A partial paean to coexistence in Morocco

This is another article, based on an Australian ABC TV report,  regretting the end of Muslim-Jewish coexistence in Morocco. Joseph Sebag, the last Jew of Essaouira,  is its poster boy. Israel is portrayed as the cause of the exodus and the Jews of Morocco persuaded to leave against their better judgement by Zionist agents. The threats of forced conversion, abduction and daily incidents of violence and intimidation are omitted, or minimised, and the six-year emigration ban to Palestine not mentioned.  What is new, is that French colonialism is also blamed (and the teaching of Hebrew instead of Arabic!)  for tearing the two communities apart before Israel's creation. Yet the French can be credited for liberating the Jews from their subjugated dhimmi status under Islam.

Joseph Sebag, last Jew of Essaouira

In an antique shop in the seaside Moroccan town of Essaouira sits Joseph Sebag, a charming old man with a shy smile.

He is all that remains of the city's once thriving Jewish community. But he remembers what it was like before the exodus.
"There was no Jew that didn't have a Muslim friend, and there was no Muslim that didn't have a Jewish friend," Mr Sebag says.

Jewish merchants first arrived in Africa around 500 BC. In the centuries that followed, thousands of Jews fleeing persecution in Europe established new lives in Morocco.
For most of Morocco's history, Jewish people lived in relative harmony with Muslims.
But when Israel was established in 1948 the friendship was severed beyond repair.

Tensions between Arabs and Jews, which had been stroked under French colonial rule, exploded into a terminal confrontation.

Arab nationalists expressed their solidarity with displaced Palestinians by turning on their Jewish neighbours.

In Morocco, as with much of the Arab world, many Jewish communities faced looting, arson, and riots.
"It was very sad, people that had lived there for hundreds of years all packed up and went," Mr Sebag says.

Photo: Jewish men praying the "Birkat Hahamma" (blessing of the sun) at the entrance of the Jewish Cemetery, Fez, Morocco 1953. (Beit Hatfutsot)

 

The country was once home to more than 300,000 Jews, the largest Jewish population of any country in the Arab world. It now hosts only 5,000.
"Before the exodus the Jews in Morocco were everywhere, in the cities, in the small villages," says Mechthild Gilzmer, a professor in Jewish studies at Saarland University.
"It was a large and vibrant community."
Unlike the biblical exodus of ancient Jews from Egypt, the migration of Arab Jews in the 20th century was more like a slow divorce than an instant separation.
For more than 30 years before the creation of Israel, French colonists had been working to drive a wedge between Muslims and Jews in Morocco.
Education programs were rolled out encouraging Jews to embrace French culture and language. Classical Arabic was left off the curriculum in favour of Hebrew.
A symptom of disintegrating relations, looting and rioting broke out in Jewish Quarter of Fez in 1912.
Jews fled large cities to smaller towns and villages on the urban outskirts, creating Jewish ghettos reminiscent of 19th century Europe. (This makes no sense - surely the opposite was true ?-ed)


In Morocco some Jews left to seek the long-promised land, but many chose to stay despite the growing tide of anti-Semitism in some cities.
"Unlike elsewhere in the Arab world, the creation of Israel did not immediately spark widespread animosity or attacks on Jews [in Morocco]," Professor Gilzmer says. (A statement contradicted by what follows - ed)

Carrying the flag of the newly-established Arab League, the Moroccan nationalist press began fostering hostility against Jewish Moroccans. Many shops and homes were looted.

In the early weeks of June 1948 an anti-Jewish riot broke out in the north-eastern Moroccan towns of Oujda and Jerada. At least 44 people were killed.
After a long history of coexistence, "many Jews were made to feel like they were no longer welcome", Professor Gilzmer says.

After the violence in Oujda and Jereda, the stream of Jews making the journey across the Mediterranean became a flood. By 1950, 18,000 of Morocco's Jews left for Israel.

Marc Cohen left Morocco 50 years ago, when he was 18. He now lives in Melbourne.
"I remember buses full of Jewish people not knowing where they were going," he says.
 "They started closing one synagogue after the other, most of my school friends left, and then everybody left.
"For many it was the end of the exile".

Against a backdrop of rising Arab nationalism, European Zionists began arriving at Moroccan synagogues telling stories of the new Jewish homeland. They encouraged the local Jewish community to migrate.

Israel had sent dozens of Mossad officers to North Africa who acted as missionaries for the Zionist cause.

According to Professor Gilzmer, even when threats were minimal, "many Jews left after being told by Zionist agents they were in danger".

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