Jews and Muslims in Morocco: Their Intersecting Worlds

Moroccan Jewry has a long tradition, harking back to the area’s earliest settlements and possessing deep connections and associations with the historic peoples of the region. In Jews and Muslims of Morocco historians, anthropologists, musicologists, Rabbinic scholars, Arabists, and linguists examine the complex and hybrid history of intercultural exchange between Moroccan Jewry and the Arab and Berber cultures through analyses of the Jews’ use of Morocco’s multiple languages and dialects, characteristic poetry, and musical works as well as their shared magical rites and popular texts and proverbs. The essays in this collection span political and social interactions throughout history, cultural commonalities, traditions, and halakhic developments. Acknowledging that Jewish life in Morocco has dwindled and continues to exist primarily in the memories of Moroccan Jewish diaspora communities, the volume concludes with personal memories an analysis of a visual memoir, and a photo essay of the vanished world of Jewish life in Morocco.