On my first full day in Marrakech I decided to visit and savour the Jewish Quarter or MELLAH of Marrakech. I was staying at a Riad in the Medina and it was a short walk to the Mellah.
On the way over there I could greet my new friends, Fruit Juice Stall 50 at Djemma al Fina, Yassin at Cafe Berber..
It is a short walk through a covered walkway selling the usual tchotchkes (souvenirs etc). A man was eating while listening to a religious broadcast. An african migrant has been dressed up in fancy clothes guarding the upscale restaurant, a shop selling senses de Marrakech possibly a good place to buy perfumes and fresheners. Past the Bahia Palace one enters the Mellah.
The feelings are similar. Walking along the streets of Lisboa and thinking of the jewish presence there in the 16th century, the narrow Jew Street of Mattancherry, Parur or Ernakulum, and so many other places where Jews are but a memory but the air thick with history. Nowhere is more evident than at the Mellah in Marrakech (I have not visited the one in Fes the royal capital). I would peek into the rooms that once held shabbat dinners and an old man led me into his house where one room had been left as it was when the last jewish resident left for Israel. There was a mezuzah on the door, the mantle on one side of the room had framed photos of the owners, now ageing into oblivion, a ketubah on the wall. the table was large and was covered with finery, as if it is ready for shabbat dinner.
This would have been repeated in every single one of these houses now occupied by moroccans. The synagogue evoked memories of such wonderful synagogues elsewhere in the vanished jewish world.
The lack of animosity towards Jews of these muslims now who live in the Mellah (mostly berber) is remarkable and I found groups of young people speaking a passable Hebrew getting ready for the Israeli tourists. Impressive..
Personally, a beautiful experience. I will not look at Morocco and Moroccans with the same world view of a vision as I held before (influenced by living in France)
I return your salaam with equal friendliness, my dear Moroccan brothers..
