Morocco # English board

I was shocked to read this:
'Today, no more than 5,000 Jews remain, compared to 300,000 in 1950.'

That's the population of Moroccan jews in Morocco nowadays. What happend? Did they leave Morocco because of the discrimination by Moroccan muslims? How do these (approximately) 5,000 jews live in Morocco? Could anyone give me more information?

P.S. Are there any Moroccan jews on this forum? If so, I would like to contact one, because I want to know more about Moroccan jews.

Tifah, why can't u be positive about muslims?, why do u think these people left morocco because of discrimination and not because they wanted to join the "promised land" israel because this is the truth, there was no discrimination at all and these people moved feely to israel which is as disappointing as ur negative attitude when u speak about discrimination from muslims, so if u 're jew have some respect for us muslims. thank u

Marocain Fier,

The reason why I asked if the Jews left Morocco because of the discrimination of the islamic population, is because it's the truth. Moroccan Jews get discriminated. I'm a Moroccan muslim, so I know what I'm talking about. It's not because I'm trying to give Moroccan muslims a bad name or something like that. I just tell it how it is. Please, don't deny the fact that muslims discriminate Jews. That's a big lie!

So you think most of them emigrated to Israel? Thank you for the information.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2006 11:38 by Tifah.

I don't lie, but u surely don't know history, I might advise you to go and read some historical books about morrocan jew immigration to israel written by some jews authos still livin in morocco like robert assaref and others. u can't live in amsterdam and tell that u know what happened in morocco on a day to day basis, be modest and honest little bit.

Hi Tifah,

Having been to school with Moroccan Jews, I know some. They left because of the call from Israel, they were not discriminated against, quite the opposite : under king Mohamed 5, they were a protected minority, he fiercely defended their status against the Vichy regime who wanted them deported during WWII for example.
Some of them came back after being disappointed by the "promised land" but most stayed there or moved to other countries. They were some incidents reported in the 60's about discrimination against jews but there were just exceptions, Jews have always been part of our collective culture.
Even now, they are still very attached to Morocco, even the second generation, a bit like we all are.

Dear tifah

do some research and compare jews discrimination against christianity, and islam


jews were first, as we all should agree upon, therefore were the first to discriminate.

If you state that you are muslim and just attacking islam that way, then : shame on you

Funny that a lot you got offended by the truth. Yes, it is the truth that (Moroccan) muslims discriminate Jews and yes, it also happens vice versa. I never claimed that Jews were/are angels. Discrimination is wrong and unjust, not matter if a muslim, jew or christian does this.

The reason why I opened this topic is because I want information about Moroccan Jews, since I don't know a lot about this small population. I will definetly read some books about the history of Jews in Morocco, but it seemed easy to first ask what you guys knew and hoped that you could share some info. I didn't knew people would get offended by my question that only is based on speculation.

Take it easy guys! It was just an innocent question. And to be honest I did get irritated by the fact that I've got accused of being negative towards other muslims. I just tell it how it is. If I see in the Moroccan islamic community that Jews get discriminated, than I will ask if that's the reason most Jews left Morocco. It's because of 'ignorance', since I don't know a lot about this subject. SO CHILL!

Hi Tifah,

I was not offended by your question, I was answering the best I could. Keep posting, we need more participants in this forum.

Tifah,

I have been to school, not in morocco but elsewhere, with some moroccan jews, we were kinda close friends and never evoked differences about our religions and beliefs we were just friends, and let me tell the truth about them in Morocco, very few of them got discriminated under very particular circumstances, and some of them were even victims of some crimes, but remember that even muslims have been victims and slaughtered not for being jews or christians but for being normal muslim citizens, I am refring here to what happened the 16th of May 2004 in Casablanca...so few jews have been discriminated yeah but only FEW
They lead a very notmal life in Morocco, they were born and raised here and they speak our language and do the things all moroccans do with no mind to any fearful behaviour from muslim neighbors, so there's no big deal really about it, and if you're still not conviced take a walk to the sinagogue friday night and you'll see for yourself. If you want more proof read about "Amrane Bin Diwan" a jewish saint whose grave lies in a small vilage few miles from Sefrou, and once a year jews from across the world come to pay tribute to this man and that is an official jewish gathering recognised by the Ministry of religious affairs, what more?

Hi all,

Chelhman, thank you kindly for the information. I'm glad to read that you didn't get offended by my question.

Also thanks to you, Driss. And Driss, I searched the i-net for 'Amrane Bin Diwan', but couldn't find anything about it. No articles, no books, nothing...

Moroccan Fier, I also searched the Dutch online bookstores, but can't find any books of the author Robert Assaref. Do you know any other authors that you could recommend me?

[www.dafina.net]
[www.modia.org]
[rickgold.home.mindspring.com]

Dear Driss1
In one of the link Hamid made me laugh about his dream.
So in Ouezzane people use to smoke Hashich..
Take care

Jews were less interested in leaving for Israel after 1964(look data immigration below). They were discouraged by poor economic conditions in Israel and the treatment of Sephardim as second-class citizens. Some of the more wealthy were interested in investing in Morocco, given the country’s relatively good economic climate. They felt that there was increased security in Morocco, given that their freedom of movement was no longer restricted. They also recognized that it would be difficult to take much of their wealth out of the country.
This environment continued until May 1967, when Israel and its Arab neighbors fought the Six-Day War. Moroccan Arabs expressed their solidarity with the Palestinians and other Arabs in the Middle East. Some among them advocated a boycott of Moroccan Jewish businesses. Political parties criticized Zionists and their Moroccan Jewish supporters, but still tried to maintain good relations with Jews. While the Jewish community did not feel comfortable supporting Israel openly, its leaders felt secure enough to keep open Jewish schools, which were protected by the national police. The Palace made a great effort to reassure the Jewish community of its security.
Nevertheless, the heightened tensions between the Jews and Muslims encouraged almost half the remaining Jews to emigrate within the next four years. Between 1967 and 1971, the Jewish population dropped from 60,000 to 35,000. Few went to Israel, however. By this time, most of the poorer Moroccan Jews had already left for Israel, leaving those with greater means and better education. Word had filtered back to Morocco of the difficult political and economic conditions of Moroccan Jewish immigrants to Israel. Much of the remaining Jewish population qualified for immigration visas to France and Canada. After attending AIU schools, many Moroccan Jews identified closely with French culture and felt natural links with the Francophone world. Other Jews from northern Morocco identified with the Spanish-speaking world and emigrated to Spain and Latin America. By 1974, the majority of Jewish emigrants went to France, Canada, Europe, Latin America and the U.S. In 1978, Israel had over 400,000 Moroccan Jews. Today, it has close to 600,000 Jews of Moroccan ancestry. France had received 80,000 Moroccan Jews (compared to 400,000 Jews from all of North Africa), while Canada received 20,000, Spain 5,000 and the US 4,000.
Today, the Moroccan Jewish community of less than 5,000 consists of wealthy and upper middle class families who have business interests in Morocco but identify more with Europe, as well as poor and elderly Jews who do not have the capacity to emigrate. Over two-thirds of Morocco's Jews live in Casablanca, while the remainder live in other cities. Few Jews live in the mellah, and there are no longer any exclusively Jewish areas of the cities.
King Mohammed VI, like his father Hassan II, and like his grandfather Mohammed V, strongly supports the Jewish community. However, he has not taken on Hassan II’s role as Middle East peacemaker. Jews are given special treatment by the Moroccan Government in terms of administrative procedures. Some Jewish institutions, such as schools and synagogues, receive Government subsidies. The King has called for Moroccan Jews living abroad to return to live in Morocco. Few Jews have actually returned to live, however
Data on Immigration to Israel from Morocco
years numbers
1984/49 18,000
1950 4,980
1951 7,770
1952 5,031
1953 2,996
1954 8,171
1955 24,994
1956 36,301
1957 8,578
1985 1,803
1959 3,325
1960 4,108
1961 11,476
1962 35,748
1963 36,874
perhaps the immigration to isreal were the motive the moroccan jews immigrate to isreal or to somewehre else.but im sure there were more reasons why they immigrate.
In June 1948, bloody riots in Oujda and Djerada killed 44 Jews and wounded scores more. That same year, an unofficial economic boycott was instigated against Moroccan Jews.maybe this information could change our conviction thats jews left morocco just to be in isreal.

I used to live in a jew neighborhood in morocco and they were really good neighbours actually respetful just like any moroccan citizen. They live in community they dont like to mix a lot with none jew because they are afraid that their kids will lose their cultures.But the ones whos were living next to me were really nice they say Salam when we meet in the 'pirsi'(market) and they ask abou how is family doing and so on..
One day there was an old poor jew(who also lives next to us) who had been mugged by a young muslim(who just left jail ) since then we always used to see a "fourgon" (police car) in the street.
and to reply to the question, jews leave the country to study abroad mostly in france,usa and canada. and the poorest among them go to israel.

It is sad to see them leave the country for whatever reason .... i personally Love them i find them very nice and well educated and to my surprise i have always had a great experience with them .... Also i find them very attached to morocco ..... From the bottom of my heart i wish that one day we will learn how to accept each other's differences and rspect it instead of judging people for their choices as well as their beliefs.

Here's an interesting website for you Tifah, if you want to know more about our jewish compatriots, you'll see that we're not so different. Look at the proverbs section for instance, it speaks for itself.

[www.dafina.net] (french version)

[www.dafina.net] (english version)

Oups sorry, just realized that Driss1 has already posted it. Although for Dafina, the link doesn't open straight to the main page, so try the above anyway.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2006 09:43 by chelhman.

Today, I went to some jewish shawarma restaurant in Ft Lauderdale, FL.

I never felt so much out of place as I felt today.

I ordered shawarma. my order was made. my order was put in "a to go" bag by a person. the same person moved to the cash register to get paid. I followed the person to the cash register. and that person asked what I had in my bag? I said I am sorry, what? he asked me again. I was dazzled. then he looked into the bag and told me he just wanted to make sure that I did not bring any food with me inside because it's not allowed. I was like this guy dont make sense, and I paid my bill and left.

I guess we will never trust each other.

Quote
ramis16
Today, I went to some jewish shawarma restaurant in Ft Lauderdale, FL.

I never felt so much out of place as I felt today.

I ordered shawarma. my order was made. my order was put in "a to go" bag by a person. the same person moved to the cash register to get paid. I followed the person to the cash register. and that person asked what I had in my bag? I said I am sorry, what? he asked me again. I was dazzled. then he looked into the bag and told me he just wanted to make sure that I did not bring any food with me inside because it's not allowed. I was like this guy dont make sense, and I paid my bill and left.

I guess we will never trust each other.

That's hilarious! hahaha

Quote
Tifah

Quote
ramis16
Today, I went to some jewish shawarma restaurant in Ft Lauderdale, FL.

I never felt so much out of place as I felt today.

I ordered shawarma. my order was made. my order was put in "a to go" bag by a person. the same person moved to the cash register to get paid. I followed the person to the cash register. and that person asked what I had in my bag? I said I am sorry, what? he asked me again. I was dazzled. then he looked into the bag and told me he just wanted to make sure that I did not bring any food with me inside because it's not allowed. I was like this guy dont make sense, and I paid my bill and left.

I guess we will never trust each other.

That's hilarious! hahaha

SAD...truly SAD (

wa ma SAD, ma HILARIOUS.

Paranoia is human trait that is very common.

wa be3da, at least, ana I trusted them and I tried their food.

This could have been a muslim who treated me this way as well.

His motif will be different tough. he will want to check my bag thinking that I stole something from his store since we moroccan have a bad reputation.

Moroccan Jews may come back, may be slowly, but they will.
I hope you can read Arabic:
[www.alquds.co.uk]\06\06-22\a39.htm&storytitle=ffÇÞÈÇá%20íåæÏ%20ÇáãÛÑÈ%20Úáí%20ÔÑÇÁ%20ÚÞÇÑÇÊ%20ÈãÑÇßÔ%20íåíãä%20Úáí%20äÏæÉ%20Íæá%20ÇáãÏä%20ÇáÚÊíÞÉ%20ÈÇáãÏíäÉfff

je suis nee a casa 1963 j'ai grandi avec les juifs ils etes tous considirer comme n'import quel marocain on a pas de descrimination ni racisme au maroc en fait mais amis juifs considaire le maroc comme leure 2eme pays apres israel all the best my friend ciao

Quote
ramis16
wa ma SAD, ma HILARIOUS.

Paranoia is human trait that is very common.

wa be3da, at least, ana I trusted them and I tried their food.

This could have been a muslim who treated me this way as well.

His motif will be different tough. he will want to check my bag thinking that I stole something from his store since we moroccan have a bad reputation.

Hello i'm a proud moroccan the truth is most the young peoples don't know that their family roots are jewish.
Yes they converted to islam today but in the past most of us are jewish decent.
1/2 of fez are jewish
1/2 of rachidia
1/2 of bin mall
1/2 khnifra are. tribes like ayt ishak- ayt faska-
azrou
-safrou
-tinghirt
-Casablanca
-sale. its called sale because of baba sale a rabbi in that city
-Rabat a lot of jewish
-Kenitra all the clubs like 007 and la rotund are owned by the cohen family
-Tanger
-sabta and mlilia
-sawera
anyway a lot of peoples converted to islam during molly ismael but the truth 1/2 of the moroccans are jewish they just don't know it.