I ventured to Tangier with few expectations; I had one contact there, my trusty brochure of the Moroccan Jewish Community and a reservation at a hotel across the street from the only functioning synagogue, in a city that used to be home to 27,000 Jews and 25 synagogues (many of which were located in the medina on “Rue des Synagogues”). However, I managed to knock on the right doors, meet the right people, have informative and fun conversations/interviews and ultimately, form relationships for the future.

The first door I “knocked on” was the office of the Jewish community in Tangier, which led to interviews with a few members of the community, a tour of the old synagogues on Rue de Synagogues, a kosher restaurant and a trip to the old age home in Tangier. The following is a summary of the information I obtained from some members of the Jewish community of Tangier. This city is a special case in Morocco because of its status as an international city until 1957. Prior to that year it was governed on a rotating basis by the US, France, Spain and Morocco, and as such, was truly an international city in its inhabitants, architecture and ambience. As the gateway to Europe from Africa, and the gateway to the Mediterranean from the Atlantic, Tangier has always been a diverse and bustling city of businessmen, merchants, traders etc. Like other cities, the Jewish community of Tangier consisted of both rich and poor Jews, but the wealthy ones held very important positions and status in the city for many years.

The first Jewish migration from Tangier began in 1955 because the wealthy Jews anticipated the 1957 status change in Tangier, particularly after Moroccan independence was finally achieved in 1956. Fearing mainly the economic instability that accompanies regime change, many of these Jews sold their businesses and/or property and moved to Spain, South America and Israel (signaling the prevalence of Spanish in Tangier and the Jewish desire to move to a place where assimilation would be most convenient and economic viability easily re-attained). The second migration from Tangier began with the end of the Six Day War in Israel in 1967. According to one source, mostly poorer Jews constituted this migration, which was triggered by both the fear of an anti-Jewish backlash resulting from the war and a surge of Zionistic feelings with the Israeli victory and occupation of Jerusalem.

Other accounts of the period contend that this anticipated fear was either unfounded or never actually came to fruition. One man told me a story that he said he would never forget: after listening to the radio all day on June 7, 1967, the day before Jerusalem was reoccupied, he took a walk near his home in the medina. He was attempting to not smile over the news of Israel’s pending success, as to not anger anyone in the street, when a Muslim man stopped him, and reading the emotion on his face, told him not to worry about smiling and to relax. In this scenario, it seems that the outcome of an Arab-Israeli conflict had little impact on the every day lives of the Muslims and Jews that have lived together in the same city for centuries. This story is corroborated by many others that reported that there were never any problems between Muslims and Jews historically and that there existed a “good, marvelous life for the Jews…especially during [the reign of] Mohammed V.” One other Jew from Tangier argues that it was after this point that life became harder for the Jews because of the erosion of the Moroccan education system. The diminishing number of Jews in the city led to a decrease in interpersonal relations among Jews and Muslims, which historically were so prevalent and integral to their amicable coexistence. This only further compounded the educational issues of that period because the Moroccan Muslims began formulating their opinions on Jews based on reports of the Arab-Israeli conflict, causing increasing misunderstanding and gaps between them and the degradation of the previously warm and even social relationships that existed historically in Tangier among the two communities.

This contention was separately confirmed to me by a Moroccan Muslim that was born and raised in Tangier, and currently works closely with the Jewish community (he was even my tour guide on Rue des Synagogues and accompanied me to the old age home!) He relayed to me that there were/are three “cultures” in Tangier that give it its character: Muslims, Jews and Catholics. He claimed that the historical relations between these communities were always amicable; particularly in his father’s time, the three groups lived and worked together, socialized together and there were never any problems. He argued that the problem now is that the younger generations of these communities do not personally know each other as well his father’s generation, which is the result of the diminishing level of interactions (both work-related and social) among the communities. On the other hand, he continued, a mutual respect still exists and the Jews living in Tangier today do not face any threats or problems. It seems that cultural differentiation resulted from the migration, rather than cultural differentiation or feelings of “not fitting in” or discomfort causing the migration.

Today, the community numbers less than 100, and with most of this population over the age of 60, faces disappearance in the near future. The major problems reported to me by members of the community were the small size of the community and what seemed to be personal or work-related disagreements within the community. Some people told me of the unwillingness of wealthier or more-connected members of the community to help others that are less fortunate and in need of help, while others told me of cattiness and infighting amongst members of the community. On the other hand, the 14 or 15 elderly Jews that live in the old age home are extremely grateful for the great care and comfortable accommodations they receive at the old age home in Tangier, courtesy of the community at large. My personal experience as an outsider entering a synagogue with barely a minyan on a Friday night was mixed; some members of the community embraced me while others were skeptical and uninterested in even welcoming me to their place of worship. As an outside observer with some knowledge of other Moroccan Jewish communities, it seems that aside for the pending disappearance of Jews in Tangier, the disunity of the community itself is perhaps its greatest obstacle.