Moroccan Jews are Jews who live in or are from Morocco. Moroccan Jews constitute an ancient community dating to Roman times. Jews began immigrating to the region as early as 70 CE. They were later met by a second wave of migrants from the Iberian peninsula in the period which immediately preceded and followed the issuing of the 1492 Alhambra Decree, when Jews were expelled from Spain, and soon afterward, from Portugal. This second wave of immigrants changed Moroccan Jewry, which largely embraced the Andalusian Sephardic liturgy, to switch to a mostly Sephardic identity.
Jews of Fez c. 1900
Etching of Jewish home in Mogador, Darondeau (1807–1841)
Balconies in the Mellah of Fes, an old Jewish neighborhood, distinguish the homes from homes of Muslims at the time.
Beth-El Synagogue in Casablanca in 2017
Moroccan Jews constitute an ancient community. Before the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, there were about 265,000 Jews in the country, which gave Morocco the largest Jewish community in the Muslim world, but by 2017 only 2,000 or so remain. Jews in Morocco, originally speakers of Berber languages, Judeo-Moroccan Arabic or Judaeo-Spanish, were the first in the country to adopt the French language in the mid-19th century, and unlike the Muslim population French remains the main language of members of the Jewish community there.
A copper oil lamp of the Roman period in the shape of a menorah, found at the ruins of Volubilis.
The Ibn Danan Synagogue in Fes.
Kabbalistic charm against scorpions from Morocco.
Jews of Fez, c. 1900.
