The Mellah of Fez, a living symbol of Morocco's Jewish heritage

Just outside the old medina, on the edge of the esplanade where the Royal Palace and its seven majestic, chiselled copper doors sit, is the Mellah of Fez, the first and one of the most important Mellahs in the Kingdom. Like all the neighbourhoods that once belonged to the Jewish community, it now bears witness to a thousand-year-old coexistence between Jews and Muslims, which came to a screeching halt in the middle of the 20th century. During the Second World War, under the French protectorate and therefore subject to the laws of Vichy, King Mohamed V refused to allow Moroccans of the Jewish faith to be deported to collaborationist France. Despite this, as a reaction to regular persecution and poverty, a flow of emigration gradually began around 1950 to Latin America, the United States, Canada and France, before turning into a mass exodus to the newly-created State of Israel.

In 1948, Morocco still had some 260,000 citizens of the Jewish faith, a figure reduced to just 3,000 according to a 2022 estimate, but which would still constitute the largest Jewish community in North Africa. Aware of the importance of this historic dimension of Moroccan society, King Mohammed VI decided in 2011 to include the Hebraic component in the preamble to the Moroccan Constitution, on an equal footing with its Arab-Islamic, Amazigh, Saharan, Andalusian and Mediterranean contributions. In 2022, three new institutions were created, including the National Council of the Moroccan Jewish Community. In concrete terms, this political will is reflected not only in aid for the renovation of places of worship and cemeteries, but also in the creation of places for inter-religious dialogue, such as: • Bayt Dakira – The House of Memory, opened in 2020 in Essaouira; • and the future Museum of Jewish Culture in Fez (which was completed in 2023 but is not yet open).

The Aben Danan Synagogue is hidden behind a tiny door with no distinguishing marks, similar to those of the houses around it. Dating from the 17th century, it was dedicated to the worship of the Megorachim, the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 and exiled to the Maghreb. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it was magnificently renovated and inaugurated in 1999.

Located at the southern end of the Mellah, the Jewish cemetery of Fez is particularly impressive with its thousands of immaculately white, sun-drenched graves. It was completely restored in 2015, along with its three small synagogues, which serve as a museum and place of prayer for visitors. Established on this site since the 19th century, the cemetery today contains around 22,000 tombs and is the resting place of numerous historical, political and religious figures, including Rabbi Yehuda Ben Attar, who died in 1733 and whose tomb is the subject of a major annual pilgrimage.