Jews in Morocco Resting by the Gate of the Mellah
(the Jewish Ghetto)
Morocco, c. 1955
Must Know
Mellah is the name given to Jewish neighbourhoods in Morocco. From the 15th and especially during the 19th century Jews were confined to the walls of the Mellah, socially isolated from the rest of the Muslim society. Opinions of the purpose of the Mellah are mixed among researchers, some believing the fortified community was a sheltered area to keep Jews safe from Muslim violence. Others, however, claim the Mellah served as a ‘ghetto’, discriminating Jews and gaining control of Jewish businesses. Still, the Mellah ensured a preservation of Moroccan Jewish heritage till today.
The word Mellah is similar to word salt in hebrew and Arabic (melach) and refers to the historically salty, marshy areas where Moroccan Jews originally gathered within Morocco. Additionally the name also refers to stories from the 1930s of Jews being responsible of salting the cut heads of the Sultan’s opponents in preparation for their mummification.
The first Mellah within Morroco was established in Fez in 1438.
More Info
Jews in Morocco were seen as religious minority in comparison with the Muslim majority and were protected under the rule of the Sultan. It was the idea that an attack on minorities was an attack on the Sultan’s power. It is largely believed Sultans established the Mellah for Jews because they were an important financial source within the Moroccan population.
Morocco is home to a large number of well-established Berber Jewish communities, largely a result of the expulsion of Sephardic Jews from the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century. Berbers are an ethnic indigenous group with their own Berber language and customs that was and is still largely celebrated in Morocco and the rest of North African countries. The spread and establishment of Berberism was especially great when Northern African states began detaching from their colonial past and replacing European colonial languages with their own – beginning to identify themselves as predominantly Arab, Jewish Berber and Muslim states.
World War II and the subsequent establishment of the state of Israel prompted a large emigration of Moroccan Jews to Israel as well as other countries such as France and the United States.
