Oujda: Modern Jewish History

Oujda is the largest city in Eastern Morocco today and once was the home of a large Jewish community. The Grand Synagogue, the pride of the community, was built in 1930 and has served as the main synagogue in Oujda for the last 80 years. By 1936 the Jewish population stood at 2,048. In the early 1940s, the Vichy administration made life difficult for Jews in Oujda - Jews were dismissed from government work and from French schools. In the late 1940s, Oujda served as the scene of significant anti-Jewish violence and the final departure point to Israel. On June 7, 1948 a pogrom in Oujda (and Djerada) resulted in the murder of 43 Jews. By 1951 the Jewish population remained at about 2,000 persons.

The Grand Synagogue in Oujda will turn 80 next year

It was built in 1930. Here is the building from the outside (I will diagram this in the next couple days).

CTM is the official transport company of Morocco. Their Oujda office is housed underneath the synagogue.

Questions

1. Is it possible to raise the funding to begin restoration for its 80th year?

2. Do any readers have memories of the synagogue that they would like to share?

Berber Vinyl and Abitbol Cassettes

On Friday before heading out to interview Raphy, I stopped by a fantastic music store (for those in Casa, the store is located at 26 Lalla Yacout Street). Le Comptoire Marocain de Distribution de Disques carrys an extensive collection of Arab and Berber music in vinyl, cassette, and cd form from mostly the 1960s and 1970s. The music is hand picked and excellent quality. I picked up a few Berber LPs. These musicians were all from the Souss region and were masters or rwais of the rebab (spiked fidle). Interestingly, there were ahwash and rwais musicians amongst Chleuh speaking Jews (including from Ighil N'Oro - a picture of the Jewish cemetery there is at the top of the blog) who eventually imported this musical style to Israel, click here to read more.

I had originally stopped by to see if they had any Samy Elmaghribi or Salim Hilali on vinyl - two universally respected (by Moroccans) Moroccan Jewish singers. Unfortunately they didn't have any. Also, there was recently an exhibit on Samy Elmaghribi at the Casablanca Jewish Museum.

But...

In another testament to the ominpresence of Jewish life in Morocco, the store carried an extensive and possibly complete collection of the popular (shaabi) Moroccan Jewish singer Abitbol. I picked up one of his cassettes and will post a picture of the cover soon.

Names in Casa

In Casablanca and other large cities small plaques outside office buildings indicate the names of those working inside. For example: Dr. Ahmed Touwfiq, Dental Surgeon. Walking through Casablanca you encounter numerous Jewish names, as well as Muslim names, throughout the city. On one short block on Friday, April 17, I passed a Dr. Cohen and a Dr. Benzaquen.

Mimouna in Casa - April 16

Mimouna was wonderful. It was my first mimouna in Morocco and it was a special evening. On my way to the celebration I passed Muslims in Place Verte preparing boquets of wheat for the festival.

There were about 30 people at my Mimouna celebration - mostly Muslims who had come to help celebrate. One of my favorite parts of the evening was the storytelling and joketelling. For nearly an hour, individuals jumped at the opportunity to tell joke after joke after joke. And each one was a raging success. Uproarious laughter punctuated the end of every joke. Some jokes were about Moroccans and their peculiarities. Others were about Muslims and Jews. The Muslim-Jewish jokes were obviously of particular interest to me. Those jokes (or at least the ones I understood) were more self-depricating than I had anticipated and actually poked more fun at the Muslim community than the Jewish community. It was a fascinating exchange.

Just landed

Back in New York and have much to add. Will do so shortly.

Back in Rabat

I arrived in Rabat late last night. I was picked up by some old friends, a family who had taken me in on many occasion when I was lat here. We had dinner and caught up. I took a shower and slept in a real bed and it was wonderful. Today I'm headed back to Casa and tomorrow night will take part in Mimouna.