Jewish Morocco: A History from Pre-Islamic to Postcolonial Times

At a moment when Western stereotypes about Arab-Jewish relations continue to dominate popular discourse, Emily Benichou Gottreich’s Jewish Morocco: A History from Pre-Islamic to Postcolonial Times offers a methodologically sophisticated alternative. Popular assumptions range from inevitable hostility and narratives of perpetual persecution to romanticized visions of Andalusian harmony. Writing against the backdrop of Morocco’s 2011 constitutional recognition of Jewish heritage as integral to national identity, Gottreich positions her work within contemporary debates about minority belonging while avoiding scholarly pitfalls that have plagued previous research. Her explicit goal is to write “a history that uses generalized categories to articulate Jewish specificities (and vice versa), that implicitly argues against stereotypes, generalizations, misconceptions, and even simple misunderstandings about Jews living in Muslim contexts” (Gottreich 17). She warns that Jewish stories in Morocco risk “veering toward clichés and generalizations or even strategic mobilization” when “memory and history often part ways” (183). Like Lawrence Rosen’s anthropological work on intercommunal relations, Gottreich recognizes that Jewish-Muslim coexistence required constant negotiation rather than representing a natural state of harmony.The book emerges from a crucial gap in English-language scholarship. As Gottreich observes, “so much excellent scholarship has been produced on the topic of Moroccan Jewish history, society, and culture in recent years, and yet in no single place was it possible to find an overall narrative that incorporated its main findings” (vi). The serious language barrier facing English-language audiences means that foundational works in French, Hebrew, and Arabic remain inaccessible to broader academic and student communities. Gottreich’s synthetic approach thus serves an important infrastructure function while advancing a provocative argument: that Jewish experiences are not merely peripheral to Moroccan history but constitutive of the very “pillars of Moroccanness” themselves (3).Gottreich comes to this project with considerable scholarly authority. Her earlier work on Marrakech’s mellah demonstrated how Jewish and Muslim spaces interpenetrated in ways that challenged conventional wisdom about urban segregation. The insights from that study about the porousness of communal boundaries inform the broader ambitions of this book. She has cultivated the kind of cross-cultural scholarly relationships that make synthetic work possible. The acknowledgments read like a directory of contemporary Moroccan studies, from Aomar Boum’s ethnographic sensibility to Daniel Schroeter’s archival mastery to Susan Gilson Miller’s historical rigor.Yet for all its synthetic ambitions, the book raises as many questions as it answers. Gottreich’s framework succeeds in showing how Jewish experiences illuminate the very foundations of Moroccan identity. She demonstrates convincingly what she calls the “pillars” of that identity. But the method itself sometimes constrains what can be said. When you rely primarily on other scholars’ interpretations, certain kinds of critical engagement become difficult. The result is a work that opens new interpretive possibilities while occasionally sidestepping the messier controversies that animate the field.What makes this book distinctive is not just its chronological sweep but its organizing principle. Rather than following the usual dynastic succession of Moroccan history, Gottreich structures her narrative around five concepts that she argues constitute the “pillars of Moroccanness”: Malikism, Amazighity, Sharifism, Europeanization, and Arabness. This approach allows her to trace Jewish experiences not as isolated patches to Moroccan history but as integral to its very constitution. As Boum noted in his evaluation of oral historical methods, even biased sources reveal truths about “culture, society and psychology” that traditional archival work misses (Boum 231).This synthetic methodology serves an important function. Much of the important work on Moroccan Jewish history remains locked away in French, Hebrew, and Arabic publications, accessible only to linguistic specialists. Gottreich’s English-language synthesis breaks down these barriers by addressing what she identifies as “a serious language barrier facing English-language audiences” (Gottreich vi). The approach blends traditional historiographic methods with testimonial and alternative archival sources. Such concerns about fragmentary materials have precedents in anthropological work, where the goal becomes making sense of disparate sources rather than presenting a coherent narrative plot.1Yet this synthesis raises questions about the balance between accessibility and the preservation of historical complexity.Every methodological choice has its shortcomings. Working primarily with secondary sources risks reproducing other scholars’ interpretive frameworks along with their evidence. This is particularly noticeable in Gottreich’s treatment of Islamic jurisprudence and rabbinic literature, where sophisticated legal debates are reduced into historical background. The synthetic approach proves necessary for accessibility, but it papers over scholarly disagreements that are themselves part of the discourse.There is also the problem of temporal artificiality. Gottreich’s thematic organization creates clean chapter and sometimes linear divisions, but Moroccan history, and any history in this regard, was messier than that. Malikism, Amazighity, and Sharifism did not operate sequentially. Instead, they overlapped, conflicted, and reinforced each other in ways that resist neat periodization. Organizing a narrative around conceptual themes rather than chronological development risks obfuscating certain connections.The theoretical framework draws heavily on postcolonial studies, particularly Michael Rothberg’s notion of “multidirectional memory,” where different groups’ historical experiences intersect rather than simply running parallel. This allows Gottreich to show how Jewish memory became entangled with broader Moroccan narratives rather than remaining separate from them. Rothberg’s concept works well for understanding how colonial intervention reshaped intercommunal relations. But the framework sometimes strains when applied to earlier precolonial periods, where the relationship between theoretical concepts and historical evidence becomes less clear.Gottreich employs what might be called a “genealogical” approach that seeks “evidence for the Jewish historical experience in places where one doesn’t ordinarily look; namely at the pivotal junctures in the development of Moroccan (Muslim) identity” (3). This methodology yields particularly rich insights in her analysis of legal traditions and cultural practices, though it occasionally risks overstating Jewish influence in ways that may reflect anachronistic political investments rather than historical realities.The book’s five substantive chapters each examine a different “pillar” of Moroccan identity, revealing how Jewish experiences both shaped and were shaped by these foundational elements. Gottreich’s treatment of Malikism establishes her analytical framework most effectively, demonstrating how the particular characteristics of Maliki jurisprudence created distinct possibilities for Jewish life in Morocco. Her discussion of the dhimma system avoids both romanticization and demonization, showing instead how legal frameworks created what Mercedes García-Arenal calls “reasonable security and autonomy, while imposing a ceiling to limit social mobility” (quoted in Gottreich, 29). The analysis reveals how Maliki jurists navigated between theological principles and practical considerations, often creating more flexible arrangements than prevailed under other Islamic legal schools.Gottreich’s examination of specific legal rulings demonstrates the interpretive possibilities of her approach. Her analysis of how dhimmi restrictions were “adapted from preexisting Byzantine or Sassanian laws” while being modified to suit local Moroccan conditions shows how Jewish legal status emerged from complex negotiations rather than simple imposition (30). The discussion of how Jews sometimes appeared to flout dhimma regulations—wearing fine clothing, carrying arms, riding horses—reveals the gap between legal theory and social practice that characterized much of Moroccan Jewish life.The chapter on Amazighity demonstrates Gottreich’s framework at its most compelling. Rather than treating Berber-Jewish relations as a peripheral topic, she shows how Jewish participation in Amazigh culture was fundamental to both communities’ identities. Her analysis of Jewish involvement in Amazigh musical traditions, particularly the ahwash performances, reveals cultural interconnections that challenge conventional scholarly boundaries. “Music and poetry functioned as a shared cultural space for Muslims and Jews,” she argues, with Jewish performers often serving as bridges between Arabic and Tamazight linguistic communities (66). This analysis convincingly demonstrates how Jewish cultural production cannot be understood apart from broader Moroccan artistic traditions.Chapter 3’s examination of Sharifism reveals both the strengths and limitations of Gottreich’s interpretive framework. Her analysis of how Jewish merchants and advisors became integral to sharifian state-building effectively demonstrates Jewish political importance in early modern Morocco. The discussion of how the Reconquista fundamentally altered Moroccan Jewish demography through the arrival of Andalusi, Catalan, and Portuguese Jewish populations provides crucial context for understanding the emergence of distinct Jewish communities: the tōšābīm (Hebrew: “residents, indigenous”) or baldīyīn (Arabic: “natives”) representing longer-established communities, and the məḡōrāšīm (Hebrew: “expelled”) or forasteros (Spanish: “foreigners”) comprising Sephardic newcomers. Gottreich effectively demonstrates how, despite representing only a demographic minority, Sephardic cultural influence was so profound that “the name of Sephardim is today often given to all Jewish communities of North Africa.” Gottreich shows how “the Jews were able to tap into multiple legal regimes in order to modulate their actual relationships with the Muslims,” using “local customary law, Islamic law, Jewish law, and state law as situational possibilities presented themselves” (following Boum’s analysis of legal syncretism, cited in Gottreich).However, Gottreich’s treatment occasionally risks exaggerating Jewish political influence, particularly in her discussion of messianic movements like Sabbatianism. While she effectively demonstrates how global Jewish religious currents intersected with local Moroccan political developments, the connection between Jewish religious enthusiasm and broader Moroccan political legitimacy remains underdeveloped. Her claim that Jewish messianic expectations affected sharifian legitimacy claims needs more substantial evidence than the synthetic approach allows.The chapter on Europeanization provides the book’s most sophisticated analysis of how colonial intervention transformed Muslim-Jewish relations. Gottreich’s opening discussion of Charles de Foucauld’s 1883–1884 reconnaissance mission effectively illustrates the precolonial phase of European exploration that preceded direct political and military intervention. She documents how Foucauld disguised himself as a Russian Jew and employed a Moroccan rabbi as his guide, posing as “shelakhim [Heb. emissaries] from Jerusalem” (102). Her analysis reveals how European penetration created a particularly delicate position for Jews, who found themselves caught between traditional dhimma protections and new European alliances. The transition from one form of domination to another created social tensions, as Jews came to be seen as collaborating with the colonial system while they themselves experienced what a representative of the Anglo-Jewish Association described as abandoning “the dhimma of Islam [. . .] for the dhimma of the Christians” (113). Her analysis of the Alliance Israélite Universelle schools reveals how European Jewish organizations became unwitting agents of colonial policy, creating educated Jewish elites who increasingly identified with French rather than Moroccan culture. The AIU’s educational program combined secular and Jewish learning but emphasized European habits, as Gottreich documents: “Jewish pupils were strongly encouraged to adopt European habits, especially in the area of hygiene, dress, and religion” (118).Chapter 5’s treatment of Arabness engages most directly with contemporary political questions, examining how twentieth-century nationalism created new challenges for Jewish belonging. Gottreich’s analysis reveals how the redefinition of Arabness in the twentieth century fundamentally excluded Jews from emerging national narratives. She demostrates how “a new type of Arabism arose in the 1930s in the context of anti-colonial resistance that would cast identity in a new light” and how this pan-Arabism “drew sharp lines and Jews” (131–32). Her discussion of pivotal events like the 1912 Treaty of Fès and the subsequent anti-Jewish violence demonstrates how political transitions often triggered intercommunal tensions. She documents how the events were remembered differently by each community: “For Moroccan nationalists, it was an intifada, a popular uprising. French colonial historians call it ‘the bloody days of Fez’ (les journées sanglante de Fes.) In Judeo-Arabic, it is known simply as al-tritl, the pillage” (144). Gottreich claims that the emergence of pan-Arabism forced crucial identity questions for both Jews and Amazigh communities. She argues that Zionism in Morocco functioned less as engagement with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and more as response to feelings of exclusion from pan-Arabism.This interpretation, however compelling it may seem, requires serious challenge. Gottreich’s claim oversimplifies the complex motivations behind Moroccan Jewish Zionism. Global Zionist movements actively promoted aliyah and Jewish statehood in Morocco, campaigns directly tied to the Palestinian question, especially after 1948. Her emphasis on pan-Arabism’s redefinition of Moroccan identity in the 1930s overlooks earlier evidence of intercommunal tensions. Events like the 1912 al-tritl that she herself documents suggest broader colonial dynamics predating pan-Arabism, which undermines her proposed causal relationship. The diverse Jewish responses she presents—some embracing communism, others maintaining dual identities—indicate that Zionism operated as more than mere reaction to local exclusion. Moroccan Jews demonstrated considerable agency in their ideological commitments to global Jewish aspirations. Indeed, Zionist organizations established substantial infrastructure in Morocco precisely to connect local communities with the Palestinian project. By overemphasizing local exclusion as the primary driver, Gottreich underrepresents the proactive elements of Moroccan Jewish engagement with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Throughout these chapters, Gottreich employs strategic quotations that illuminate key analytical points without overwhelming her narrative synthesis. Her observation that “holding to a middle path is, however, hardly unproblematic” effectively captures the challenges facing both Jewish communities and Moroccan rulers in navigating between competing pressures (Rosen, quoted in Gottreich, 32). Similarly, her citation of the popular expression “A market without Jews is like bread without salt” poignantly captures the sense of loss experienced by Muslim Moroccans following Jewish emigration (Boum, quoted in Gottreich, 181).Jewish Morocco succeeds exceptionally well in several crucial areas that advance scholarship beyond previous approaches. Most significantly, Gottreich demonstrates the interpretive power of approaching Moroccan history through lived experiences of Moroccan Jews rather than treating Jewish history as a peripheral footnote. Her framework effectively reveals how Jewish participation in Moroccan society was constitutive rather than merely additive. In so doing, she challenges both Jewish communal that broader and Moroccan national that Like Rosen’s anthropological work on contemporary Morocco, Gottreich recognizes that intercommunal relations complex that beyond simple or political synthetic approach Her work different her trace by within boundaries. Her observation about between legal arrangements and modern political for shows how cultural shaped to colonial Similarly, her analysis of shared musical and linguistic challenges the academic of treating Jewish and Muslim as separate that occasionally methodological that with what as the to and of the and of Gottreich’s approach reveals the of historical the notion of Jewish and Muslim Moroccan experiences as separate cultural study itself through its engagement with contemporary Moroccan Rather than treating history as she the recent of Jewish heritage into national identity. of Jewish and the constitutional of Jewish reflect both cultural and strategic political Gottreich’s demonstrates that Jewish emerges from negotiations between memory and the synthetic method creates its When you on other scholars’ interpretations, you sometimes their limitations along with their This shows particularly in Gottreich’s of rabbinic and Islamic legal where theological debates reduced to historical background. As Boum noted in his of on secondary can the very relationships between different that to methodological becomes particularly when examining Gottreich’s treatment of Islamic Gottreich’s sophisticated engagement with Maliki jurisprudence and her emphasis on how legal principles were applied in and her analysis overlooks the scholarly of that is directly to her This methodological is particularly given that with Islamic legal rulings to specific and social precisely the analytical framework that have her about Maliki in Morocco. The rich of scholarship on applied which how legal principles are into practical rulings on conditions and local would have crucial theoretical for her about legal and While Gottreich effectively demonstrates that Maliki jurists in Morocco in precisely this kind of to to these within the established scholarly of a to connect her historical with a sophisticated framework that Islamic legal have been for This is particularly given her goal of the of dhimma to a more of intercommunal applied jurisprudence scholarship offers the methodological for book’s thematic organization creates another of While the “pillars of Moroccanness” framework is it that were Malikism, Amazighity, and Sharifism were not of Moroccan Instead, they operated and each other in ways that resist neat chapter on occasionally of she seeks to Jewish-Muslim relations, her framework to of in analytical where evidence challenges her interpretive Her analysis of as and Judeo-Arabic, the of her historical scholarship. By these as Gottreich underrepresents their as linguistic with distinct traditions and cultural within Jewish communities. This approach broader challenges in Judeo-Arabic, as argues, is often from its Arabic through a that Jewish within that its study requires a that its to Arabic engagement with linguistic and a approach Gottreich’s analysis by within its broader cultural and linguistic book would from more engagement with While Gottreich occasionally Jewish communities in other of the Islamic with Andalusi, or other North Jewish experiences might illuminate what was distinctive about Moroccan arrangements what broader of dhimmi in Islamic reveal both strengths and The book effectively serves and accessible to Moroccan Jewish and the synthetic and the work new archival insights or analysis of specific historical may find the on secondary sources particularly given Gottreich’s demonstrated for in her previous book emerges at a critical where academic and political In Jewish studies, increasingly frameworks that religious identity local Gottreich’s which reveals how Jewish history broader Moroccan with to Jewish experiences into narratives rather than them. As argues, challenges “the of Jewish cultural from their with By communal that broader Gottreich’s work the of a approach to Jewish book’s well beyond academic Morocco’s recent of its Jewish heritage raises questions about the of memory and national identity. Indeed, of Jewish and the constitutional recognition of Jewish more than form part of a broader to a distinctive Moroccan identity that the apart from its This becomes all the more when the demographic Gottreich Jews of Morocco’s at but around (Gottreich despite this communities to their Rosen’s observation about memory and Gottreich’s work raises important questions about the of As about contemporary Morocco, the it is actual for concerns to remain in the of Gottreich’s analysis of how Jewish heritage is being and in contemporary Morocco both the possibilities and limitations of to cultural Jewish Morocco several examining Jewish experiences different North illuminate what was distinctive about Moroccan arrangements broader archival of specific communities, legal or the analysis that synthetic on contemporary Moroccan Jewish communities how to Moroccan identity while new of book also raises important methodological questions about the relationship between historical scholarship and political Gottreich’s in demonstrating Muslim-Jewish contemporary political yet her historical analysis avoids evidence to scholarship might more how contemporary concerns historical without analytical on the methodological insights that both and Boum have to the Morocco succeeds in its primary of making Moroccan Jewish history accessible to broader audiences while demonstrating the interpretive possibilities of approaching this history through frameworks of rather than separate Gottreich’s around the of Moroccanness” a methodological that avoids both the of minority history and its limitations in its synthetic the of complex and theological debates to historical work a to multiple scholarly Her that itself may just be a of Moroccan identity, one in which all to challenges conventional frameworks for understanding both Jewish history and Moroccan national identity, that are no in Morocco, but only Moroccan book of Jewish studies, history, and minority studies, as well as and sophisticated to the complex dynamics of Jewish-Muslim relations in North While may for more archival the synthetic approach and framework foundations for while making important scholarly accessible to broader Most significantly, following the analytical by like and Gottreich demonstrates how minority can illuminate culture without of the specific dynamics that shaped minority experiences