Jewish Morocco: A History from Pre-Islamic to Postcolonial Times

265 Pages·2020·3.693 MB·English

by  Emily Benichou Gottreich

Jewish Morocco
ii
Jewish Morocco
A History from Pre-Islamic to
Postcolonial Times
Emily Gottreich
I.B. TAURIS
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK
1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA
BLOOMSBURY, I.B. TAURIS and the Diana logo are trademarks
of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2020
Copyright © Emily Benichou Gottreich 2020
Emily Benichou Gottreich has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
Cover design by Alice Marwick
Cover image © Jeunes Filles Juives D’Oudjda, 1922, anonymous artist, postcard.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without
prior permission in writing from the publishers.
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for,
any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given
in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher
regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased
to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-7807-6849-6
eISBN: 978-1-8386-0362-5
ePDF: 978-1-8386-0361-8
Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com
and sign up for our newsletters.
Contents
Acknowledgments vi
List of Maps xi
Introduction: Moroccan Themes, Jewish Variations 1
1 Malikism: The Jewish Encounter with Islam in the
Far Maghrib (Seventh–Tenth Centuries) 19
2 Amazighity: “Berber” Morocco—A Jewish History
(Eleventh–Fifteenth Centuries) 51
3 Sharifism: Religious Authority and the Rise of the
Moroccan State (Sixteenth–Eighteenth Centuries) 77
4 Europeanization: Imperialism and the Transformation
of Muslim-Jewish Relations (the Long Nineteenth Century) 102
5 Arabness: Nationalism in an Old-New Key (Twentieth Century) 130
Conclusion: Postmodern Jewish Morocco 171
Notes 184
Bibliography 229
Index 245
Acknowledgments
What made me consider writing a book like the current one—a synthetic history
based mostly on secondary sources—was the observation that so much excellent
scholarship has been produced on the topic of Moroccan Jewish history, society,
and culture in recent years, and yet in no single place was it possible to find an
overall narrative that incorporated its main findings. Moreover, when it comes to
this topic, there is a serious language barrier facing English-language audiences,
like those I encounter in the classroom. Of the publications in English, most take
the form of monographs and journal articles, and as such are highly specialized;
what general approaches to the subject do exist are written in French, Hebrew,
or Arabic and tend to be outdated. Hence the perceived need for a book like
Jewish Morocco, whose overarching goal is to increase access to the fine work
of today’s scholars of Moroccan history, Moroccan Jewry, and MENA Jews writ
large, while at the same time contributing in some small way to this rapidly
growing subregion of both Jewish and Middle Eastern studies. Once a bridge
between fields, MENA Jewish studies is now a field in its own right.
Many of the individuals whose work I rely on here I am fortunate to count
among my colleagues, friends, teachers, and students. My interactions with this
cohort have helped me immeasurably in formulating and writing this book. One
of the few places where the grandes lignes of Moroccan Jewish history are drawn
is in the article by Samir Ben-Layashi and Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, “Myth,
History, and Realpolitik: Morocco and Its Jewish Community” (2010). The
avenues of inquiry its authors suggest provided early guideposts for the current
work. At the same time, Susan Gilson Miller’s History of Modern Morocco (2012)
served as an important model for linking the Moroccan past with contemporary
concerns, reinforcing the tried and true maxim that history really exists only
in the present. Susan also gave generously of her time in reviewing the final
manuscript. Jonathan Wyrtzen’s Making Morocco: Colonial Intervention and
the Politics of Identity (2015) includes a particularly insightful chapter on
Moroccan Jewish identity in the modern era that helped me sharpen some of
my own arguments. Daniel Schroeter’s monumental oeuvre on the history of
the maghrib and its Jews, along with his mentorship and unflagging collegiality,
is a continuous source of inspiration. As anyone who knows him can attest,
Acknowledgments vii
Aomar Boum is one of the most generous and communal-minded colleagues
with whom one could ask to share a calling. Much of the material presented
here has been sifted through with his help, including during a Fulbright-Hayes
Group Projects Abroad program we ran together in Marrakech, Ouirgane, and
Essaouira in the summer of 2017 with the participation of a lively group of
middle and high school teachers from the San Francisco Bay Area.
For the sake of Anglophone audiences, I have tried to keep references to
works in languages other than English to a minimum, but it should be obvious to
specialists just how much this work owes to the foundational body of scholarship
on Morocco and its Jews in other languages. I am particularly indebted to my
Moroccan colleagues who have provided me with source material, translation
help, thoughtful analyses, warm friendships, and much couscous over the years.
Shukran bi-zaf to Khalid Ben-Srhir, Mohammed Kenbib, Mohammed Hatimi,
Hanan Sekkat Hatimi, Jamaâ Baïda, and Mina Mghari. Other friends in Morocco
who provided support to this project at crucial junctures include André Azoulay,
Jacky Kadoch, Vivian Cohen, Kati Roumani, and David Zaffran. Several
institutions deserve special mention for the many kindnesses they showed me
while I developed this project, beginning with the Tangier American Legation
and Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM) and the Moroccan American
Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange (MACECE) in Rabat. At
the former, Thor Kuniholm, John Davison, and Yhtimad Bouziane have always
provided me with a warm reception, and Jim Miller and his supremely capable
staff did the same at the latter. The Fulbright Program of the US Department
of Education, administered in Morocco through MACECE, has supported my
research from its earliest stages, including through a Fulbright Senior Scholars
grant to Marrakech in 2010–2011, a crucial year to have been able to spend in the
region. The American Institute for maghrib Studies (AIMS) has also supported
my research at various junctures. I have also enjoyed the cooperation of Michael
Fitzgerald and Hamza Weinman at the Center for Language and Culture in
Marrakech. The incomparable Gita Sellmann of the Swedish Academia Arabesca
has provided me with a second home in Marrakech on several occasions, often
through the intermediary efforts of the Nordic Society for Middle Eastern
Studies and my friend Marianne Laanatza of the University of Uppsala.
California, of all places, has emerged as a dynamic center for MENA Jewish
studies. Jessica Marglin deserves special credit for corralling those of us who
work on such topics into CALJEMM, the California Working Group on Jews of
the Maghrib and the Middle East. Originally based at the University of Southern
California and now divided between that institution and my home institution
viii Acknowledgments
of UC Berkeley, CALJEMM meets twice a year to read and critique members’
works in progress (including drafts of some of the chapters here). In addition to
Jessica and colleagues mentioned above, other members of this group who have
lent their time and expertise to improving different parts of this book include
Sarah Abrevaya Stein, Alma Heckman, Mostafa Hussein, Susan Slyomovics,
Marie-Pierre Ulloa, and Sarah Levin. I also wish to recognize those colleagues
who were kind enough to include me on various panels and roundtables at the
annual meetings of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) which helped
me think broadly and deeply about MENA Jewish history. In particular, a long
ago panel on “Arabness and Otherness” organized with Lisa Pollard, Sarah
Savant, and James McDougall allowed for the incubation of ideas on historicizing
this question with regard to Jews in the Maghrib, while a 2016 panel entitled
“Methodology and Margins: Studying Jewish Histories of the MENA” helped me
work through some of the structural implications of our field, with inspiration
provided by panelists Orit Bashkin, Susan Gilson Miller, Alma Heckman, Lior
Sternfeld, and Rami Ginat. In addition, I have received valuable feedback on
this project in response to lectures I gave at the Department of Near Eastern
Studies at Cornell University; the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford
University; the Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union;
and the Department of Ethnology, Religion and Gender and the Department of
Oriental Languages at Stockholm University.
My students at UC Berkeley are a continuous source of energy and inspiration.
Those who participated in the University Research Apprentice Program (URAP)
helped me complete crucial aspects of this project; I hope in return they got a
taste of the rewards of conducting academic research. These students include
Romain Julien, Ariel Ulansky, Madison Margolin Hannah Jewell, Rebecca
Rosen, Sam Metz, Taqwa El-Hindi, Charles Culioli, Farah Oraby, and Nicholas
Shafer. Summayah Bostan’s fastidious attention to detail helped bring order to
the manuscript in its latter stages. At the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Amir
Ebtehadj, Deellan Khanaka, and Jenail Mobaraki assisted me with preparing
the timelines, while Lydia Kiesling lent her sharp eye to editing. Then graduate
students now scholars in their own right David Moshfegh and Saima Akhtar
read and commented on parts of the manuscript. For patiently answering my
questions as I dipped my toe into the sea of Maliki jurisprudence for Chapter 1, I
thank Lena Salaymeh, Etty Terem, and Asad Ahmed. David Stenner generously
shared his expertise on the istiqlal and history of northern Morocco in the
twentieth century and did a careful reading of Chapter 5. Finally, my thanks
go to the librarians, without whom books would no longer beget more books:
Acknowledgments ix
special thanks to UC Berkeley Middle East/Islamica librarians Shayee Khanaka
and Mohammed Hamed, and Judaica librarian Paul Hamburg. Francesco
Spagnolo at UC Berkeley’s Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life granted
me access to its exquisite collection of Moroccan Judaica on several occasions.
My thanks to the patient staff at IB Tauris, and especially Azmina Siddique
and Sophie Rudland. I am especially grateful to them for locating four such
generous and hardworking anonymous readers for the manuscript. The maps
that appear at the beginning of Chapters 2–4 were originally created by Omar
Tounsi. An earlier, abbreviated version of Chapter 3 appeared in Modern Jewish
Studies (2013). Part of the Introduction was given as a video lecture at the
Tangier April Seminars of 2019, whose proceedings appear in special volume
of Journal of North Africa Studies (2020). Paul Dahan has once again given me
permission to use an image from his spectacular collection at the Centre de la
Culture Judeo-Marocaine in Brussels for the cover of the book. Sadly, I have
been unable to identify the two women from Oujda pictured in the photograph,
but I hope their memories are honored by this book.
This book is dedicated to my beloved spouse, Albert. Enfin bref.