Moroccan Research of Its Jewish Community

Jewish Thought in Arab Societies, 1880-1960

May 26-28, 2014, The Chaim Herzog Center, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Blad ma-fihash Yahud […] -

Moroccan Research of its Jewish Community

Orit Ouaknine-Yekutieli

The point of departure of my paper is the introductory note for this workshop which indicates a recent rise in the research of Middle Eastern Jews. The workshop's organizers suggest that this rise is a "result of regional changes on the one hand, and the growing interest in the history of the Jews of the Middle East on the other", and that "[…] it is possible to state with confidence that after many decades of relative neglect, the history of the Jews in the modern Middle East has become a significant topic, and a relevant one, more than ever before."

In line with these observations I shall discuss Moroccan academic research of

Moroccan Jewry, evaluate its dynamics, and ask whether the workshop's opening statement applies to Morocco as well.

This paper follows a chronological order and links historiography with political, academic, and discursive changes. Its aim is to study the role which the study of the Jews fulfills in modern Moroccan intellectual history and in popular discourses. On this basis I will propose that "Our Jews", their research, discussion, memory and re-invention form a vital part of Moroccan identity, even today after the massive emigration of the local Jewish community. I put forward the idea that a

1 growing academic preoccupation with a social void is a part of the formation of social identities encompassing and relating to that void.

Although the paper focuses on intellectual production in post-colonial Morocco,

I shall very briefly mention the colonial era, bearing in mind that Moroccan descriptions of its local Jewry occur much earlier (at least from the 11th century onwards).1 The importance of all these early texts for our study is central as the ethos, Pastness, and makeup in which today's ideas and concepts are rooted are there. However due to time and space restrictions of this paper I shall develop these aspects elsewhere.

During the colonial era the French boosted ethnographic research and created a huge "database" of Moroccan society. This data was put into active use in the structuring of the colonial state, and to a certain degree it continues to be a part of post-colonial Moroccan practices and historiography. In regard to Moroccan Jewry the French ethnographic corpus created a mélange of facts, interpretations and stereotypes. The reports and texts about the Jews were ambivalent – sometimes considering them as an integral part of Moroccan society, and sometimes (in line with the French Divide-and-Rule policy) presenting local Jewry as different, for example, in its ability to absorb modernity and act as its agent.2

Post-colonial historiographies were not able to ignore this earlier and significant database; whether accepting its conceptualizations or rejecting them, it continued to

1 For example references to Jews appear in the 11th century Description of North Africa of the Andalusian scholar Abu-Ubeid al-Bakri. Some later examples are a 17th century volume about – Muslims of Jewish origin, as well as various texts written by Moroccan Jews, and rich – البلديون collections of 19th century travelers' literature. 2 The French Protectorate administration created a kind of a quasi-academic status – the "researcher- administrator", in which some of the most renowned French ethnologists of the Maghreb – like Roger Le-Tourneau, Marcel Vicaire, and Jacques Berque – matured. In addition to them a large number of less known civil-administrators wrote numerous researches and Memoires as part of their training process, and gathered a huge and detailed body of ethnographic information.

2 instill post-colonial texts – not as a direct copying but as a methodical framework and a most accessible resource of ideas and information.

After a persistent struggle Morocco gained its independence in 1956. The country's first years witnessed a fierce competition for power between the Royal

Court and the political parties. In parallel with this turmoil, and in connection with other factors, the mass emigration of Moroccan Jews had taken place. In a matter of

17 years (1948 – 1965) a quarter of a million Jews left Morocco. In 1965 only 10% of the once vibrant local Jewish community remained in its homeland. Those still in

Morocco today are no more than 2% of their original number.

Hence, since 1965 Moroccan Jewry, by and large, has become a memory. Its departure left a void in Moroccan society, which is accompanied by feelings of loss, shock, insult, and by many unanswered questions.3 The sudden disappearance of a basic constituent of society plays a major role in the Moroccan experience of modernity, which as elsewhere, involves an aspect of loss. The departure of the

Jewish community became an illustration for the devastating effects of modernity.

Hence, academic research became one of the arenas where these feelings and memories are investigated and reenacted.

***

Moroccan historiography during the first years of independence had intensively dealt with the decolonization of historical research. It interrogated national identity, and searched for unifying factors instead of focusing on particular groups within Moroccan society (as often done by the colonialists). Under this discourse of nationalist unity not many specific researches were produced about the

3 As Jamaa Baïdâ – historian at Mohamed V University in Rabat, and the current director of the Moroccan National Archives – said: "the uprooting of the Jews is like a painful wound in Moroccan national history" (Baïdâ, pers. Comm).

3 Jews. This is apparent for example in the 1950s-60s volumes of Hesperis Tamuda, the journal regarded as the showcase of modern Moroccan research in the

Humanities. The periodical's editing policy following independence pushed aside divisive subjects. Also when Germain Ayache, himself a Moroccan Jew, served as the editor of the journal from 1963 until he died in 1990 it published almost no articles dealing with Moroccan Jewry.4

A noticeable change in Jewish Studies in Moroccan academia occurred in the

1970s. This might have been connected with the spread, in those years, of the

Annales theoretical approach that focuses on socio-economic questions. Regional dissertations produced at that time demonstrated the socio-economic importance of the local Jewish component for understanding Moroccan society as a comprehensive system.

Many foreign researchers worked side by side with Moroccan historians in

Morocco in the 1970s. These included former colonial Frenchmen like Jacques

Berque and Paul Pascon who now turned left-wing and severely criticized colonialism, as well as American anthropologists: David Hart, Clifford and Hildred

Geertz, Laurence Rosen, Ernest Gellner, Kenneth Brown and Dale Eickelman. All of these created a body of anthropological research which has given an additional theoretical thrust to investigations of the local social history, and added observations

4 Germain Ayache (1915-1990) was among the founders and activists of the Moroccan Communist Party. In the Protectorate period he taught in "Lyautey High school" in Casablanca. As a Jew he was fired from his job during the Vichy era. After the Second World War he was expelled by the French because of his Communist activity and returned to Morocco only with independence. He joined the department of History in the University of Rabat in 1960, where he was a faculty member until he died. Baïdâ (pers. Comm) notes that another indication for the scarceness of research about Moroccan Jews in the first decade after independence is the fact that in the 1967 "textbook" of Moroccan history – Histoire du Maroc – written by leading Moroccan and French historians of the 1960s (Brignon, Boutaleb, and more), the part dedicated for Moroccan Jewry is minimal.

4 presenting Moroccan Jewry as an integral constituent of Moroccan society

(especially the works on Sefrou).

Simultaneous with this historiographic turn, political tensions continued to rise in the kingdom and reached a climax in the beginning of the 1970s with two failed coup attempts against Hassan II. In the ensuing state building process orchestrated by the victorious Royal Court the Moroccan nation was portrayed as an eternal complex made of various, different yet complementing, ingredients – including a Jewish one – an ethos which exists in all levels of Moroccan society up to date.

As part of the Kingdom's restructuring, Moroccan higher education system witnessed a major reform resulting in the establishment of numerous Humanities faculties throughout the country. This, coinciding with the methodological and theoretical developments, encouraged further researches that emphasized the complex and multi-faceted history of Morocco. Accordingly studies of the local

Jewish history rose in number and expanded in scope.5 Noteworthy, the previous place held by Moroccan Jewish researchers within this discipline – scholars like

Carlos de-Nesry, Abraham (Andre) Zagouri, Eli Malca, and Haim Zaafrani – had declined, while since the 1970s Muslim Moroccan researchers have taken the lead.6

5 A survey of academic writing in Morocco about its Jewish community from independence to nowadays reveals that until the end of the 1970s the number of publications on the subject was relatively low – with one or two publications per year. Also the themes of these publications were limited in comparison to what happened later. By then they included matters of law, linguistics, social-life, inter-religion relationships, and data about Anadalusian and Amazigh Jews, immigration and demography. 6 The rise in numbers of Moroccan publications on the local Jewry since the 1980s reflects broader processes involving disciplinary changes in historical research, the decentralization of the Moroccan academic system followed by the creation of many Humanities faculties, and the stabilization of the governmental system. Further legitimization for dealing with Jews might have been connected with the signing of peace treaties between Israel and some Arab countries – a process in which Morocco took part. Noteworthy, this led to increasing numbers of Israelis visiting in Morocco from the 1980s

5 Prominent among those, in that period, was Ahmed Shahlan, whose first published essays dealt with Medieval Hebrew literature, and with the Alliance schools in

Morocco in the 19th century.

Ahmed Sahahlan is an extremely prolific writer of Jewish Studies, who is currently a professor emeritus of Hebrew at Rabat Mohamed V University. Although retired recently, he continues to lecture, write and publish and is considered a leading expert of Jewish Moroccan and Andalusian heritage, and of local Hebrew dialects. In interviews conducted with him in the last few years he declared that he is very proud of the Moroccan Jews – whom he sees as "Moroccans of the Jewish faith" and not as a separate ethnic community. In his opinion Moroccan Jewry is the most "authentic" among all Jewish groups because it preserved its religion, language and traditions uninterruptedly from the first temple period. He is convinced that

Oriental Jews in general and Moroccan Jews in particular, are the original Jews, and not Ashkenazi Jewry which he believes originated in the Kazars' conversion during the 8th century. Ahmed Shahlan rejects Zionist scholars' alleged precedence in the field of Jewish Studies, and is critical of Zionist attitude towards the Palestinians.7 His perspective, which is common among Moroccan academia, combines nostalgia for the local Jewry as part of Moroccan society, with an emphasis on the difference between Judaism and Zionism. The latter stand both originates and enables a parallel commitment to Jewish Studies and to the Palestinian cause, issues which in some contexts may seem contradictory.

During the 1990s research in Morocco about its Jewish community obtained another dimension due to the growing (direct or indirect) influence of postcolonial

onwards. The interest of many of them in their roots increased awareness in Morocco for dealing with the heritage of its Jewry. 7 http://www.diwanalarab.com/spip.php?article27976

6 theory in the humanities and the social sciences. A growing number of studies dealing with previously voiceless groups like women or slaves were published (e.g. works by Fatima Merinissi, Zakia Daoud, Mohamed Ennaji), side by side with a growing academic awareness of the Dhimmi aspects of the local Jewish community

(E.g. Mohamed Kenbib).

Incidentally or not the growing academic interest in the voiceless during the

1990s coincided with broader political occurrences in Morocco. One of these was the intensification of the human rights discourse noticeable in the effective demands to release political prisoners.8 Concurrently, the Algerian civil-war broke out, which on the one hand portrayed its Maghrebi neighbor, Morocco, as a counter-image of a calm, alternative Islamic space, but on the other hand articulated the potential hazards of extreme Islamism. In the face of growing religious extremism, the openness to Jewish Studies offered a pluralistic moderating effect.

Within this atmosphere the academic research of Moroccan Jewry expanded.

Indeed the first publications of another very productive writer on the subject – Abd

came out in 1992. Shahabar is a professor of (عبد العزيز شهبر) el-Aziz Shahabar religion and culture in Abd Al-Malik As-Saadi university of Tetouan. He speaks

Hebrew, and translates ancient Hebrew and Aramaic texts to Arabic.

Shahabar's first Jewish Studies paper appeared in the proceedings of a seminar arranged by the history research group of his University. This represents a new feature of Jewish Studies emerging in the 1990s – organization of academic conferences which included sessions about the local Jewish heritage. One after the

8 From 1991 onwards many political prisoners were released – among them the survivors of the failed coup against Hassan II who have not died in jail, as well as the Jewish left-wing activist Abraham Serfaty who was previously arrested due to his support of Saharawi independence.

7 other such conferences took place in the Humanities' faculties of Casablanca,

Tanger, Tetouan, Mohammadia, Rabat, Oujda and Agadir.9

As part of the increasing treatment of the Jewish topic,10 dissertations that specifically deal with Moroccan Jewry became more conventional. Among them was

Simo Levy's thesis dealing with the Jewish-Arab Moroccan dialect. Simo Levy, a

Jewish activist in the Moroccan Communist Party, consequently became a researcher in Rabat University, and the curator of the Jewish Culture Museum in

Casablanca. Concurrently with him Mohamed Kenbib also submitted his PhD thesis titled Muslims and Jews in Morocco.11

The growth of the discipline in the 1990s was augmented by the establishment of three significant bodies which further accelerated the research of Moroccan

Jewry:

1. Le Centre de Recherche sur le Judaïsme Marocain. French based association

established by Robert Assaraf, a Moroccan-Jewish businessman and

researcher who served in the past as King Hassan II's counselor on Israeli

9 A 1989 conference dealing with "Community and State in Moroccan History" in the Arts and Humanities faculty in Casablanca; A seminar of the first Scientific Forum of the Humanities in Tanger, 1990; A symposium about "Moroccan and Andalusian History" in the University of Tetouan, 1992; A conference dealing with "Andalusian Civilization through Time and Space" at Mohammedia University, 1992; A 1994 conference in the Arts and Humanities faculty of Rabat University; 1995 conferences in Oujda, Agadir and more. 10 In these years the spectrum of Jewish researches broadened. Publications from this time onward deals with such diverse subjects as: Architecture, Poetry, Music, Literature, Language, Jewish Andalusian heritage, Education, Health, Acculturation, Travels and travelers, Journalism, Religious relations, Coexistence, Al-Biladiyyun, Jewish History, Religious debates and Inquisition, Colonization, Social life, Law, Social tensions, Economic and commercial activity, Emigration and demography, Amazigh Jews, Jews in the national movement, Jews and the court and Collective identity. 11 Another prominent Jewish Studies researcher – Mohamed Elmedlaoui – had also started publishing in those years and is very active ever-since.

8 issues. The center organizes and funds researches and conferences in France

and Morocco.12

2. Le Groupe de Recherche et d’Etudes sur le Judaïsme Marocain – located in

the faculty of Arts and Humanities in Rabat Mohamed V University.13

3. The Museum for Jewish Culture in Casablanca.14

In the first decade of the 2000s the Groupe de Recherche of Rabat University was very active.15 Beyond organizing workshops on local Jewish topics, which were often funded by the French Centre de Recherche,16 it also published new editions of

12 Robert Assaraf, the founder, was born in 1936 in Rabat. He is a Moroccan-Jewish business-man and researcher, who had published in recent years a few volumes about the History of Moroccan Jewry. Assaraf served in the past as King Hassan II's counselor on Israel issue, and functioned in other high ranking positions in the Kingdom. He was awarded the Ouissam Allawi – the Moroccan Kingdom high Decoration for his services. In addition to establishing the Le Centre de Recherche sur le Judaïsme Marocain, Assaraf was one of the founders of the World Union of Moroccan Jews in 1999, under the auspices of Hassan II, and as a businessman he donated a chair to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. 13 This was an initiative of a small group of Moroccan researchers headed by Jamaa Baïdâ, today the director of the Moroccan National Archives. The goal of the research group as phrased by its founders is: "to evaluate and research the cultural, historic and linguistic diversity of Morocco and to conduct researches about Moroccan Jewry as a vital component of the Moroccan heritage which did not receive the full and appropriate attention within the national academic research". 14 The museum was founded by Simo Levy who served as its curator until his death. 15 In 2000 this group arranged its first study workshop, reserved for Moroccan researchers only, dealing with the subject of "the Jews of Fes". A year later a second workshop dealing with "Dhimmi cult places and public buildings in the land of Islam", took place and this was followed by others. Simultaneously the American Institute in Tanger conducted (in 2004) an international conference titled "New thoughts about Jewish Culture and Society in North Africa". This conference was attended mostly by foreigners (including Israeli researchers – Yaron Tsur and André Levy), but a few Moroccan scholars participated as well. Another initiative planned by the Groupe de Recherche is a database of Moroccan Jewry (Base de données sur le Judaismne Marocain – BDJM). The founders hope that this database will be linked with various other projects of the group and that it will boost the research of Moroccan Jewry, This project has not started yet and it looks for a home institution. The options which were proposed are Mohamed V Rabat-Agdal University, and the National Moroccan Library (BNRM). 16 The establishment of these bodies was followed by the coordination, in first time, of conferences which by definition focused solely on the local Jewish community. The first conference of the CRJM

9 old texts relevant to Jewish heritage with up to date commentaries by the group's researchers.17

The contacts between the Moroccan Groupe de Recherche and the French-

Jewish Centre de Recherche are of special interest. The link between the two indeed opened up funding opportunities for academic activity in Morocco. But, not less important, the special connection of Robert Assaraf to the Royal Court – a status once called in a derogatory way by Jewish members of the Moroccan Communist

Party "a Court Jew"– allows a direct link to the Court through the research of the

Jewish topic. As such, Jewish Studies in Moroccan academia gained a status of a

"court approved" discipline.

The growing recognition of the place and uniqueness of the local Jewish community was no doubt linked with yet another major process, which picked up speed in the 1990s – the acknowledgement of the Amazigh (Berber) place in

Moroccan culture. Since independence Moroccan administration tried to undermine

Amazigh identity which was previously bolstered by the French during the colonial era. The tendency to forbid Amazigh separatism was strong throughout the reign of

Hassan II, but after his death in 1999 the policy had changed.

was held in parallel sessions in Marakech and Paris in 1995, bearing the title "The relationships between Jews and Muslims in Morocco". The topic of the Marrakech session was "Andalusian music as a common heritage of Jews and Muslims". Two years later another conference was held in Tanger focusing on the local Jewish community. 17 In addition to the books published by the Centre de Recherche many other volumes were issued in those years by other publishers. These included original research on a growing number of subjects, side by side with translations of textbooks into Arabic for the benefit of the growing body of local researchers and students of the Jewish topic. For example in this occasion Haim Zafrani's volume The Jews of Andalusia and the Maghreb was translated to Arabic by Ahmed Shahalan (Zafrani, Haim, 2000,Yahud al Andalus wa al Maghrib, 2 vol. Marsam, Morocco. By the way this book was translated to Hebrew in 1986). Another and a bit later translation to Arabic is: Malka, Elie, 2003, Al-'Awa'id Al- 'Atiqa Al-Yahudiya bi Al-Maghrib. Morocco: Al-Multaqa.

10 A few months after the coronation of Hassan II's heir, Mohamed VI, the so-called

"Berber Manifesto" was published, signed by hundreds of university lecturers, writers, poets, artists and industrialists. The manifesto surveys the history of Arab-

Amazigh relations in Morocco, and raises a series of demands. It stresses Amazigh loyalty to Moroccan nationalism and to Islamic belief. Amazigh-ness according to the manifesto is mainly expressed through language and culture, and therefore its main demands were in these realms. The institutional response – like in many other events – was cooptation.18 In 2001 the Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture was founded in Rabat, and in the following years Amazigh radio channels and educational programs were opened in several elementary and higher education institutions.19 Thus the turn of the millennium signaled a growing recognition of

Moroccan cultural and linguistic plurality, which further cleared the stage for legitimizing the historic role of the Jews in the Kingdom.

Another factor which had directed further attention to Moroccan Jewish history in the beginning of the 2000s was the terror attacks – 9/11 in the US where

Moroccan terrorists also took part and that of March 2003 in Casablanca, partly aimed at Jewish targets.20 The uncompromising institutional Moroccan struggle against terror which ensued, as well as calls from American and European governments for Democratization in Arab countries including Morocco, further

18 The passing of the throne from Hassan II to his son Mohamed VI was followed by additional policy changes. For example, a short time after Mohamed VI ascended the throne various political exiles were allowed to return to Morocco (E.g. Abraham Serfaty, and the family of Ben-Barka – the historical opponent of Hassan II). In parallel, the new king led the Mudawana reform which reformulates the "personal status law" that deals in a large degree with women's rights. 19 Since 2010 there is also an Amzigh TV channel. 20 The attacks were carried out by four car bombs. One exploded near a Jewish school and the Alliance center; a second next to a Spanish cultural center in Jewish ownership; third near the Belgian consulate and fourth near Hotel Sapir-Farah which is known as a place frequented by Jewish tourists.

11 supported the legitimacy of Jewish Studies. Multi-culturalism – both as discourse and policy – was hailed as a Moroccan national theme. Since radical Islamism posed a growing threat to the Royal Court, inclusion of all "positive" groups, including those considered lightly-critical like moderate Islamic parties, became justified.

In this context it is worth mentioning a conversation I heard during my fieldwork at that time on a Moroccan radio program featuring the teachings of a

"moderate" Islamic leader. One listener's question concerned the practice of pilgrimage to a certain holy tomb, that of Sidi bu Sgharin, about whom there are rumors that he was a Jew. The leader answered straight away – "who knows, perhaps you are a Jew as well – in Morocco you can never know [we are mixed]".

The terror attack in Casablanca truly shocked many Moroccans, including those in the academia. For example Abd el-Aziz Shahabar writes in the introduction to his recent translation to Arabic of Carlos de-Nesry's book The Jews of Morocco in a time of Choice,21 that the shock of the Casablanca attack, which disrupted Moroccan historical coexistence, triggered his work.

The expanding academic activity in Jewish Studies22 together with the growing cultural openness had another effect in Morocco in general, and within

Amazigh associations in particular. In the last 5-6 years a few bodies have been founded in the semi-academic sphere, which emphasize the Jewish-Amazigh fraternity to be much older than the Arab-Amazigh one. These include for instance

21 اإلسرائيليون المغاربة ساعة االختيار 22 For example a conference held in 2010 in Essaouira under the title "Migrations, Identity and Modernity in the Maghreb", with a stated goal of: "seeing the history of Jewish migrations in the Maghreb from the 16th century onwards within the wider context of migratory movements that have characterized this region along the history". Simultaneously some new bodies were established such as the Association Permanences du Judaïsme Marocain (APJM). This association operates from Paris by Arik Delouya and supports researches and conferences about Moroccan Jewish Heritage. For example it organized a 2008 conference in Marrakesh titled: "Résistance et persistance du Judaïsme marocain: mémoire brisée et en éveil, mémoire retrouvée".

12 L'Association Amazigh Arraw N'Ghriss Goulmima – which among its many declared goals supports the study of Jewish-Berber culture in Southern Morocco. Even more interesting is the Afrati Association for Friendship and Coexistence.23 This association claims that "Afrati" is the name of an ancient Jewish kingdom established by an alleged Jewish king, Efraim, who fled to Morocco after the destruction of the first temple. The goal of the association, located in Ifrane of the Anti-Atlas, is to:

"promote the Moroccan cultural heritage in its Berber, Jewish, African

and Arab [in this order] dimensions; to promote a culture of coexistence and

to reject violence, sectarianism, intolerance; to give the Amazigh and Hebrew

languages their proper place in the state and its institutions so that Morocco

will be a home for all, and a country of coexistence, and to promote links

with Jewish institutions within and outside of Morocco."

In an interview, the founder of the group – a young and energetic person by the name of Mohamed Amnun who describes himself as holding a "BA in the history of Jews in Southern Morocco" – says that the trigger for the establishment of the association was a survey read by him and his friends which stated that 60% of

Moroccan Jews in Israel want to return to Morocco.24

A recent fieldwork in that specific region of the Anti-Atlas (in the city of

Tiznit and the villages of Ifrane and Taghjijt) showed an increasing momentum of local heritage preservation. This entrepreneurial thrust includes hot quasi-academic debates between local history and archaeology graduate students connected with the main Universities of Morocco, local and international conservation specialists and regional councils, and deal with origins, rights, founding-myths and memories, and

23جمعية أفراتي للصداقة والتعايش إيمان بلحاج, 7002, جمعية مغربية تدعو للصداقة والتعايش 24 http://magharebia.com/ar/articles/awi/reportage/2007/09/10/reportage-01?change_locale=true

13 the ways these can be used for various purposes – either commercial, touristic, governmental or regional control. In all of these "the Jews" hold a major place as former residents of the now collapsing local Mellahs, and as vital constituents of the past local landscape, economy and lifestyles. Hence, even in their absence the Jews still form a defining element of the local identity.

We should, of course, bear in mind that the picture is more complex. Despite the fact that blogs attached to Afrati's web-pages show a large number of supporters, there are an equally large number of those who disagree with it. The critique, deriving mainly from Amazigh-Palestinian friendship associations, claim that Afrati has connections with André Azoulay, the Jewish counselor of the king; that the Zionists fund it; and that even Bruce Maddy-Weitzmann from the Moshe

Dayan Center in Tel-Aviv University revealed that there is an Israeli conspiracy to encourage separationist Amazigh bodies as foci of support for Israel in Morocco.25

Getting to the last few years it is should be noted that in addition to

conferences, associations, and publications, new dissertations dealing with

أوباري, عبداهلل, 7007, التطبيع مع الصهاينة بنكهة إثنية 25 http://www.alislah.ma/component/k2/item/22810- %D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%B7%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%B9-%D9%85%D8%B9- %D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%8A%D9%86%D8%A9- %D8%A8%D9%86%D9%83%D9%87%D8%A9-%D8%A5%D8%AB%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9.html

Noteworthy in the same contexts are the reactions to Kemal Haskar's film From Tingherir to Jerusalem (which by the way was screened in the Herzog center about a year ago, with Hashkar as a honorary guest). This film presents former Jewish-Berber contacts in Southern Morocco nostalgically, from the vantage point of a second generation Moroccan-Muslim emigrant whose family had left to France. From Tingherir to Jerusalem is not the only movie appearing lately as a Moroccan-foreign coproduction which deals with Jewish-Muslim relationships in Morocco. At the same time also "fine machi ya moshe?" (2007), which depicts other aspects of the Moroccan Jewish emigration was released by a Canadian-Moroccan co-production. See also: Kosansky, Oren and Boum, Aomar (2012), The "Jewish Question" in Postcolonial Moroccan Cinema. International Journal of Middle East Studies 44: 421–442.

14 Moroccan Jewry are constantly being written in Morocco.26 Among these a large number has a regional focus27 while others deal critically with the role the Zionist movement played in the emigration of Moroccan Jews. For instance Mohamed

Hatimi,28 who submitted his dissertation at the Fes Sais University in 2006, asserts that: "the Zionist organizations had created polarizing mechanisms between the Jews and their environment in order to expel the largest possible number of Jews towards

Israel". Al-Hajj Mohamed al-Nasik who submitted his research to Oujda University in 2013,29 claims that the Jewish culture in Morocco was never separate from the

Moroccan culture. In his opinion the ideas of a "Jewish people" and of "Jewish ingenuity" are, at least in the Moroccan case, legends invented by the Zionist movement in order to displace the local Jewish community from its homeland.

Interestingly the criticism regarding those who left occurs simultaneously with an unprecedented honor given to some Jewish Moroccan intellectuals who stayed and have passed away in the last 2-3 years – Abraham Serfaty, Simo Levy, and Edmond Amran el-Maleh.30 The three of them are currently portrayed as iconic

26 Hassan Halaf writes in Marrakesh and Paris 8 Universities about "The Material Culture of the Demnat Jews"; Nadia Ziani deals with "Resistance and Continuity of Jewish Moroccan Memory", and Abdallah Taifi writes about "The History and Memory of Demnat Jews: Traces of a Disappearing Community" – the last two theses were instructed by the late Richard Ayun of Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), Paris. Hassan Majidi deals with "Holy Saints and Pilgrimages of Moroccan Jewry", and Aomar Boam submitted in 2006 a PhD thesis titled: "Muslims Remember Jews in Southern Morocco: Social Memories, Dialogic Narratives, and the Collective Imagination of Jewishness". 27 Such as specific texts about the Jewish communities of Essaouira/Mogador; Demnat; Agadir; Tmanar Valley; the Sous; Cueta and more. محمد حاتمي 28 الحاج محمد الناسك 29 أوشن, عمر 7000 سيمون ليفي: قطب المتحف اليهودي. لكم 30 https://www.lakome.com/%D8%B1%D8%A3%D9%8A/49-%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A8- %D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A3%D9%8A/10595-2011-12-05.html, Keil-Sagawe, Regina (2011), A Moroccan Jew with Arabo-Berber Roots. Morocco World News, http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2011/10/11568/a-moroccan-jew-with-arabo-berber-roots/

15 Moroccan patriots of the Jewish faith, and their former Communist agendas are granted a complete forgiveness. This atmosphere probably reflects as well a certain critique towards the sectarian patriotism of the extreme Islamic school.

The last and most recent development which affected the state of Jewish

Studies in Morocco is connected with the so-called Arab Spring. After short-lived riots in Morocco in 2011, the Court devised a new constitution which makes some moves towards a broader democratization in Morocco. As part of these, the new constitution states that the national Moroccan unity is forged by the convergence of

Arab-Islamic, Amazigh and Saharan-Hassani components and enriched by "African,

Andalusian, Mediterranean and Hebrew" heritage.31 This seemingly minor addition apparently made a significant change as it formally secured the commitment to the local Jewish community in the highest ranking public document – the National

Constitution.

The addition had an immediate effect by prompting instant calls for a formal addition of Hebrew language studies to the syllabi of certain university departments.

The last call in this manner was a petition signed by the participants of a conference titled: "The Hebrew component in Andalusian Culture" held in Fes just a few months ago.32

To sum up, the current state of Jewish Studies in Morocco confirms our workshop organizers' note with which I began my paper – The research of

Moroccan Jewry in Morocco is now at its peak. This academic state of affairs is

Naba, René (2010), Hommage à Edmond Amran El Maleh, et Abraham Sarfati, l’honneur du judaïsme marocain. http://nawaat.org/portail/2010/11/19/hommage-a-edmond-amran-el-maleh-et- abraham-sarfati-lhonneur-du-judaisme-marocain/ 31 La Constitution (2011), Bulletin Officiel, No 5964 bis – 28 chaabane 1432 (30-7-2011), Pp. 1902-1928. 32 http://www.quid.ma/societe/quel-contenu-pour-le-concept-affluent-hebraique-est-ce-que- luniversite-suit/

16 eloquently expressed in a popular saying once conveyed to me in Fes: Blad ma- fihash Yahud ma-fihash Ta'arikh - "A country without Jews does not have a history".

The intensive and continuous preoccupation with Jewish history in both academic and popular Moroccan discourses suggests that the collective memory and reenactment of Moroccan Jewry are in effect a constitutive element of Moroccan- ness.

As suggested above the increase in Jewish Studies in Morocco relates to many interacting factors: An ethos of ethnic pluralism; Academic discourse which emphasizes multi-culturalism; Political climate of inclusion and cooptation of once decentered groups; A special connection between the Court and the Jews which changed from a former patronage of a living community to a sponsorship of researching its memory; and a connection with Jewish bodies beyond Morocco, mainly in France and America, expressed through funding and by the creation of academic networks linking Moroccan, Western and a few Israeli researchers.

These actions include various tensions and challenges. For example, anti-royalist groups and other critical organizations see in the court-supported research of local

Jewry no more than a way of keeping informal links with Israel. Interestingly, despite this criticism the court continues to support this academic topic, and thus proves its ability to legitimate actions which are out of favor for some parts of society. This is a part of an even broader context in which the relationships between the Court and its subjects represent a constant bargaining. The court's actions are complex: it reacts according to the moods in society, and it creates them at the same time. Within this bargaining the Jews are portrayed as a symbol of an idyllic past and as an important topos in the creation of a tolerant and pluralistic image of modern Morocco and Morocan-ness.

17 Another point relates to us here in Israel. A natural tendency, or a wishful thinking of many of us, is to comprehend any treatment of Moroccan Jewry in

Morocco as a sign of recognition of Israel as the representative of the Jewish world, or the acceptance of Israeli researchers as having a special accessibility to Jewish knowledge. However, the theme of Moroccan research is that Moroccan Jewry, its memory and its research, which builds on local history, texts and archives, is

Moroccan; thus it does not have any connection with Israel and it exists despite

Israel.

This does not mean that there is no awareness of Israeli academic work about

Morocco and it Jews, or that people do not know that many visiting Jews are Israeli or connected with Israel. However this existing link is diverted to less sensitive domains such as doing business, visiting holy tombs, or doing the 11 day tour of

"Moroccan Imperial Cities" – tailored especially for Israeli tourists. In the academic realm, the fragile Moroccan-Israeli link focuses mainly on dealing with issues with a broad consensus. Recently one such topic is the Vichy period of which there is a mutual agreement about the positive role of the Moroccan Court in World War 2 as opposed to the negative role of the French. Noteworthy, and probably because of other reasons as well, the research of Moroccan Jewry during the Vichy period received a lot of academic attention in the last few years – in Morocco, in America and in Israel – with some new Israeli projects about this period done by Yaron Tzur,

Haim Saadon, and myself (lately in collaboration with Yaron Tzur) – to mention but a few.

Nevertheless, Moroccan Jewish Studies' scholars stress the existence of a local

Jewish community without a necessary link to the Zionist state. This might also explain the recent expanding knowledge sharing and cooperative academic

18 production between American and Moroccan academia on the Jewish topic. I refer for example to collaborative American – North African workshops organized by the

American Holocaust Museum; to an initiative by the same Museum of a massive copying of Jewish related documents from Moroccan archives; and to a new

American academic push of documenting and preserving the memory of Jewish

Moroccan communities, as well as their "standing memories" in Morocco - synagogues, Mellahs, etc. This intensifying connection, which relates to various political agendas, channels funds from America to Morocco, and enables American involvement of all sorts under a banner of enhancing pluralism and opposing extremism.

Hence, for many, Moroccan Jewish history, has a considerable number of highly relevant meanings – it is a part of the build-up of modern Moroccan identity; it is a way of channeling political power; a symbol for pluralism; a network of communication, and more. However, in all these aspects Moroccan Jewish history is not a tribute to Zionism but an example for the existence of an alternative, well respected, non-Zionist Judaism.