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Rabat – Agadir-based international university Universiapolis is hosting a conference from November 23-25 on the political and social significance of Morocco’s Jewish heritage.
The conference, titled “Jewish Onomastics in Morocco: Political, Economic, and Territorial Implications,” will be organized by the doctoral department of the Agadir’s Universiapolis.
The conference aims to tackle the intricate relationship between Onomastics, the origin of names, and political, economic, and territorial constraints. The main argument of the conference is that Jewish names in spelling and pronunciation are conditioned by economic, political, and territorial factors.
With a special focus on the Moroccan origin of Jewish names, the conference will also touch on the non-Moroccan origin of Jewish names.
As part of the conference, the Moroccan university will invite national and international scholars for a round table to discuss the historical and multi-faceted nature of the origin of Jewish names.
The conference also aims to highlight the new perspective that the study of Onomastics brings into the field of humanities. One of the main aims of the conference is to shed light on identity issues in relation to Onomastics.
Onomastics, according to Universiapolis’ website, draws on many other disciplines such as geography, history, and linguistics.
Other themes detailed in the conference description include Jewish languages and cultures in North Africa, and the history of Jews in Morocco.
In recent years, there has been a rising interest in the history of the Jewish community in Morocco.
Morocco’s history is closely related to Morocco’s Jewish community, according to most historians. “The history of Morocco cannot be effectively told without the history of its Jewish inhabitants,” says Emily Benichou Gottreich, professor of Global Studies at California University.
While the relationship between Jews and majority-Muslim countries is mostly equated with struggle, Jewish communities coexisted in relative peace for centuries in North African and Middle East counties.
