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Shrine of Rabbi Amram Ben Diwan at Asjen, Morocco

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Rabbi Amram Ben Diwan Born in Jerusalem in the early eighteenth century, Amram Ben Diwan moved to Hebron before being sent to Morocco in 1743 to collect funds to support yeshivot in the Holy Land.¹ He established a yeshiva at Wazan, near Asjen, but spent most of his time travelling from village to village in Morocco in order to teach and raise funds. The Rabbi was well-known for his miracles—while most were healings, members of a wedding procession who taunted him as they passed him in the street found themselves inexplicably paralyzed—and was respected for always having his door open to people experiencing misfortunes.² After ten years of traveling Morocco, he grew homesick and returned to Hebron. There, he disguised himself as a Muslim to visit the Cave of the Patriarchs: the Ottoman government closely controlled access to the cave, having made it a crime for non-Muslims to visit the site. Another visitor to the cave recognized him, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Not daring to stay in Hebron or go to Jerusalem, he returned to Morocco instead and resumed his life of teaching and traveling.³

The Rabbi's Tomb Rabbi Amram Ben Diwan’s son, Haïm Ben Diwan, fell seriously ill in 1781.⁴ The rabbi prayed for Haïm’s life to be spared and offered his own life as a substitute. Amram Ben Diwan died soon after, while his son recovered.⁵ His tomb in Asjen soon became a popular pilgrimage site for Jews and Muslims alike and he became one of the most well-known saints in Morocco; his son continued his work, traveling and teaching throughout Morocco.⁶ The shrine was a site of frequent miracles, with pilgrims being cured of illnesses, blindness, and paralysis. A French sergeant whose son had been paralyzed by illness was skeptical of the miracles, and declared that if his son could be cured, he would build a road to the shrine. His son’s paralysis disappeared after a visit to the rabbi’s tomb, and the sergeant helped build a road that greatly increased accessibility to the shrine.⁷

An Eyewitness Description of Pilgrimage Marcel Bénabou describes his family's pilgrimage to the tomb of Rabbi Amram Ben Diwan when he was young: “From the pilgrimage itself, I recalled only a few images, a few odors. It was, in the midst of a mountainous setting far more imposing than my familiar Zerhoun, a sort of untidy caravansary: a collection of tents, each of them sheltering a large family, amid flies and beggars. During the day, there was a crazy, kermis-like atmosphere, with singing, dancing, and music, and a strong odor of barbecued mutton rising up everywhere. But at night, the whole life of the strange encampment came together around the saint’s tomb, which was transformed into a giant inferno: a swarming and noisy mass of men and women thrown together, constantly tossing candles on it, begging the saint to grant their prayers amid the odor, at first sweet but later nauseating, of melted wax”.⁸

Saint Worship in Morocco While Judaism is not a religion that venerates saints, Jewish communities in Morocco frequently developed cults of local saints--including Rabbi Amram Ben Diwan--which became a significant cultural characteristic. In both Jewish and Muslim communities of Morocco, figures of "outstanding erudition, devotion, and compassion" came be seen as saints.⁹ While most Jewish saints in Morocco had a strictly local character, with veneration limited to a village or a few communities in the same vicinity, Amram Ben Diwan was one of a few "national" saints, whose tombs attracted pilgrims from all over the country.¹⁰

Jewish Community of Asjen The commune of Asjen is roughly four miles from the larger town of Ouezzane in the foothills of the Jbala Mountains. The area is famous for its olive oil production.¹¹ A 2004 census showed a population of 13,113 in Asjen, but most of the Jewish population of the town emigrated to Israel in the 1950s. The town's mellah is now mostly abandoned.¹²

Asjen, Morocco

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