Jewish Heritage Tour In Morocco

Upon your arrival at Casablanca airport, you will find your host waiting for you to greet you and then later take you to your hotel in Rabat. You will depart for Rabat, the capital of Morocco. This is a beautiful short drive of about 45 miles through the lash farms and nurseries of all kinds of flowers and exotic plants. You will reach Rabat. Styled in a spaciously elegant European grid, yet slightly self-conscious of its modernity, Rabat and its twin city Sala Colonia separated by only a river but historically worlds apart, have an ancient legacy spanning hundreds of generations. Each civilization that has inhabited each town has left its mark, resulting in a wide variety of architectural styles, including those from the Phoenician and Roman eras. You will spend your day discovering the delights that Rabat has to offer. Just outside the city walls of Rabat is another walled city, the Chellah, where Jews are believed to have lived during the time of the Phoenicians. Rabat's Archeological Museum strongly focuses on the Roman town of Volubilis and displays a Jewish lamp found at the site. The unfinished Tour Hassan Mosque is the counterpart of Marrakesh's Koutoubia Mosque and the Giralda Cathedral in Seville, Spain, all of which were built by the Almohad Dynasty, the twelfth-century persecutors of the Jewish people. Adjoining the Tour Hassan is the Mausoleum of King Mohammed V, which has become a pilgrimage site for Jews, who cannot forget his efforts to defend them against the anti-Semitic policies of the French Vichy Government. The nearby Mellah has a beautiful synagogue inside its gates, while the main temple is found a few blocks in New City. The Oudaias Kasbah was the home of the Sale pirates, some Portuguese Marranos. The Oudaias Museum displays traditional Moroccan clothing, including a Jewish wedding costume. Rabat's Jewish cemetery has tombstones with Hebrew, French, and Spanish inscriptions. Important saints include Eliezer de Avila and Chalom Zaoui. A few kilometers North of Rabat, a new Jewish Heritage museum has opened near the Place des Nations.

You will travel to Meknes on an excursion that embodies much of Morocco's early history. First, you will travel through the Zaer confederation, where fertile and large-scale farms and vineyards are abundant. Then, of course, the Zemmour Berber tribes started at Tifelt of colorful Moroccan hats, a sign of wealth among farming communities. Next, East in the niter land, we will reach the hills of Zemmour, starting at Khemisset, a city now known for its exquisite Kilims. Finally, you will proceed to Meknes, a city that was created in the first place to rival Fez but not quite. It is what Moroccans call the Versailles of Morocco. Meknes is one of the only cities in Morocco where the Mellah does not adjoin the royal palace. It is also the only city where Jews decided to create a new Mellah after the French Protectorate was installed. The European town houses several synagogues as well as a community center. The new Mellah is still the home for some of Meknes's 200 Jews, and one can visit a beautiful temple, the El Krief, nearby the new cemetery. On the other side of the new Mellah is the old Jewish cemetery. Several saints are found in the two cemeteries, including Haim Messas, David Boussidan, and Raphael Berdugo. North of Meknes is Volubilis, a well-preserved Roman city, where archaeologists found the first traces of Jewish settlement in Morocco. The nearby town of Moulay Idriss contains a mausoleum commemorating the founder of the first Muslim state in Morocco, Idriss I, who oppressed the Jews, forcing many of them to convert. Further North is Ouezzane, a town controlled by a crucial Muslim fraternity that encouraged Jewish traders and agriculturists to live nearby. East of Ouezzane is the village of Azjen, where the tomb of the essential Jewish saint, Amram Ben Diwane, is found. The Lag B'Omer pilgrimages to his grave attract hundreds of Jews inside and beyond Morocco. Later in the afternoon, we will cross the hills of Zgotta and continue to Fez, where you will be provided with dinner and accommodations at your hotel.

Undeniably fascinating, Fez stimulates the senses with its haunting yet beautiful sounds, visual splendor, and evocative smells. The most ancient of imperial capitals and the complete medieval city of the Islamic world, Fez is reminiscent of a city suspended in time, unfazed by the constantly evolving world outsides its walls, owing nothing to the Western world save electricity. Time spent in Fez will reveal much about the sophistication of the Moroccan artisan, providing an unparalleled learning experience to those who cross its path. Your morning will be spent visiting the Medina. In contrast with the young Mellah of Casablanca, the Mellah of Fez is over 650 years old. This picturesque neighborhood adjoins the royal palace, noted for its recently constructed bright brass doors. Jews took shelter in this palace during the 1912 pogrom. The nearby cemetery contains the tombs of more Jewish saints than any other cemetery in Morocco. One of the more important saints is Lalla Solica, who was killed for refusing to convert to Islam. This woman was born in Tangier in 1817. At 16, she was courted by a Muslim man but refused to marry him. To force her hand, the man went to the caid, the local government official. The man told the caid that Solica could not refuse his offer of marriage because she was no longer Jewish, having converted to Islam of her own free will. When called before the caid, she refused to acknowledge having altered. The Sultan called her to Fez, where she again denied her conversion. As a result, she was condemned to death for apostasy and killed in 1834. Throughout the old city of Fez, there are traces of ancient Jewish life, including the home of Maimonides, who lived there from 1159-1165. In the face of a declining population, the Jewish community of Fez is working hard to maintain its community spirit and preserve its heritage and traditions. The Center was created in the early 1980s in a building housing a Talmud Torah synagogue and school. Nearby the community center is Roben Ben Sadoun Synagogue. Built-in the 1920s, it is decorated with exquisite plaster carvings reminiscent of the decoration of traditional mosques and madrasas. It is large by the standards of Morocco, where every wealthy Jewish family desired its synagogue.