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Marrakech – Morocco Day has announced a new initiative to strengthen cultural, educational, business, and economic ties between the United States and Morocco through its expanding network of Sister Cities International partnerships.
Morocco Day, a platform affiliated with the Alexandria, Virginia-based Moroccan American Network, will work with Boubker Mazoz, founder and president of the IDMAJ Foundation for Development and Sister Cities International’s country representative for Morocco.
Together, they plan to widen awareness of and engagement in US-Morocco sister-city partnerships, starting with the 45-year-old link between Chicago and Casablanca. That collaboration targets business networking, cultural exchange, tourism, investment, education, and innovation across the two cities.
Mazoz is no newcomer to that relationship. He built the IDMAJ neighborhood association and the Sidi Moumen Cultural Center in Casablanca after the 2003 suicide bombings in the city. He has also long headed the Casablanca-Chicago Sister Cities partnership, through which Moroccan and American youth have exchanged visits.
The push feeds into Morocco Day’s 10th Anniversary Celebration, set for October 31 in Alexandria. The event will spotlight existing and emerging US-Morocco sister-city partnerships, among them Washington, D.C. and Rabat; Alexandria and Salé; Chicago and Casablanca; Tacoma and El Jadida; Council Bluffs and El Hajeb; Somerville and Tiznit; Scottsdale and Marrakech; Miami and Agadir; and the Bronx, New York and Sidi Moumen in Casablanca.
For Morocco Day founder Mohamed Elhajjam, the effort extends the platform’s original purpose. Morocco Day was created to build “lasting bridges” between the two countries, according to Elhajjam, who framed the tie-up with Mazoz, the IDMAJ Foundation, and Sister Cities International as a way to lift the visibility of the Chicago-Casablanca partnership on its 45th anniversary.
He tied that goal to the “strong connections” that unite the two communities through business, culture, education, and public diplomacy.
The October gathering will draw government officials, business leaders, entrepreneurs, nonprofit organizations, diplomats, and community representatives from both countries.
Organizers hope the event will spark new partnerships and economic opportunities ahead of the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which Morocco will co-host with Spain and Portugal. Morocco Day has invited organizations, businesses, educational institutions, and civic leaders interested in the sister-city agenda to take part.
The initiative rests on one of the oldest relationships in American diplomacy. Morocco was the first country in the world to recognize US independence in 1777, under Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah, who opened Moroccan ports to vessels sailing under the American flag.
The two nations later signed the Treaty of Peace and Friendship in 1786, a document the US State Department describes as the longest unbroken relationship in US history. Morocco also gave Washington the Tangier American Legation, now America’s only National Historic Site outside the US.
Those historical threads give the sister-city model a foundation to build on. City-to-city partnerships now carry much of the everyday exchange between Moroccan and American communities, and Morocco Day’s latest step aims to knit them into a wider network as both countries look toward 2030.
Read also: Morocco Day Becomes More Than Just Cultural Event, Showcases Enduring US-Morocco Ties
