History of the Jews in Morocco
The history of the Jews in Morocco goes back to ancient times. Moroccan Jews constitute an ancient community, with the oldest irrefutable evidence of Judaism in Morocco dating back to the Roman period. After the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, Jews would become the primary religious minority group, particularly after the Almohad period and the departure of the Christians.
The Jewish communities in Morocco have historically been diverse, with significant differences between urban and rural populations, Toshavim and Megorashim, and inhabitants of different cities and regions. It was not uncommon for different Jewish communities in Morocco to speak different languages, including Darija, Tamazight, Haketia, or French.
Jews in Morocco traditionally lived together in communities, whether in Jewish villages in rural areas or, particularly after the 15th century and especially from the 19th century, in an urban mellāḥ, or Jewish quarter. In the 19th century, due to economic transformations and the proliferation of European industrial imports competing with traditional Jewish crafts, there was a major migration of Jews from the rural hinterland to coastal cities. Some elite Jewish merchants in the service of the Makhzen, known as Tujjār as-Sultān, handled much of the kingdom's long-distance trade, especially in Essaouira.
The Alliance Israélite Universelle, a Paris-based organization that sought to improve the lives of Jews through a French education, opened its first school in Tétouan in 1862. The AIU helped create a class of elite, Westernized Jews in coastal cities, many of whom benefited from the protégé system, accentuating differences between urban and rural Jews in Morocco.
The Zionist movement in Morocco appeared in the early 20th century and spread slowly over the following decades through various forms of advocacy and substantial external backing. Only after the establishment of the State of Israel in Palestine in 1948 was there any significant emigration of Moroccan Jews. Through Cadima and Operation Yachin, about 60,000 and 90,000 Moroccan Jews migrated to Israel, respectively. In 1948, there were about 265,000 Jews in Morocco, with a maximum of between 250,000 and 350,000 at its peak in the 1950s, making the Jewish community in Morocco at that time the largest in the Muslim world. By 2017 only 2,000 or so remained. In 2025 the Jewish Population in Morocco numbered 1,000
History
Origins
It is possible that some Jews fled to North Africa after the destruction of the First Temple in the sixth century BCE or the destruction of the Second Temple in the first century CE. It is also possible that they arrived on Phoenician boats. There is also a theory, supported by Ibn Khaldun, that Moroccan Jews were indigenous Imazighen who converted to Judaism, although the question of who converted them remains, and this theory has been rejected by most scholars. The Jewish community of Ifran, from the Tamazight word ifri meaning cavern, is supposed to date back to 361 BCE and is believed to be the oldest Jewish community in what is now Morocco.Under the Romans
The first irrefutable evidence of Jews in what is now Morocco, in the form of gravestone epitaphs in Hebrew at Volubilis and the ruins of a third century synagogue, dates back to late antiquity. This epigraphic evidence includes inscriptions in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin; "Matrona, daughter of Rabbi Yehuda, rest " is inscribed in Hebrew, the only Hebrew inscription from the first centuries CE in the region. Emily Gottreich contends that Jewish migration to Morocco predates the full formation of Judaism, as the Talmud was "written and redacted between 200 and 500 CE."As Christianity was adopted by the Roman state, the church Councils of Carthage adopted policies that discriminated against adherents to Judaism. The Justinian edict of persecution for North Africa, issued after Vandal rule had been overthrown and Mauretania had come under the dominion of the Byzantines, was directed against the Jews as well as the Arians, the Donatists, and other dissenters.
In the 7th century, the Jewish population of Mauretania received as a further accession from Iberian Peninsula those who wished to escape Visigothic legislation. At the end of the same century, at the time of the great Arab conquests in northwestern Africa, there were in Mauretania, according to the Arab historians, many Jews.
Arab conquest and the Idrisids (703–1146)
Since the city of Fez was founded in 789 CE, it attracted a diverse kind of population from all around the area, among those new newcomers came the Jews who contributed their commercial capabilities to the new developed economy. They settled in the medina of Fez, and formed a stable community, which was an integral part of the city life.The golden age of the Jewish community in Fez lasted for almost three hundred years, from the 9th to 11th centuries. Its yeshivot attracted brilliant scholars, poets and grammarians. This period was marred by the 1033 Fez massacre. However, it is described by the Jewish Virtual Library as an isolated event primarily due to political conflict between the Maghrawa and Ifrenid tribes.
Under the Almoravids
The Almoravid dynasty was an imperial Berber Muslim dynasty originating in the Sahara whose empire eventually extended from Lisbon and Valencia to Awdaghust and Gao. Their religious fervor and fighting capabilities enabled them to establish a formidable empire in the Morocco and Muslim Spain in the 11th and 12th centuries. Their theological Islamic zeal is attributed to Yahya ibn Ibrahim, their spiritual leader, as well as to the 'alim 'Abd Allah ibn Yasin.In the Sahara, the Almoravids probably had minimal contact with Jews, though there were Jewish merchant communities in oases and towns. As the Almoravids incorporated the cities of Sijilmasa, Awdaghust, and Aghmat, they came to rule over their Jewish communities. Yusuf ibn Tashfin imposed high taxes on the Jewish merchant community of Aghmat in 1071, perhaps enforcing a jizya tax. Muhammad al-Idrisi also indicates a preference for segregation in Aghmat and Marrakesh under the Almoravids. Jewish communities of the western Maghreb maintained ties with Jewish communities in the Christian kingdoms to the North, in the Islamic east, and throughout the Mediterranean. Although Jewish populations in Ifriqiya, the western Sahara, and al-Andalus were mostly urban at the time of the Almoravids, the western Maghreb had indigenous Judeo-Berber communities living in small villages. It is possible that the Barghawata confederation that the Almoravids fought had a Judeo-Berber background.
The position of the Jews under Almoravid domination was apparently free of major abuses, though there are reports of increasing social hostility against them – particularly in Fez. Unlike the problems encountered by the Jews during the rule of the Almohads, there are not many factual complaints of excesses, coercion, or malice on the part of the authorities toward the Jewish communities. It is known, however, that Yusuf Ibn Tashfin forbade Jews living in the capital city Marrakesh. It was allowed for them to trade there, but if a Jew was caught in the city during night hours it was punishable by death.
Under the Almoravids, some Jews prospered. Among those who held the title of "vizier" or "nasih" in Almoravid times were the poet and physician Abu Ayyub Solomon ibn al-Mu'allam, Abraham ibn Meïr ibn Kamnial, Abu Isaac ibn Muhajar, and Solomon ibn Farusal.
From the traditional Iberian historiographical perspective, the Almoravids and Almohads are seen as having disrupted the convivencia of medieval Iberia.
Under the Almohads (1146–15th century)
The Dhimmi status, which called for the payment of jizya in exchange for a certain level of protection for religious minorities, came to an end under the strict militant dynasty of the Almohads, who came into power in 1146. Instead, the Almohads forced Jews to choose between conversion to Islam or death, compelling many Jews to convert, or at least pretend to. Due to the many similarities between Jewish and Islamic practice, Jews felt as though they could clandestinely maintain their Jewish practices under the guise of Islam. Maimonides, who was staying in Fez with his father, is said to have written to the communities to comfort and encourage his brethren and fellow believers in this time of oppression In the above-mentioned elegy of Abraham ibn Ezra, which appears to have been written at the commencement of the period of the Almohads, and which is found in a Yemen siddur among the kinot prescribed for the Ninth of Ab, the Moroccan cities Ceuta, Meknes, the Draa River valley, Fez, and Segelmesa are especially emphasized as being exposed to great persecution. Joseph ha-Kohen relates that no remnant of Israel was left from Tangier to Mehdia.Due to the nature of the forced conversions, the later Almohads were no longer content with the repetition of a mere formula of belief in the unity of God and in the prophetic calling of Muhammad. The third Almohad Prince, Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur, spoke on this matter, saying "If I were sure about the sincerity of their Islam, I would let them mix with the Muslims..., and if I were sure of their unbelief, I would kill their men, enslave their offspring, and declare their property spoils for the Muslims. But I am uncertain about their case." Thus, al-Mansur made an effort to distinguish the neo-Muslims from the "true" Muslims. He compelled them to wear distinguishing garments, with a very noticeable yellow cloth for a head-covering; from that time forward the clothing of the Jews formed an important subject in the legal regulations concerning them.
The reign of the Almohads on the whole exercised a most disastrous and enduring influence on the position of the Moroccan Jews. Already branded by their clothing as unbelievers, they furthermore became objects of scorn and violent despotic caprice from which there was no escape.
An account by Solomon Cohen dated January 1148 CE describes the Almohad conquests:
Abd al-Mumin... the leader of the Almohads after the death of Muhammad Ibn Tumart the Mahdi... captured Tlemcen and killed all those who were in it, including the Jews, except those who embraced Islam.... One hundred and fifty persons were killed for clinging to their faith.... One hundred thousand persons were killed in Fez on that occasion, and 120,000 in Marrakesh. The Jews in all localities ... groaned under the heavy yoke of the Almohads; many had been killed, many others converted; none were able to appear in public as Jews.