Both times I visited Marrakesh, I had the same, inauspicious first impression; the beautiful aesthetics of the city were overshadowed by the aggressiveness and rudeness of its inhabitants. I do not even believe that my preconceived notions on Marrakesh, ascertained from other travelers and Moroccans alike who had visited, influenced these impressions. Marrakesh is Morocco’s top vacation/holiday destination, particularly from Europe, and attracts millions of tourists a year who seem to love the antiquity, hustle and bustle of the medina and the modern and Western aspects (read: nightclubs) of the Ville Nouvelle. The Moroccans, on the other hand, resent that this sharp increase in tourism has also caused a drastic rise in the cost of everything in Marrakesh, but acknowledge that it is a fun place to go for a few good nights out.

While I did not have the chance to sample the nightlife for myself, I was able to conduct my research. I obtained much of the information from the president of the Marrakesh Jewish Community, who also organized for me to live on the second floor of the 500 year old Synagogue Alzama, located in the mellah. From there, I had Shabbat dinner with another couple living in the synagogue, and Shabbat lunch with another family who is one of the last remaining Jewish families living in the mellah.

This synagogue was built in 1492 by the megorashim, or Jews that fled Spain after the Inquisition. When the megorashim first arrived, tensions existed between them and the native Jewish community, who looked like their Arab neighbors and had different religious and cultural practices. They built this synagogue in order to preserve the Spanish methods of Jewish observation, but over the years, the tensions alleviated as the communities began to integrate. After its construction, it also became a yeshiva or Talmud Torah and recruited religious men from many rural regions all over Morocco to come and study. The community supported these scholars; each family in the mellah would “adopt” a student and sponsor them during the course of their studies. The room that I stayed in for the weekend was actually a classroom a few centuries ago.

Before Israeli independence, Jewish life in Marrakesh was normal for about 500 years (after the Inquisition from Spain).  However, as religious Jews aware of the diaspora and the Promised Land, this community was always “wishing to go home.”  Around the time of independence about 60 years ago, the Jewish population of Marrakesh reached 27,000! But that began to decline with independence because the devout community came to the realization that the time had finally come to return home.

Even before Israeli independence, the Jewish Agency was working to build the new country of Israel, and after 1948, came to Morocco to help move Jews to Israel, relatively secretly.  Many of those that moved during this time did not understand politics and made their decisions based on the following information: there was a Jewish disaster in Europe, a land for Jews in Israel was created, and there was war with Muslim Arabs.  Although King Mohammed V, who had saved the Jews from the Hitler and Vichy regimes during World War II, did not want to see his Jewish population emigrate, he did not block the migration.  The numbers of Jews from Marrakesh that emigrated from Morocco increased with every major conflict in Israel because they represented opportunities for the Jewish Agency to come to Morocco and recruit new émigrés.  One other reason for the increase in migration was that despite the good relations between Arabs and Jews, the Jews always felt that this was not their own land.

The French house that stood where the Beth El Synagogue in the Ville Nouvelle stands today was bought by a Jewish man in 1959.  Before Moroccan independence in 1956, Jews were not permitted to live in the Ville Nouvelle, but afterward, they began to buy property and moved from the mellah into the new city.  Recognizing the need for a synagogue for the new Jewish inhabitants of the Ville Nouvelle, Beth El Synagogue was built and is still in use today.

Maybe because I was embedded in the religious sector of the current community in Marrakesh, I was most exposed to the “Zionist reason” for emigration. However, this may have some merit considering not only the existence of such a religious establishment for over 500 years, but also because the majority of tzadikim, or old, wise, sanctified Rabbis, came from the areas around Marrakesh and the Marrakshis have historically glorified these tsadikim with pride and religious fervor.

Currently, there are about 240 Jews living in Marrakesh, serviced by 3 synagogues (one in the Medina, one in the Mellah and one in the Ville Nouvelle), a kosher restaurant, a Rabbi, and a shochet.  Most of the Jews in Marrakesh are older, with only about 12 children under the age of 18 years old remaining.  In present-day Morocco, about 3000 Jews reside, 2000 of which in Casablanca and the other 1000 spread out amongst the other larger Moroccan cities.  The President of the community argued that it is good for Morocco to maintain its Jewish population because it shows the rest of the world that Jews can and do live well here.