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Denver- US Charge D’Affaires David Greene joined King Mohammed VI’s Advisor Andre Azulay in Essaouira Tuesday to launch a new cultural initiative in the country.
Valued at $3 million, the three-year program will focus on Morocco’s multicultural history and the promotion of interfaith communication within the country.
During the inauguration of the program, Greene highlighted interfaith communication as “an important part of the Moroccan American partnership, which has been built and grown over 200 years.” The US diplomat also highlighted the countries’ shared “common heritage of peaceful coexistence” and religious tolerance during his speech.
The diplomats met in Bayt Dakira ( the House of Memory) located in Mellah, the Jewish quarter of Essaouira. Bayt Dakira is a historic Jewish museum and one of the main institutions in Morocco dedicated to the preservation of Moroccan Jewish heritage and history.
At Tuesday’s event, officials announced the program will include several cultural organizations in Fez, Azrou, Marrakech, Essaouira, and Tangier.
Although Morocco’s Jewish populations have dwindled since high points in the early 1900s, going from around 200,000 in the 1950s to 2,000 currently, Jewish culture and history are still a cherished part of Morocco’s national identity.
Several organizations throughout Morocco still gather to celebrate important Jewish events in an interfaith setting, making the country one of the few places in the MENA region where Jews and Muslims can cooperate and live side by side in harmony.
Earlier this year, Morocco’s ambassador to the UN stated that the North African country’s Jewish history and people were “part of Morocco’s DNA.”
