New Jewish Morocco Books, Resources and Music

Books

A number of new, important books have been published recently that deserve the attention of anybody interested in Jewish Morocco.

The first is Jewish Culture and Society in North Africa, an edited volume put together by two top scholars - Emily Gottreich at Berkeley and Daniel Schroeter at Minnesota. Of particular interest is Abdellah Larhmaid’s Jewish Identity and Landownership in the Sous Region of Morocco, Aomar Boum’s Southern Moroccan Jewry between the Colonial Manufacture of Knowledge and the Postcolonial Historiographical Silence, Susan Miller’s Making Tangier Modern: Ethnicity and Urban Development, 1880-1930 and Stacy Holden’s Muslim and Jewish Interaction in Moroccan Meat Markets, 1873-1912.

 

The volume also contains valuable chapters on Algeria and Tunisia. Hadj Miliani’s Crosscurrents: Trajectories of Algerian Jewish Artists and Men of Culture since the End of the Nineteenth Century will provide readers of this blog with familiar names of Algerian musicians from the first half of the 20^th century and is a welcome scholarly addition to this field although it also feels very much like the beginning of research rather than the culmination of efforts. Jewish Culture and Society North Africa will also serve as a welcome companion to the volume The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in Modern Times edited by Reeva Spector Simon, Michael Laskier and Sara Reguer.

Brill recently released The Martyrdom of a Moroccan Jewish Saint by Sharon Vance, a contributor to Jewish Culture and Society in North Africa. I have not had a chance to read this yet but I have included a description of the book below: 

Tomb of Sol Hatchuel, Fez Jewish Cemetery, 2008 (c)

This work gathers texts that tell the story of the martyrdom of Sol Hatchuel, a young Jewish girl from Tangier, who was executed in Fez in 1834. It discusses narratives in Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Spanish, French and Spanish written in the first century after her death, placing them in historical and literary historical context and showing how authors in each language interpreted her martyrdom. The book also includes a historical analysis of the event itself in the context of Moroccan and Moroccan Jewish history in the 19th Century.

Resources

The Douglas E. Goldman Jewish Genealogy Center at Beit Hatefusot in Tel Aviv recently received a donation from the Raphael and Georgette Cohen Collection of Family Trees of a searchable database of 22,000+ individual names, organized in family trees, of Jewish families from Meknes, Morocco. The link has been included below.

Music

I also want to draw your attention to Jonathan Ward’s excellent new four CD set Opika Pende: Africa at 78 RPM. Ward of Excavated Shellac fame (the excellent 78 rpm blog he runs) has incorporated a number of rare tracks by Jewish North African artists on the first CD including Sassi, Cheikh Zouzou, Cheikh Elafrit, Messaoud Habib and Zohra El Fassia. The CD set is now available for pre-order.

Links

To access a complete list of Jewish Morocco books, click here.

To purchase Jewish Culture and Society in North Africa, click here.

To purchase The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in Modern Times, click here.

To purchase The Martyrdom of a Moroccan Jewish Saint, click here.

To access the Meknes database, click here.

To pre-order Opika Pende: Africa at 78 RPM, click here, and make sure to check out Excavated Shellac.

Death of Rabbi Elazar Abuhatzeira, Memories of Tafilalt and Cheikh Mwijo

The new Jewish cemetery in Rissani (2008)

The tragic news of the murder of Rabbi Elazar Abuhatzeira, grandson of the Baba Sali, in Be'er Sheva, Israel last Friday, July 29 brought back memories of my travels in Tafilalt where in a way this story really begins. Tafilalt is the area of southern Morocco that borders the Sahara where the Abuhatzeira dynasty originally hails from. The area includes the shrine of Rabbi Shmuel Abuhatzeira, cousin of the Baba Sali, in Erfoud, the remnants of the historic Jewish communities of Ghirlane and other villages and of course the original home of the Baba Sali in Rissani. I'm going to write more about Erfoud, Ghirlane and Rissani in an upcoming post but first I want to start with the figure of the Baba Sali and some music that will help situate this story.

As you will recall from a post I put up in January, Cheikh Mwijo, the legendary singer from Meknes, and the Abuhatzeira family have long had a history. At the time I recounted the following, "First, it should be noted that Mwijo has a number of songs that exalt Moroccan tzaddiqim. One of these songs is a tribute to Rabbi Yaakov Abu Hasira, the grandfather of the Baba Sali, who died on a pilgrimage to the Land of Israel and was buried in the Nile Delta in Egypt. Abu Hasira’s tomb became a site of pilgrimage and has recently attracted media attention due to local Egyptian opposition to the annual influx of Israelis and Jews. When the Baba Sali caught wind of this song and of Cheikh Mwijo he invited Mwijo to visit him in Netivot in the Negev. Mwijo couldn’t make the journey from Kiryat Ata right away but eventually would come to pay his respects. The Baba Sali couldn’t understand how Mwijo knew so much about his grandfather. Mwijo revealed to the Baba Sali that he was a Meknesi at which point the Baba Sali exclaimed that everything now made sense as Meknes was a city of great torah scholars. To honor Mwijo, Baba Sali asked Mwijo to drink arak from the same cup as Rabbi Y. Abu Hasira, his grandfather (it was unclear whether the cup was used by his grandfather or if the arak had actually been partially consumed by his grandfather). Mwijo drank dutifully but was forced to hold his nose while doing so for he hated arak. As Mwijo told this story animatedly, I remembered the arak I had left in the car and thought that somehow the Baba Sali must have been watching over me."

I have digitized Cheikh Mwijo's Rabb Abouhassira off of his 14th LP. It dates from the 1970s. It is fascinating ode to the Baba Sali and his grandfather and recounts, in Judeo-Arabic, the history of the Abuhatzeira family and the Jews of the Sahara.

Cheikh Mwijo. Rabb Abouhassira. #14. Koliphone. 1970s

Take a listen.

Rabb Abouhassira - Cheikh Mwijo (Koliphone, 1970s) by CBSilver

Videos from the Tahala Jewish Cemetery

I've added a couple of short videos from the Tahala Jewish cemetery. If anyone has any updates on the status of the cemetery, please send my way. It is surreal to once again see these videos after having been away from the region for too long.

Here is some of what I wrote back in October 2008:

I arrived in Tahala and quickly found an amicable old man who pointed me in the right direction. Tahala is a small village about 15 km outside of Tafraoute. It was a Saturday and even quieter than usual. If I saw anyone around I asked them to point me in the direction of the cemetery and the happily did so. I finally arrived to a construction site. The Moroccan equivalent of a McMansion was being built in Tahala and seriously blemished the landscape. The construction workers motioned me forward past the site and to what looked like construction materials at first glance. But at second glance it was much more than construction materials. It was the remnant of the Tahala Jewish cemetery...



...There were about 12-15 visible graves with visible, clearly written Hebrew on about 6 of the graves. Some of the graves lied under construction materials and many had been destroyed. There was broken pottery, mostly tagine lids, strewn about and a good number of the graves that were still in good condition had been desecrated from the top. A number of people I have spoken to on this matter seem to think that local Berber traditions have identified Jewish cemeteries as sources of certain powers and the broken pottery and even the desecration is part of these rituals. As construction moved along and as I moved on it seemed to me that this cemetery only has a few years left before it is totally destroyed. Sadly it was one of the most moving cemeteries I have seen since arriving in Morocco and was at a loss of what to do. If the Hebrew inscriptions are not moved to a museum (perhaps in Casablanca) then they will completely disappear in the near future.



Tahala and the study of the Jews of the Sous are continuing to gain interest among historians and anthropologists. Read Abdellah Larhmaid's excellent chapter on Jewish Identity and Landowndership in the Sous Region of Morocco in the excellent and recently released Jewish Culture and Society in North Africa.

Images from the Tahala Jewish Cemetery

Jewish cemetery in Tahala (2008)

There is more music on the way soon but I want to start uploading my photos from past trips to the blog and thought I would start today before Shabbat. Below are a few more photos from the abandoned Jewish cemetery in Tahala, a small village outside of Tafroute in the Ameln Valley that once had a sizable Jewish community (as a percentage of the entire village). At the time the photos were taken there was significant development occurring adjacent to the cemetery and no wall to protect it from the new construction. I'm unfortunately not sure what the current state of the cemetery is.

Read about my travel to Tahala here and here.

Tombstone from Jewish cemetery in Tahala (2008)

Tombstone from Jewish cemetery in Tahala (2008)

Ya Nas, Ya Nas – Zohra El Fassia Digitized

The recent draft constitution put forward by King Muhammad VI describes Morocco as, “a nation whose unity is based on the fully endorsed diversity of its constituents: Arab, Amazigh, Hassani, Sub-Saharan, African, Andalusian, Jewish and Mediterranean.” I thought I would take this opportunity to write about the great Moroccan Jewish singer Zohra El Fassia who embodies much of that diversity.

The Morocco Years
Zohra El Fassia was born in 1905 to a Jewish family in Fez. She recorded dozens of records in her career in Morocco and at least seventeen 78s just between the years 1947 and 1957 for Polyphon, Pathe and Philips. She was a favorite of the King and of the people and took pride in the fact that her music was enjoyed by both Muslims and Jews.

Zohra El Fassia – Aita Moulay Brahim (Chant Chleuh) – Pathe, 1950s
I just digitized one of her 78s. To my knowledge no version of this exists online or in CD form. Take a listen. This is a different Zohra El Fassia then the one you will hear later in this post. Rapid paced singing. Chant Chleuh as Pathe describes it – Zohra El Fassia singing ‘aita.



The Israel Years
By 1962, Zohra El Fassia – at the height of her career in many ways - moved to Israel. She lived in Jewish Agency housing in Ashkelon, in conditions strikingly different from the ones she enjoyed in Morocco. Upon arrival in the country, she began recording in Arabic for the Koliphone (Zakiphon) label.

I want to take a moment to point out something interesting here and it is really a point that Ammiel Alcalay made in the past but that hasn’t been resolved. Erez Bitton, the important Moroccan-Algerian poet, who writes about the North African experience in Israel, penned a poem in 1976, a tragic poem, on Zohra El Fassia’s life in Israel and deserves mention here:

Zohra El Fassia’s song
Erez Bitton, 1976

Zohra El Fassia

Singer at Muhammad the Fifth’s court in Rabat, Morocco
They say when she sang
Soldiers fought with knives
To clear a path through the crowd
To reach the hem of her skirt
To kiss the tips of her toes
To leave her a piece of silver as a sign of thanks

Zohra El Fassia

Now you can find her
In Ashkelon
Antiquities 3
By the welfare office the smell
Of leftover sardine cans on a wobbly three-legged table
The stunning royal carpets stained on the Jewish Agency cot
Spending hours in a bathrobe
In front of the mirror
With cheap make-up –
When she says

Muhammad Cinque

Apple of our eyes

You don’t really get it at first

Zohra El Fassia’s voice is hoarse
Her heart is clear
Her eyes are full of love

Zohra El Fassia

Back in 1993, Ammiel Alcalay pointed out in After Jews and Arabs: Remaking of Levantine Culture that the compendium the Modern Hebrew Poem Itself makes a serious error about Zohra El Fassia. Several poems by Erez Bitton are included in the the Modern Hebrew Poem Itself including the poem “Zohra al-Fasiya.”

Alcalay points out that one of the compendium’s editors, Ezra Spicehandler, writes, “Erez Biton (b. in Algiers, 1942), more than any other poet of this younger group, strongly reflects his Middle Eastern heritage. Much of his poetry springs from a childhood spent in the slum world of Moroccan immigrants in Israel. Typical is his ballad of “Zohorah al-fasiah,” a fictive [emphasis mine] Jewish favorite of King Muhammad V of Morocco.

Until this day The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself continues to print in all its editions that Zohra El Fassia was fictive. It’s all the more astonishing to consider that Zohra El Fassia lived, recorded and performed in Israel. Furthermore, her impact on Moroccan music has long been acknowledged in Morocco including most recently at the 2009 music festival in Essaouira.

Zohra El Fassia – Laarosa – Zakiphon, 1960s
I just digitized this 1960s release of Laaroosa by Zohra El Fassia. This EP was released by the Koliphone (Zakiphon) label in Israel. Check it out. A very different sound then the ‘aita on 78. You can hear her voice strain here but it is still a dynamite track. In fact, when writing about this music I always think it’s important to consider whether this music had any impact at all in Israel…

Here is the former Sderot-based band Sfatayim doing their rendition of Laarosa. Not as good but interesting.



Zohra El Fassia died in 1994 in Ashkelon at the age of 87. Erez Bitton, along with the singer Shlomo Bar, of Habrera Hativit and born in Rabat and the Mayor of Ashkelon were some of the very few who attended her funeral.

Two months before her death, Zohra El Fassia said the following in an interview with Maariv: “When I made aliyah to Israel they [the Jewish Agency] gave me a horrible apartment. I suffered from loneliness, no one visited me…Do you know why I cried? I wasn‘t afraid of death, I knew one day I would die but I was afraid that after my death no one would remember who Zohra El Fassia was.”

Spread this music around. I’ll be digitizing more of her 78s soon. Let’s not forget the great Zohra El Fassia.

Moroccan Jewish Music at JCC Manhattan - June 7, 2011

Zohra El Fassia. Laarosa. Zakiphon. 196?

Come check out my sessions at JCC Manhattan

Here is the schedule:

12:30 am
Koliphone Records: The Untold Story of Israel’s Arabic Singing Jewish Musicians

1:45 am
Sheikh it Baby: Arabic Music by Jewish Musicians

I know it's technically June 8 but come on the 7th and stay through the 8th :)

Felix el Maghrebi - A Life in 45s

Felix el Maghrebi was a mainstay of the Moroccan pop scene in the 1960s. His real name was Felix Weizman - Weizman being a somewhat popular Moroccan Jewish last name not related to its Ashkenazi counterpart. He died on March 6, 2008, right before the death of Samy ElMaghribi

I've been listening to a number of his 45s recently which I have only found on the N. Sabbah label, an indigenous Moroccan label produced in Casablanca. Interestingly, I have only seen / heard N. Sabbah 78s and 45s but no 33s. It seems as though N. Sabbah recorded mostly Jewish artists although as you will see from the back of this Felix el Maghrebi EP, the label also produced Muslim artists.

Felix el Maghrebi. El Frak & Khel Laiounne. N. Sabbah. 196?

Felix el Maghrebi. El Frak & Khel Laiounne. N. Sabbah. 196?

Felix el Maghrebi. Kaftanec Mahlou & El Mlaine. N. Sabbah. 196?

The first record is in my possession but I grabbed the second record image from the Jewish Moroccan Heritage site based in Belgium. If you click here, you can see a bunch of Moroccan Jewish 45 album covers. The Botbol cassette I recently uploaded can be seen in its record form as well as an Albert Suissa EP on Casaphone. I wish there were a way to bring these to the forefront of the site a bit more but a little searching does the trick.

I'll be uploading some more album art soon but in the meantime enjoy.