The opposite spectrum of the obstacle of interviewing Muslims is the openness with which the Jews from Casablanca are willing to speak about their identity, their life in a Muslim country, and their long history here. Immediately, one can recognize a real sense of pride among Moroccan Jews; they remain proud of the plethora of Jewish scholars and tzadikim that have flourished in Morocco historically (over 600 of whom are buried and their tombs preserved until today), while also identifying as distinctly Moroccan Jewish, with the latter as the primary source of identity.

However, they recognize and emphasize that life here is not necessarily easy: always having to watch what they say or misstepping the truth around Muslims, and particularly, the extent to which the Jews of Morocco socialize almost exclusively within their own community (this is highly manifested in their personal identification- they are “Jewish Moroccans” and the Muslims are “Arabs”). The same man who told me that my “Arab” friend would probably say he loved Jews also told me it would be interesting for me to ask the following question to Jewish Moroccans (which is probably the most interesting and stimulating proposition for my research I have been presented, of yet): if you could have the same lifestyle as you have here, anywhere else in the world (ie. USA, Montreal, Israel), which would you choose? He hypothesized that the answer would be somewhere else, and a few have confirmed that as such. So for me the questions beg to be asked are when, how and why did the fissure occur between such a strong identity and the desire to leave the homeland that has nutured it for centuries? Hopefully, the answer will become clear…