Morocco museum highlights Jewish cultural history

2009-10-02

Casablanca boasts the Arab world's only museum dedicated to Jewish history. To its many visitors, the Moroccan Jewish Cultural Museum illuminates a little-known part of national history and shows how common bonds can overcome religious differences.

Interview and photos by Imane Belhaj for Magharebia in Casablanca – 02/10/09

The Jewish Cultural Museum in Casablanca is unique in the Arab world.

Casablanca's Moroccan Jewish Cultural Museum is a one-of-its-kind institute on the national, Arab and global levels. It is the only museum to showcase Judaism as a fundamental cultural component of Moroccan civilisation.

Zhor Rhihil is a Moroccan Muslim who has served as curator of the unique museum since its 1997 inception. Along with director Simon Levi and a dedicated staff of Moroccans and Jews, this Paris and Morocco-educated cultural anthropologist and historian is working to document the historical contribution of Moroccan Jewry.

As the small but vibrant Jewish community in Morocco celebrates the Jewish New Year this week, Magharebia asked Rhihil about the museum and its role in preserving Morocco's Jewish cultural legacy.

Magharebia: What makes the Moroccan-Jewish Cultural Museum in Casablanca so special?

Zhor Rhihil: It is the only museum concerned with Jewish culture and heritage in an Arab Muslim country. Other Jewish institutes specialising in Jewish heritage and art are, for the most part, located in Europe and the US.

Magharebia: How can this museum preserve Jewish Moroccan culture, when there are so few Jews left in the country?

Rhihil: This is what we call the challenge. We are aware that the number of Jews living in Morocco dropped dramatically more than six decades ago. This historic situation witnessed by Morocco is, by no means, unique. It exists in all Arab countries. Since the onset of the Jewish state in 1948, the Arab world was drained of all Jews.

This has been the case in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Yemen. All those countries were emptied of their Jewish elements, who had an imprint on culture and civilisation.

For instance, when we talk about Moroccan heritage, culture and civilisation, we ought to explain all the rich and diverse elements involved - Amazigh, African, Mediterranean, Jewish, Arab and Andalusian. All of them truly enriched Moroccan culture and character.

As museum curators, we regret the heritage we lost. I believe that any Jewish Moroccan component is essentially Moroccan before being Jewish. Today, we feel that we have lost something of that Moroccan characteristic. It was that feeling that drove a number of Moroccans, regardless of their faiths, to join hands.

We - Jews and Muslims - work in a Jewish Moroccan museum. The initiative to set it up was taken by what we, in Morocco, call the Council of Moroccan Jewish Communities, in collaboration with Western states, in recognition of the efforts exerted by Moroccans in maintaining and preserving the legacy that makes up the Moroccan heritage. At the same time, it is our job to acquaint the younger generations of Moroccans with that heritage.

Muslims co-existed with Moroccan Jews 50 or 60 years ago, as neighbours and classmates. They had the same occupations. However, Moroccans who were born in the seventies know very little about those times, the hallmark of which was co-existence, tolerance and inclusion. They are unaware that there were once Moroccan Jews, and so feel surprised when we talk about the Jewish component and the Jewish Moroccan traditions.

We are here today to bridge that historic and cultural hiatus, and to inform present-day youth of the rich Jewish Moroccan heritage. It is the joint responsibility of Muslims and Jews to preserve that heritage, so we could enjoy an outstanding cultural status.

Magharebia: Is a single museum on the Arab and Islamic level, as you say, enough to act as a beacon of light to realise those ends?

Rhihil: Personally speaking, as a Muslim curator of a Jewish museum, I find that unique and special, because only Jews work in Jewish museums across the world. So for me, this is a huge responsibility, as well as a source of pride that prods me on to work even more, since I am acting as a mediator between Muslims and Jews.

Thank God, on the national level, I believe we are doing substantial efforts, though resources are quite limited, because funds allocated to the domain of culture are always minimal. We do not have gigantic financial resources, as is the case with several American and European Jewish museums. I am hoping that other Arab states would erect similar museums and contact us so we could provide them with the expertise they need and assist them in preserving the Jewish Arab component that is globally recognised.

The museum welcomes many visitors, including researchers and student tours.

Magharebia: As part of your job, you meet many Moroccan Jews. Do they feel safe here?

Rhihil: Definitely. They are a minority. History had a say in their numbers. Nonetheless, Morocco still has a substantial Jewish element compared to other Arab states, where Jews are virtually extinct. Morocco is the only country that witnesses inward and outward flow of Jews. Moroccan Jews are known to be attached to Morocco. That is why many Jews chose not to leave, or they come back repeatedly for visits.

Magharebia: In 2003, suicide bombers killed dozens of people in Casablanca locations that included a Jewish community centre. Do Jews feel insecure in this city?

Rhihil: I don't think so. Even Muslims can suffer security threats whether in Islamic states, Europe or America. Unfortunately, terrorism is perpetrated by terrorists against Muslims, Jews or Christians. Yet, we need to point out that that the impact of that in Morocco is limited.

Moroccan Muslims see no difference between themselves and Moroccan Jews. The considerable number of visitors of the museum incarnates that visible, incontestable co-existence.

Magharebia: How big is the turnout?

Rhihil: Quite substantial. We have many visitors, especially university students who are conducting research in the field of Moroccan heritage, and preparing theses or dissertations on the Jewish component of Moroccan culture.

We were visited by schools, and others have not yet come to visit. I am hoping that those in charge of educational institutions will realise the necessity of acquainting students with that culture in our society. Luckily, we have this museum in Casablanca, which we hope teachers would grow an interest in. I seize this opportunity to invite educational institutions and their principals to accompany students to the museum. It holds an abundance of information and history that is sure to boost their knowledge and culture.

Visitors can see examples of Moroccan Jewish garments and other objects.

Magharebia: What does the museum have to offer its visitors?

Rhihil: This is an ethnographic museum that showcases many groups related to Jewish Moroccan heritage and culture, and Moroccan Jewish religious rites, in specific and not global Judaism in general. For instance, we have on display groups of Moroccan kaftan, as a common attire, rabbi and Moroccan jallaba, a number of traditional tools that were formerly used in household chores, as well as traditional Moroccan occupations that Jews used to practice, side by side with Muslims. We also have on display a number of Moroccan temples, which we call Bay’a, which come in numerous styles in Morocco; Amazighi, European, not to mention styles that were found in ancient cities such as Rabat, Meknes, Fez, etc.

What is important is that it is a spacious place that welcomes visitors, whether Muslims or Jews, portraying the Islamo-Jewish component of Moroccan culture.

Magharebia: Is the difference in religion or culture any obstacle in dealing with the Jews?

Rhihil: Not at all. Personally speaking, I do not find any difficulty. Specialising in any field such as heritage or humanities assists us in putting aside differences in faith.

What Moroccans are not aware of is that what brings Jews and Muslims together is our country, Morocco. We speak the same dialect, eat the same food and share the same taste and mentality. What we share in common is much more important than religion. It is Arab culture, art and music.