, including genocide in the 1940s and terrorist attacks by suicide bombers on Western and Jewish institutions in Casablanca in 2003 – however, a form of co-existence has developed.
Israeli tourists are staying away
The Jewish community in Morocco has been in turmoil since October 7, 2023, the day of the attack by the militant group Hamas, which the US, the EU and others consider a terrorist organization, and Israel’s war in Gaza. Israeli tourists are now staying away.
Direct flights between the two countries, which were in operation since the signing of the Abraham Accords and the establishment of official diplomatic relations in 2022, have been canceled again. Since the normalization agreements, Morocco has been popular among Israeli tourists. About 200,000 people visit the country per year.
Today, the Jewish community is divided between its Moroccan homeland and its Jewish identity. To date there have been no documented attacks on Jewish civilians, but someone did spray paint “Death to the Jews” on the wall of a kosher restaurant in Casablanca.
Some Jews are afraid, while others insist that Jews live more safely in Morocco than in Europe.
Many people like to remain silent.
“I’m not saying anything,” says the saleswoman at a specialty delicatessen in Casablanca, which sells kosher wine, snacks and fish products.
But there are also some Jewish voices that are strongly pro-Palestinian.
Fear, silence and activism
Sion Assidon, 77, a well-known Moroccan left-wing activist, founder of the organization Transparency Maroc and a decades-long advocate for civil rights, organized a protest in the port of Tangier against the delivery of aircraft parts to the Israeli military.
In August, Acidon suffered a head injury under unknown circumstances. He remained in a coma for several months and died in early November. At his funeral in the Jewish cemetery in Casablanca, Palestinian flags were carried next to the coffin bearing Hebrew letters.
Ahmed Benchemsi of Human Rights Watch wrote on Twitter that something like this “only happens in Morocco.”
Even before October 7, broad sections of the population were skeptical about normalizing relations with Israel. During demonstrations against the Gaza War and nationwide youth protests called Gen Z 212 in late September, voices were heard calling for an end to normalization of relations with Israel.
An agreement to secure Western Sahara
However, King Mohammed VI is sticking to the Abraham Accords, which stipulate economic and in some cases military cooperation between the two countries. This is not because the Moroccan government has received a significant political concession in exchange for cooperation with Israel: the Donald Trump administration in the US has recognized Morocco’s claims to Western Sahara.
“I’m not afraid of demonstrations against Israel,” Kobi Yafra, founder of the Kulna Initiative, which works to preserve Jewish heritage in Morocco, told DW.
Yafra was born in Dimona, Israel, and moved several years ago to Marrakesh, where he now lives.
“The Moroccans don’t see us as 100% Israeli,” he says. “They see us as Moroccan Jews.”
Nevertheless, Moroccan Jews find themselves in a difficult political environment.
Historian Jamal Amiyar says, “Most Moroccans today do not agree that Rabat has the same relations with Israel as it had before October 7.” “This is not a crack, but a real chasm.”
But there are more optimistic voices.
“There is real coexistence between Muslims and Jews in Morocco,” Jackie Kadoch, a spokesman for Morocco’s Jewish community, told the Africanews website. “It will also survive this crisis.”
This article was originally written in German.