Moroccan Muslim-Jewish Co-Existence Celebrated in New York

Rabat – The new documentary In Your Eyes, I See My Country has explored the solidarity, harmony, and coexistence between Muslim and Jewish communities in Morocco.

The documentary screened on Thursday during the closing ceremony of the 24th edition of the New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival (NYSJFF) in Moise Safra Center, New York.

“This film is a strong tribute to the plurality of my country,” said Moroccan filmmaker Kamal Hachkar.

“The strength of our country is its cultural diversity, especially in these times of community withdrawal. It is, therefore, our duty to teach it to the younger generations,” he explained.

The documentary follows the stories of Neta Elkayam and Ami Hai Cohen. Struggling with merging their Moroccan and Israeli identities, the two musicians took on a journey to the North African country where they learned more about their Judeo-Moroccan musical heritage.

Each musical encounter with locals reshaped their understanding of their identities and aspirations, pushing them to work on strengthening their connection to their ancestors’ homeland in the Tinghir region.

“Through our history and our trip to Morocco, we want to contribute to the preservation of this precious heritage,” ElKayam told the Moroccan press agency (MAP).

President of the American Sephardi Federation (ASF) Jason Guberman noted that Morocco represents an “important example” of a country that promotes coexistence in the face of growing intolerance and hatred.

Brief History of Moroccan Jews

It is important to note that there is not a commonly agreed-upon date of the arrival of Judaism to Morocco. Yet there are two main narratives linking it to the time of the Roman Empire, featuring either the Israelites (7th BCE) or King Soloman(10th BCE).

In pre-colonial Morocco, Jewish society was divided into toshavim (original inhabitants) and megorashim (Jews expelled from Iberian peninsula). The two groups lived in rural and urban areas across the country and spoke Arabic, Judeo-Arabic, and Hakétiya (Judeo-Spanish).

They worked as artisans, merchants, diplomats, advisors to the sultan, and intermediaries between the state and European businesses. They lived under the dhimmi status that required them to pay a small Islamic tax for protection which gave them the freedom to run autonomous administrations and courts.

Some members of the Jewish community lived in exclusive neighborhoods called mellah in cities such as Fez and Rabat. The tradition of the mellah’s construction started with the Marinids in 1438 in Fez and continued under the Saadi and Alawid rules.

Even before the officialization of the French protectorate in Morocco in 1912, some Moroccan Jewish people benefited from the protégé (protected) status issued by European states as well as French education provided by the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU).

AIU programs sought to assimilate and “emancipate” Moroccan Jews.

In Nothern Morocco, Jewish communities were exposed to the Sephardic (Iberian Jewish) identity and Spanish language. In this context, the Arab-speaking Jews were marginalized.

In the international zone of Tangier, Moroccan Jews continued to live along with their Muslim peers, enjoying political rights and protection as well as autonomous judicial and administrative systems.

In 1940, the Nazi-aligned Vichy regime in France introduced the “Status des Juifs.” The law classified Jewish people within French territories and protectorates as second-class citizens which limited their professional activities and banned their participation in the political field.

The measures were partially implemented in Morocco compared to Algeria. The Jewish community overcame them thanks to the support of their Muslim peers and the eventual collapse of the Vichy regime.

Then-sultan Mohammed V was instrumental in ensuring Moroccan Jews were not deported to Europe’s genocidal concentration camps, famously telling the Vichy French that “there are no Jews in Morocco, there are only Moroccan subjects.”

Towards independence, the relations between nationalist and Zionist movements – that emerged in the 1920s – grew tenser and tenser, negatively influencing Muslim-Jewish relations. The result was major diasporic movements toward primarily newly-established Israel, France, Canada, and Latin America.

However, the exodus of Moroccan Jews does not represent the end of their stories and histories, argued historian Andre Levy. Notably, some Jews returned to Morocco after facing discrimination and harsh living conditions in Israel.

Those who stayed in the diaspora continued to long for their homeland and preserved some aspects of the Moroccan culture that were later passed down through one or more generations.

The stories of Neta Elkayam and Ami Hai Cohen testify to the complexity of Moroccan Jewish history.