Morocco was home to the largest Jewish community in the Muslim world in the 20th century: about 250,000–265,000 people around 1948. Its Jews lived in the mellahs of Fez, Marrakesh and Essaouira, in Atlas mountain villages and in the Spanish-speaking towns of the north. After 1492, exiles from Spain and Portugal joined a community that was already more than a thousand years old. Most Moroccan Jews left between 1948 and the 1960s, chiefly for Israel, France and Canada. See also Algerian Jews, Tunisian Jews and North African Sephardim.
Origins
The oldest Jewish evidence in Morocco comes from Volubilis, the Roman city near Meknes, where a Hebrew epitaph of late antiquity names “Matrona, daughter of Rabbi Yehuda.” Traditions that Jews arrived after the destruction of the First Temple cannot be confirmed. Fez, founded in 789, drew Jewish merchants and became a center of learning; Isaac Alfasi taught there in the 11th century.
The Almohads, who took power in 1146, forced Jews to convert or leave and later made them wear distinguishing dress. The family of Maimonides lived in Fez during these years before moving on to Egypt. In 1438 the Jews of Fez were moved into a separate quarter beside the royal palace, the first mellah; see the mellah.
The Sephardi connection
After the expulsions from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1496–97, thousands of Iberian Jews crossed to Morocco. The newcomers, the megorashim (exiles), settled beside the established Arabic- and Berber-speaking Jews, the toshavim (residents), and for generations the two kept separate customs and courts; see Megorashim and Toshavim. In Fez the exiles’ rabbis issued communal ordinances, the Takkanot of Fez, which governed marriage, inheritance and trade. Over time Sephardi law and liturgy became the norm across Moroccan Jewry.
In the northern towns, Tetouan and Tangier above all, Jews kept speaking a Judeo-Spanish of their own, Haketia; see also the rabbis of Tetouan. Moroccan Jews also served as diplomats and merchants between Morocco and Europe, such as Samuel Pallache of Fez, who negotiated the sultan’s 1610 treaty with the Dutch Republic.
Modern era and departure
- 19th century. Jewish merchants, the “sultan’s merchants,” handled much of Morocco’s long-distance trade, especially through Essaouira. The Alliance Israélite Universelle opened its first school in Tetouan in 1862 and spread French education across the country.
- 1912. France and Spain divided Morocco into protectorates. In April 1912 riots in Fez killed more than 50 Jews.
- 1940–1942. The French administration applied Vichy’s antisemitic laws, which restricted Jews in schools and the professions. Sultan Mohammed V is remembered for refusing to apply some of these measures and for receiving rabbis at the 1941 throne celebrations, though historians debate how much he could change. Read more: Sephardim in the Holocaust.
- 1948–1956. In June 1948 riots in Oujda and Jerada killed 47 Jews. About 18,000 Jews left in 1948–49, and tens of thousands more emigrated before independence in 1956.
- 1961–1964. Emigration was restricted after independence. In January 1961 the Egoz, a ship carrying Jews clandestinely toward Gibraltar, sank, and 46 people died. Under Operation Yachin (1961–1964), negotiated with King Hassan II, more than 80,000 Jews left for Israel.
- 1967 and after. About 60,000 Jews remained in 1967, and about 35,000 by 1971.
Religious life
Moroccan Jews pray in a North African Sephardi rite. Many communities sing bakkashot, poems of longing, in the early hours of winter Sabbath mornings, from the collection Shir Yedidot. Pilgrimages, hillulot, to the tombs of holy rabbis remain central; the tomb of Rabbi Amram ben Diwan (d. 1782) at Ouazzane draws pilgrims every year. At the end of Passover, families celebrate the Mimouna, now a festival in Israel too. In the 20th century, Rabbi Yosef Messas became known for rulings that met the realities of modern life.
Language, music and food
Moroccan Jews spoke Judeo-Arabic in most of the country, Berber in some Atlas villages and Haketia in the north; French spread through Alliance schools. Jewish musicians were stars of Moroccan popular and Andalusian music, among them Samy Elmaghribi, who founded the Samyphone record label in Casablanca in 1955. The table includes the Shabbat stew dafina, matbucha and the Purim bread boyosa. See also Moroccan wedding and henna traditions.
The community today
About 2,000 Jews lived in Morocco in 2017, most of them in Casablanca; some recent estimates are lower. Morocco’s 2011 constitution names “Hebraic” influences as part of the national identity, and synagogues such as the Ibn Danan Synagogue in Fez, restored and reopened in 1999, can be visited. Moroccan Jews and their descendants form one of the largest Jewish communities of origin in Israel, with others in France, Canada and the United States.
Notable people
- Samuel Pallache c. 1550–1616 · Fez Merchant and diplomat; helped conclude Morocco’s 1610 treaty with the Dutch Republic.
- Samy Elmaghribi 1922–2008 · Safi Singer and composer, born Salomon Amzallag; later a cantor in Montreal.
- Aldo Bensadoun b. 1939 · Fez Founder of the ALDO shoe company in Montreal, started in 1972.
- André Azoulay b. 1941 · Essaouira Adviser to Kings Hassan II and Mohammed VI since 1991.
- Gad Elmaleh b. 1971 · Casablanca Comedian and actor, known for his one-man shows and Huge in France.
Sources and further reading
- Haim Zafrani, Two Thousand Years of Jewish Life in Morocco (Ktav, 2005).
- Emily Benichou Gottreich, Jewish Morocco: A History from Pre-Islamic to Postcolonial Times (I.B. Tauris, 2020).
- Daniel J. Schroeter, “Jewish Communities of Morocco: History and Identity,” in Vivian B. Mann (ed.), Morocco: Jews and Art in a Muslim Land (Merrell, 2000).
- “History of the Jews in Morocco”, Wikipedia.
- Constitution of Morocco, 2011, Constitute Project.
Revised October 2026 to correct errors in an earlier version of this page.
