Coming Soon
Interior, Rabat Synagogue
D’fina is expanding to include sites across Morocco with the renewed generosity of the Cahnman Foundation.
Within the coming months, this exhibit’s current offerings will be presented in more compelling ways and augmented with the addition of thousands of new and archival photographs, tens of hours of HD video tours, as well as more than a dozen three-dimensional architectural models and twoscore immersive panoramas for users to explore. The majority of this new content stems from our most recent research expedition to central and northern Morocco, during which more than 60 Jewish historic sites were documented in 11 days.
While the work of creating a new D’fina is ongoing, we present the following draft materials on 62 sites – including nearly 2,300 photographs, two 3-D models (embedded below via the Google Earth plug-in), 38 site summary excerpts, several videos, and a virtual tour of 26 panoramas — as an advance preview of what is to come.
We invite you to click on thumbnail images (where click-able) to see slideshows composed of additional photographs; clicking on underlined site titles launches panoramas.
Click here to take the panoramic sites tour in Google Earth.
Please check back or subscribe to our mailing list to receive updates.
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- Agadir Bouchahaima El Kehaina (Ait Amran) Cemetery
Jews have lived in Agadir, a seaport near the Sous River on the Atlantic coast, since the late Middle Ages as Jewish merchants settled there and conducted trade with Europe, particularly Amsterdam. In fact, the Dutch relied on Jewish merchants in Agadir for ostrich feathers, indigo, wax, gum arabic, and dates. Two pieces of marble and several mounds of rocks are the only remnants of the Jewish cemetery, which dates back to 1505 when the Portuguese fortified it. The abandoned scene reminds one of the Biblical phrase “from dust to dust” and evokes a singular sense of loss and nostalgia for the people who once thrived here. Agadir literally means fortified enclosure in Amazigh (Berber) language .
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With shards and tiles scattered on the beach, and weeds slowly beginning to overtake the site, it almost seems like this seaside cemetery is slowly disappearing into the ocean. Somewhat overgrown now, it remains an inspiring as when, in the late 1970s, Moroccan author Edmond Amran El Maleh-Safi visited. He credits the trip with sparking his first novel, Parcours Immobile.
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- Asjen Mellah
Though largely abandoned since its Jewish inhabitants departed in the mid-20th century, the ancient Mellah in this city shows signs of its former inhabitants.
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Located a few kilometers north of the spiritual center of Ouezzane and on the edge of the Bled es-Siba, or ungoverned area, Asjen’s sparse population and idyllic scenery provide a fitting setting for the unassuming and tranquil, yet deeply important shrine of Rabbi Amram Ben Diwan. Born in the early 18th century in Hebron, the rabbi traveled to the city of Ouezzane as an emissary from the Jewish community in Jerusalem. He proved to be a wise scholar and was noted for his miraculous healing powers, according to Issachar Ben-Ami’s Saint Veneration among the Jews of Morocco. The shrine itself has been claimed to provide cures. In one anecdote, Ben-Ami recounts how a Christian woman with fits of insanity was healed after spending one week near the shrine.
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Though small, the serene and sanguine cemetery near the Oum Errabiaa River speaks to a deep-rooted Jewish community in the city and the mark it left behind.
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This mesmerizing coastal city features an eclectic mix of architectural and cultural influences that come through most vividly in its architecture. From the Portuguese forts of the 16th century to the Arab buildings of Old Medina and the synagogue and cemetery of the Mellah as well as the ever-popular beaches, which host a number of surfers, this vibrant mix old and new forms the background of an important shrine to Morocco’s Jews, the shrine of Rabbi Abraham Moul-Niss.
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- Azemmour Mellah
The port town of Azemmour developed a vibrant Jewish community in the years following the Portuguese acquisition of the port in 1486 (Jane S. Gerber, Jewish Society in Fez 1450-1700: Studies in Communal and Economic Life, 23). After Jewish families were expelled from Spain en masse in 1492, many took up residence in Moroccan towns, and a sizable Jewish population emerged in Azemmour. This minority, which included members of wealthy Iberian trading families, played a significant role in the long-distance trade of the region due to their knowledge of multiple languages and commercial experience overseas. Relations between Muslim and Jewish merchants were quite good, but their collaboration on a cartel proved so effective as to threaten the interests of Portuguese colonizers. The King of Portugal responded by banning all overseas trade with the town for the next two years (Vincent J. Cornell. “Socioeconomic Dimensions of Reconquista and Jihad in Morocco: Portuguese Dukkala and the Sadid Sus, 1450-1557” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 22, No. 4 (1990), 385).
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- Beni Mellal David Ben Yasim Shrine
Sharing a family complex in Beni Mellal with a small, humble synagogue, the tomb of David Ben-Yamin lies in an equally simple room. Rabbi Ben-Yamin was a Jewish saint to which several miracles have been attributed. In one telling, a woman dreaming at his grave reported seeing a seemingly dead man lying beneath a sheet on top of the Rabbi’s gravestone. This man told her that he was Ben-Yamin himself, after she inquired into his identity (Issachar Ben-Ami, Saint Veneration among the Jews in Morocco. Wayne State University Press, 1998, 90). His hillulah is celebrated on Lag b’Omer (Ibid, 225).
Ben-Yamin’s following is not limited to the Jewish community. Muslims venerate him as well, referring to him as Sidi Kherwi’a (Ibid). At this shrine, as well as at many others in Morocco, members of the Muslim community would tend to the tomb and would be given food and money from the Jewish population in return (Ibid., 132). For a time, even the guards of the David Ben-Yamin Shrine were followers of Islam (Ibid., 144).
- Boujad Cemetery
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The town of Kasbah Tadla was once a strategic location in the days of the caravan trade. It is situated on the former route between Fez and Marrakesh, and remained a vital stop until northward tribal migrations destabilized the region (Jeffrey Heath, Jewish and Muslim Dialects of Moroccan Arabic. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002, 3). Located at the feet of the Atlas Mountains is a tiny cemetery with white-painted graves, seemingly winning its struggle against time, thanks to the restoration work of a man named Baumhomioli Redouane.
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Small and quiet, the Chefchaouen Cemetery points to the remnants of a once vibrant culture. Visitors may notice that few (if any) of the tombs have inscriptions written in Hebrew.
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- Chefchaouen Mellah
Though finding the Mellah as separate from the rest of the city can be very difficult, once the Bab El Mellah, or gate to the Mellah is found, you will see the buildings of the community. Chefchaouen’s older buildings are known for their distinctive blue tint.
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- Demnat Tamlelt Cemetery
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- El Jadida Alliance Israélite Universelle School
One of the earlier schools established by the Alliance Israélite Universelle, founded by the French statesman Adolphe Cremieux in the mid-19th century, the El Jadida Alliance was an important center of education for Jewish youths in a city whose Jewish occupants have left an indelible mark on its history. —————————————————————————————————————
- El Jadida Cemetery
The tombs of Jewish translators and foreign consulate employees occupy the cemetery of El Jadida, with some as recent as 2010. The cemetery also holds the tomb of the Rabbi Yahia Assouline, one of the rabbis revered as a “saint.”
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- El Jadida La Haute Synagogue
Used by various members of Jewish community, who worked as translators and employees in the foreign consulates and also helped rehabilitate the city in the 19th century, the El Jadida Haute Synagogue stands as a lasting testament to the Jewish community of this once thriving cosmopolitan trading port.
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- El Jadida Mellah
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Essaouira, a western Moroccan city situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast formerly known as Mogador, was founded in 1765. The original school closed in 1869 after only three troubled years of existence, including a cholera outbreak in its second year that stopped students from attending. Opposition by traditional rabbis, indifference on the part of Jewish notables, as well as a period of famine and epidemics conspired to cause the 2nd schools reopening, in 1875, to falter. 13 years later, however, a 3rd attempt was made and succeeded. Today, while no longer an Alliance school, the building remains the same, with its open courtyard, narrow staircases, and rooftop view of the Atlantic ocean.
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The Essaouira cemetery is renowned as the site of an annual pilgrimage to Rabbi Haim Pinto. Annually, on the hillula or anniversary of the rabbi’s death (26 Ellul on the Jewish calendar), Jews from around the world come on pilgrimage to the rabbi’s grave.
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- Essaouira Souk
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- Essaouira Synagogue
Born in Agadir in 1794, Rabbi Haim Pinto Ha-Gadol (“the great” in Hebrew) spent much of his life in Essaouira. His rabbinical training and rabbinical court appointment occurred in Essaouira, where his grave is today a major pilgrimage site. During Rabbi Pinto’s life he was known as a sage and miracle-worker, two elements that contribute to his enduring status as a North African Jewish “saint.”
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- Essaouira Unnamed Cemetery
Established around 1700, the oldest gravestones in the burial grounds date from 1776. Many of the gravestones bear epigraphic inscriptions and are sculpted with marked human forms, which is generally considered contrary to Mosaic Law as well as Jewish tradition.
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Walking into the cemetery in Fez, one is greeted by a square grid of white stone half-cylindrical gravestones. The ancient Jewish cemetery, called a gisa, continued even after a new cemetery was necessitated by the establishment of a mellah in 1438. The new cemetery grew out of where victims of the pogrom of 1465 were buried at a particular space near the mellah’s entrance. The Jewish cemetery was an indelible part of Jewish communal life. Burial customs are a unique blend of Jewish law (halacha) and customs particular to North African Jewry. For instance, the entire community traditionally carries the deceased’s coffin on their shoulders on the way to the cemetery while a shofar is sounded. During the shiva period of mourning, the deceased’s family camped at the gravesite while the entire community gathered around to declare publicly their charitable contributions in the deceased’s memory.
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- Fez Mellah
Established in 1438, the mellah of Fez was Morocco’s first. Its buildings were widely renowned, drawing, in more recent years, foreign dignitaries and ambassadors.
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- Fez Rabbi Shlomo ibn Danan Synagogue
Located in the heart of the mellah (Jewish quarter), the Rabbi Shlomo ibn Danan Synagogue is one of the oldest and most intact synagogues in the country. It dates from the 17th century and has endured at least two major restorations, one occurring in the 1870s and the latest in the 1990s, with a reopening in 1999.
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- Fez “Slat Saba” Synagogue
Although today it is a private home, the 400-year-old building retains many of the characteristics of its original purpose, especially the Torah arks (now used as closets). The intricate tiling, wood carving decorations, and paint colors remain remarkably vivid and well preserved.
The main sanctuary is divided into six sections by grand columns, with a skylight three stories above allowing in natural light. Set back and above the main sanctuary was an alcove for the tevah (prayer stand), directly opposite the wooden Torah arks, which can be seen as panels along the far wall. This alcove was accessed from a separate entrance and looked out over the sanctuary. Today, however, it has been closed to divide the rooms, and the steps leading up to the ark have been removed. The original green and white tile floors remain, and a small women’s section can be seen behind wooden lattice work on the side high above the main floor.
The videos below feature rare archival footage of the synagogue in use in the late-1950s intermixed with exclusive contemporary footage (first video), and, in the second one, the oral history of Fez-native Mukhluf Mamman recalling that his grandfather, Mordechai Attia, who lived nearby, was the main guardian of this private synagogue. Early every morning, he would open the synagogue’s front-door, using an old key with a heavy round ball keychain. It is said that when Mr. Assaraf died, the imprint of the keychain ball could be seen indelibly molded into the palm of his hand.
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- Foum Jeama Cemetery
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- Kasr El Kabir Cemetery
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- Kenitra Cemetery
Originally founded by the French for military purposes, Kenitra was previously known as “Port-Lyautey” in honor of a French general. Today, a Muslim guardian maintains the well-preserved cemetery and shrine.
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- Larache Cemetery
Hidden away behind towering and beautiful white walls lies the Jewish Cemetery of Larache. The Argentinean writer Roberto Arlt once visited this site during a tour of North Africa, describing it as positively somber in comparison with Larache’s Muslim cemetery, where he saw orange trees growing among the tombs.
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Upon passing through the brightly painted gate to this section of the port of Larache, one is greeted with narrow, winding streets as well as the occasional storefront. This was once the home of the town’s Jewish community. In 1861, over fifteen-hundred Jews lived here, compared to Larache’s total population of three to four-thousand (León Galindo y de Vera, Intereses legítimos y permanentes que en África tiene España y deberes que la civilización le impone respecto a aquel país: memoria premiada por la Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas, Madrid: Colegio Nacional de Sordo-Mudos y de Ciegos, 1861: 13). During the Second World War, Larache, located in the neutral Spanish protectorate, became a safe haven for North African Jews.
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- Marakesh Cemetery
The characteristic blue-tile gates and tombs in pristine condition make the Jewish cemetery of Marrakesh one of the more aesthetically interesting examples of the Jewish presence in Morocco.
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- Marakesh Mellah
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- Marakesh Alzama Synagogue
Located in Marrakesh’s Mellah, this synagogue stands out from the others in its particular aesthetic appeal, with gilded doors and multiple menorahs, as well as a blue tiled courtyard. This building was far more than just a house of prayer; it likely housed or neighbored the offices of the local rabbinical court as well as a ritual bath complex and the schools of the local Jewish community (Emily Gottreich, The Mellah of Marrakesh: Jewish and Muslim Space in Morocco’s Red City. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007, 36). Young children as well as rabbinical students would study at these schools, which would eventually evolve into the yeshivot, or rabbinical academies, for which Marrakesh become renowned, drawing pupils from all over southern Morocco (Ibid).
Built at the turn of the last century, the synagogue is well-tended. The eastern side has only recently been embellished by a gallery for women (ezrat nashim) whereas previously women traditionally remained at the entrance to the synagogue or in a separate room. The originally wooden movable lectern has been replaced by one of marble along the eastern wall.
There is a local legend that the synagogue was built during the Second Temple period by Jews who had never lived in Eretz-Israel and had not witnessed the destruction of the Temple. Hence they were not bound by the same rituals and prohibitions as other Jews and ate meat during the period of mourning from the 17th of Tammuz to the ninth of Av (the day on which both the first and second Temples were said to have been destroyed) (Ariella Amar, “Moroccan Synagogues – A Survey.” ARIEL, Vol. 108, 1998).
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- Meknes Cemetery
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- Meknes Synagogue
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- Moul Brj Shrine
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On this mountain seventeen kilometers from the town of Settat lies a number of stone cairns, a spring, a stone depicting a camel, and the shrine of Rabbi Abraham Awriwer, also known as Mwalin Dad after the towering geographical feature on which he is buried (Issachar Ben-Ami, Saint Veneration among the Jews in Morocco, Wayne State University Press: 1998, 202). Rabbi Awriwer traveled to Morocco as an emissary from the Holy Land, where he was born, and was renowned for his alleged ability to cure barren women. Known as Sidi Brahim to Muslims, he is venerated by followers of Islam as well as Judaism, and his followers celebrate his hillulah on Lag b’Omer (Ibid).
Today, the site’s accessibility to its year-round pilgrims has been improved through the construction of a roadway from Settat and a series of rooms and synagogue attached to the shrine (Ibid., 297).
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Currently surrounded by a series of concrete bungalows with electricity and running water, the shrine of R. Nissim Ben Nissim was not always this accessible or hospitable. It appears that a fair amount of tension existed between those who wanted to modernize and improve the accessibility of the site and the local farmers who were concerned about the effects that such projects might have on the local environment as well as their livelihoods. André Levy quotes an activist who gives the following account of a past attempt to bring running water to the site:
I wanted to install a powerful water pump to bring water from the river below. The local qaid [appointed chief] agreed to let us pump water from the river, but he was afraid because the peasants refused and threatened his life. They were very concerned that the pump would harm the fish in the river and also harm the water flow to their fields. I had to apply to the governor of Essawira who agreed to intervene. I also had to demonstrate to the peasants how the pump works and that it wouldn’t hurt them in any way. Finally, all turned out well and now we have it all there (André Levy, “Notes on Jewish-Muslim Relationships: Revisiting the Vanishing Moroccan Jewish Community,” Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Aug., 2003), 378).
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- Ouedzim Cemetery
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- Ouezzane Mellah
The city that surrounds this mellah is relatively new – Ouezzane was not founded until the eighteenth century. The site is often a destination for pilgrims, as the city hosts the tomb of Rabbi Amran Ben-Diwan, a Jewish “saint” (Michael E. Bonine, “The Sacred Direction and City Structure: A Preliminary Analysis of the Islamic Cities of Morocco,” Mugarnas, Vol. 7 (1990), 52).
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- Oujda Cemetery
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- Oujda Synagogue
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- Safi Alliance Israélite Universelle School
A boys school opened in 1872 with 15 pupils. Closed within the year, the Alliance returned in 1907, with a 148-student boys school and 66-student girls school.
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- Safi Cemetery
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- Salé Cemetery
Along the start of the road connecting Salé and Fez, across from the cemetery of Sidi Bil-‘Abbas, lies the town’s Jewish cemetery (Kenneth L. Brown, People of Salé: Tradition and Change in a Moroccan City, 1830-1930, (Manchester University Press, Manchester: 1976), 45). This cemetery was an especially important location during the salat al-istisqa’, or prayer for rain, as Salé’s Jews would follow the prayer itself with a trip to the tombs of local “saints,” including Rabbi Raphael Anqawa, where they would chant the psalms of David (Ibid., 91). Jewish saints were incredibly important in the culture of Salé, and every rabbi who died in the town was buried near the grave of Rabbi Anqawa out of custom (Issachar Ben-Ami, Saint Veneration among the Jews in Morocco (Wayne State University Press: Detroit, 1998), 51). For much of the town’s history, it was home to some of the wealthiest merchants based in Rabat, both Jewish and Muslim. These two groups were quite tightly economically entwined, and Jews served as creditors for Muslims throughout the economic growth of the Salé (Brown, 159).
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- Sefrou Cemetery
Sefrou, situated in the foothills of the Middle Atlas 30 kilometers south of Fez, is a lush setting, filled with fruit orchards, several streams, and generally pleasant weather. The town is named for Ahl Seforu, the Judaizing Berber tribe who settled on its banks, and subsequently conquered by Idirs II, son of the founder of Morocco’s first Islamic Dynasty, in the early 9th century. While Sefrou’s Jewish population has diminished from a high of 33-44% in the 1930s-40s, the cemetery is currently being restored by the small remnant community and with contributions from expatriates. Headstones have been mounted within cement monuments, many of which honor the memory of a group of merchants who died in a truck accident, while others commemorate the victims of the 1950 flood. The cemetery includes a number of “saints,” including Moshe Elbaz, the Masters of the Cave, Eliahou Harraoch, David Arazil, and Rabbi Rapyhael Moshe el-Baz.
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- Sefrou Mellah
Now almost completely devoid of Jews, the mellah of Sefrou was once the most overcrowded in Morocco. There were 1,680 people for each acre of space in the Jewish quarter. The first members of the Jewish community came from eastern and southeastern Morocco, as well as southern Algeria, and the population only grew over the years when the out-of-the-way town became a safe haven for Jews fleeing bouts of persecution in Fez. Sefrou gradually gained a reputation as a home of scholars and places of education, leading many to describe it as “the Jerusalem of Morocco (Norman A. Stillman, “The Sefrou Remnant” Jewish Social Studies, Vol. 35, No. ¾, (Jul. – Oct., 1973), 256-258).”
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- Settat Cemetery
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- Tangier Cemetery
Surrounded by palm trees and caressed by the wind blowing off the Mediterranean, the marble tombstones of the Tangiers Jewish cemetery share their color with the brilliant white sand of the beach they overlook. The city’s Jewish community is diminished, but still active, and continues to care for the site. Though the cemetery has recently had problems with vandalism, major work is underway to weed and clean the site and its 3500 tombs as well as pave its roads and paths.
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One of the few remaining synagogues in Tangier, this site was once at risk of disappearing forever. In October of 2000, the synagogue was targeted for attack by a pair of Moroccan youth. But, in the wake of this attempted assault, King Mohammad VI’s pledge of intolerance for those who would harm Morocco’s Jews and Jewish sites has allowed the site to endure.
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Situated on the dramatic sloping hillside of Mount Dersa overlooking the medina (old city), Tetouan’s Jewish cemetery was established 500 years ago. Aside from the remarkable vistas it commands, the cemetery (also known as the “Castilian Cemetery”) features many tombs with anthropomorphic engravings – a highly unusual feature for Jewish cemeteries. With an estimated 35,000 graves, the Jewish cemetery is among the largest in Morocco.
After Tetouan was destroyed around 1400 by Castilian monarch Henry III, the city and its Jewish community were only reconstituted in the late 1400s. In 1530, Rabbi Haim Bibas came from Fez to establish rabbinic academies and synagogues, which soon gained an international reputation. Bibas’s tomb in the cemetery features anthropomorphic imagery, a style that is traditionally shunned on Jewish tombs.
Also buried in the cemetery (in an umarked grave) is the legendary Rabbi Yitzhak Bengualid, a 19th Century scholar who in 1862 allowed the Paris-based Alliance Israelite to establish a French language school in Tetouan. Bengualid’s hiloula (a celebration on the anniversary of his death) is marked four days before the holiday of Purim. The cemetery is open to the public and Mohammad the caretaker happily gives tours.
Related Reading: Sarah Leibovici, Chronique des Juifs de Tétouan, 1860-1869 (Maisonneuve et Larose, Paris: 1984); J.B. Vilar Ramirez El cemeterio israelita de Tetuán (Bolletin de la Associacion Española de Orientalistas, Año 6, 1970, 218-227).
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- Tetouan Mellah
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- Tetouan Synagogue
This three-story structure tucked away in the narrow streets of the Tetouan mellah hosts one of the many synagogues that used to serve the city’s Jewish community. The construction of new places of worship was under the jurisdiction of a small group of community leaders (rashim) and eventually this group enacted a prohibition on new construction. This led to disputes within the community, and at least one resident of the city went ahead and constructed a private synagogue anyway, claiming that the prohibition had no legal force because it was not signed by the members of the community as opposed to a ruling minority (Shlomo A. Deshen, The Mellah Society: Jewish community life in Sherifian Morocco, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1989: 49-50).