Jews of Morocco PDF
Jews of Morocco PDF
Jews of Morocco PDF
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The Jews of Morocco. 369
HISTORY.
PAGESOF HONOUR.
In spite of the subservient position enforced upon these
"Tributaries" by their cousins, the Arabs, their inherent
cleverness was no less manifest in Barbary than elsewhere,
and those who oppressed them also took care to avail
themselves of their business qualities. At times the rulers
of the Empire drew their chief advisers from this race.
The influential posts once held by Jews under the Moorish
dominion of Spain, and the renown of many of their
learned men during that period of comparative enlighten-
ment, are sufficiently known to need no recapitulation
here; but it miay be well to recall the names of some of the
famous Israelitish diplomats of the Moorish Empire in
Afiica. Their most prosperous time in Morocco itself
would seem to have commenced soon after the expulsion
from Spain, and it was doubtless the arrival of so many
men of higher training and superior ability which secured
them these posts. Shoomel-el-Barensi was one of the first
to rise to power, as Minister of the Ameer Said-el-Watas,
who reigned during the first quarter of the sixteenth cen-
I Prof. Graetz, ibid., VIII. (ed. 3, 1890), p. 360, seq., gives a full account
of the Jews who found an asylum on the Berber Coast in 1391, as also in
1492. In Fez exiles at the latter date were well received by Malai Sheikh,
though the populace at first was unfavourably disposed to them. A
general survey of the Jews in Morocco is given in the opening chapter of
Graetz's ninth volume.
374 The Jewish Quarterly Review.
From the day of his birth till all trace of his last resting-
place has disappeared, the Hebrew of Morocco is despised
and scorned. " Dog of a Jew !" is a very mild term to be
The Jews of Morocco. 381
COSTUME.
CUSTOMS.
RELIGIOUS
FESTIVALS.
growing 'of the wheat and the selectionof the water for
the Mazzothare almost superstitious. Space prevents my
entering upon the well-known detail of the solemn Seder,
with its shoulder of lamb and its bitter herbs, its un-
leavened cakes and its wine, though in many points it
doubtless differs in Moroccofrom that of Europe, and is
altogether more primitive. The "reception" on the last
day of everybodyby everybodyelse is a notable occasion
over there. And on the same day they have in some parts
a curiouscustom of going to the sea to .;ay the Kaddesh
and the Tephilot. During the Feast some Jewish con-
fectioners "sell" the keys of their shops to Moors,to re-
purchasethem afterwards.
The Feast of Weeks is markedby few peculiar customs,
except the reading of the prayerscalled Azharothin the
synagogue at noon,a verse each by membersof the con-
gregation. If any one is caught tripping he is made to
correcthimself, and on going out has water thrown at him.
Another observanceof this feast is for the young folk to
mount their roofsand syringe the passers-bywith the same
liquid, whence this is sometimes spoken of as the " water
feast." The sea-bathingseason then commences.
SOCIAL CONDITION.
SUBSISTENCE.
CHARACTER.