Published: 15 March 2019
Last updated: 5 March 2024
“YOU ARE JEWISH? Ahlan wa’ sahalan [hello and welcome], Morocco was yours before it became ours,” says Sayid, an elderly Moroccan whom I happened to meet while walking around the city of Tetouan in northern Morocco.
“The Jews came to North Africa before Islam was born,” Sayid explains. “So Moroccan Jews are an inseparable part of the history of Morocco.”
It is hard to remain indifferent to the respect and appreciation — if not outright admiration — that Jews receive in the streets of Morocco these days. More than 10,000 Israelis visit the country each year and are warmly welcomed.
In the various markets you can find Judaica items. And the government, for its part, is careful to commemorate Jewish personalities and institutions related to the history of the place. To wit, Morocco is the only Muslim country in the world that maintains a museum dedicated solely to the Jewish community that used to thrive here in the past.
FULL STORY In Moroccan cannabis fields, illumination of Jewish role in country’s hash trade (Times of Israel)
Photo: Times of Israel
