Casablanca is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic coast of the Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a population of about 3.71 million in the urban area, and over 4.27 million in Greater Casablanca, making it the most populous city in the Maghreb region, and the eighth-largest in the Arab world.
Tétouan is a city in northern Morocco. It lies along the Martil Valley and is one of the two major ports of Morocco on the Mediterranean Sea, a few miles south of the Strait of Gibraltar, and about 60 kilometres (37 mi) E.S.E. of Tangier. In the 2014 Moroccan census, the city recorded a population of 380,787 inhabitants. It is part of the administrative division Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima.
Essaouira, known until the 1960s as Mogador, is a port city in the western Moroccan region of Marrakesh-Safi, on the Atlantic coast. It has 77,966 inhabitants as of 2014.
A mellah is the place of residence historically assigned to Jewish communities in Morocco.
The history of Jews in Algeria goes back to Antiquity, although it is not possible to trace with any certainty the time and circumstances of the arrival of the first Jews in what is now Algeria. In any case, several waves of immigration helped to increase the population. There may have been Jews in Carthage and present-day Algeria before the Roman conquest, but the development of Jewish communities is linked to the Roman presence. Jewish revolts in Israel and Cyrenaica in the 1st and 2nd centuries certainly led to the arrival of Jewish immigrants from these regions. The vast majority of scholarly sources reject the notion that there were any large-scale conversions of Berbers to Judaism.
The history of the Jews in Tunisia extends nearly two thousand years to the Punic era. The Jewish community in Tunisia grew following successive waves of immigration and proselytism before its development was hampered in late antiquity by anti-Jewish measures in the Byzantine Empire. After the Muslim conquest of Tunisia, Tunisian Judaism went through periods of relative freedom or even cultural apogee to times of more marked discrimination, with Jews being treated as second-class citizens (dhimmi). The community formerly used its own dialect of Arabic. The arrival of Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula, often through Livorno, greatly altered the country. Its economic, social and cultural situation has improved markedly with the advent of the French protectorate before being compromised during the Second World War, with the occupation of the country by the Axis.
The history of the Jews in Morocco goes back to ancient times. 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, with a maximum of between 250,000 and 350,000 at its peak in the 1950s, which gave Morocco the largest Jewish community in the Muslim world, but by 2017 only 2,000 or so remained. 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 among the Muslim population French remains the main language of members of the Jewish community there.
André Azoulay is a Moroccan politician, activist and diplomat. He is a senior adviser to King Mohammed VI of Morocco. Azoulay previously advised Mohammed's father, king Hassan II. He currently presides over the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue Between Cultures, based in Alexandria, Egypt. Azoulay as the President of the executive committee of the Foundation for the Three Cultures and the Three Religions, based in Seville, Spain.
Edmond Amran El Maleh was a Moroccan writer and activist.
Al-Wifāq was a Moroccan Jewish nationalist organization promoting coexistence between Jews and Muslim communities in Morocco.
Judeo-Moroccan Arabic is the variety or the varieties of the Moroccan vernacular Arabic spoken by Moroccan Jews living or formerly living in Morocco. Historically, the majority of Moroccan Jews spoke Moroccan vernacular Arabic, or Darija, as their first language, even in Amazigh areas, which was facilitated by their literacy in Hebrew script. The Darija spoken by Moroccan Jews, which they referred to as al-‘arabiya diyalna as opposed to ‘arabiya diyal l-məslimīn, typically had distinct features, such as š>s and ž>z "lisping," some lexical borrowings from Hebrew, and in some regions Hispanic features from the migration of Sephardi Jews following the Alhambra Decree. The Jewish dialects of Darija spoken in different parts of Morocco had more in common with the local Moroccan Arabic dialects than they did with each other.
Sfenj is a Maghrebi doughnut: a light, spongy ring of dough fried in oil. Sfenj is eaten plain, sprinkled with sugar, or soaked in honey. It is a well-known dish in the Maghreb and is traditionally made and sold early in the morning for breakfast or in the late afternoon accompanied by tea—usually Maghrebi mint tea—or coffee. The term Sfenj is used in Algeria and other parts of the Maghreb. It is called bambalouni in Tunisia, and Sfenj in Libya. In Morocco, the term "Sfenj" is used, also sometimes nicknamed in the literature "Moroccan doughnuts". It is also called Khfaf or ftayr in Algeria, and is sometimes also dubbed as the "Algerian doughnut".
The Simon Attias Synagogue is a former Jewish synagogue, located in Essaouira, formerly known as Mogador, in Marrakesh-Safi, Morocco. It is also known as the Bet Ha-Knesset Simon Attias, M'sod Attias and Shaarei T'filah. The synagogue was built in 1882. The former synagogue has been incorporated as part of Bayt Dakira, a Jewish museum.
Moroccan Jews (Judeo-Moroccan Arabic: יהודיה מרוקו, romanized: Yādudïā Mãrōkā'm)(Ladino: Djudios de Maroko) 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.
The Ettedgui Synagogue is a synagogue in the medina of Casablanca, Morocco. It was rededicated by King Mohammed VI of Morocco on December 20, 2016, after it was restored. A government grant of about $844,000 funded the restorations, according to the Maghreb Arab Press.
The Slat Lkahal Synagogue is a synagogue located in the Mellah of the medina of Essaouira, in Marrakesh-Safi, Morocco.
Hiloula of Rabbi Haïm Pinto is the Yom Hillula, or anniversary of the death of Rabbi Haïm Pinto. It is one of the most popular Hiloulas in North Africa. It is celebrated in Essaouira, Morocco.
Nicole Elgrissy, is a Moroccan writer and activist.
Tujjār as-Sultān were an elite group of official Jewish merchants in the service of the sultan of Morocco, responsible for much of the kingdom's long-distance trade. The institution of Tujjār as-Sultān was established in the Saadi period (1510–1659). Men such as Joseph Toledano, Meʾir Maqnīn, and Samuel Pallache also served the Makhzen in diplomatic roles.
