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New Jewish Cemetery, Essaouira, Morocco
Jewish Cemetery, Essaouira (אסואירה ,الصويرة, ⵜⴰⵚⵚⵓⵔⵜ, Mogador), Morocco (מרוקו, المغرب). Walking down the Avenue Moulay Hicham in the direction of the mellah entry, you see a cemetery on either side of you. The Old Jewish Cemetery did not have capacity for the large Jewish community of Essaouira, necessitating the construction of the New Jewish Cemetery across the street.
Description
Background on the Mellah of Essaouira
Essaouira was established by Alaouite Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdellah in 1764 on the site of a former Portuguese fortress. [1, 2] It quickly became a major domestic and international trading post, attracting many Jewish merchants, traders, and workers. [3, 4] In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Essaouira was home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the country. At one point, Jews made up about 40 percent of Essaouira’s population, growing so much that an addition to the mellah had to be built to accommodate them. [5, 6]
Mellahs, separate Jewish quarters, were established in multiple cities by an 1807 Sultan-issued dahir (decree). [7] Before then, Jews and Muslims lived together in the neighborhoods of Essaouira. [8] The name mellah comes from the salt marsh area in Fez where the first mellah was created. [9] Following the decree, poorer Jews populated the mellah while elite Jewish families resided in the casbah quarter outside the mellah walls. [10] The separation of casbah and mellah generated tensions between elite and lower-class Jews. [11] In Essaouira, “division was really a division of class and not of religion,” with intermarriage being widely acepted and places of worship were even shared amongst Muslims and Jews. [12]
Today, only a handful of Jews remain in Essaouira. [13] One of the reasons for this is the impact of French Protectorate (1912-1956), during which the French developed Casablanca and Agadir as seaports, limiting economic opportunities in Essaouira and incentivizing migration to larger hubs [14, 15]. Another, larger, exodus took place following the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, after which only about 2 percent of the Jewish population remained. [16, 17]
The Jewish quarter of Essaouira stands as a testament to the significant role of Jewry in the development of one of Morocco’s major port cities. Many sites of historical significance, including synagogues and old Jewish businesses, have been demolished or otherwise dilapidated over time. [18] Current Essaouira residents and others work to preserve remaining sites and redevelopment efforts are underway. [19, 20, 21]
The New Jewish Cemetery
The Jewish population of Essaouira increased dramatically during the nineteenth century, making the original small coastal cemetery incapable of serving the needs of the community. [22] The New Jewish Cemetery was established in 1875 and is home to the tombs of over one hundred rabbis and many important community members, including David Alkaïm, a poet whose inscriptions are etched on tombs in the cemetery. [23] Many of the gravestones bear epigraphic inscriptions and are sculpted with marked human forms, which is generally considered contrary to Mosaic Law as well as Jewish tradition.The cemetery has had a burial as recently as 2010, of writer Edmond Amran El Maleh. [24, 25] There is a rumor that “this cemetery has several ‘layers of graves’ superimposed” on one another. [26] A current Muslim resident of Essaouira tends to the cemetery as its caretaker. [27]
For information on the Old Jewish Cemetery, please visit http://archive.diarna.org/site/detail/public/2955/
Sources
Notes
1 Daniel Schroeter, “Essaouira (Mogador)”, in Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Consulted online on 13 July 2022.
2 “Jewish Quarter of Essaouira,” World Monuments Fund, last modified March 2021, accessed July 30, 2021, https://www.wmf.org/project/jewish-quarter-essaouira.
3 Ibid.
4 Daniel Schroeter.
5 “Jewish Quarter of Essaouira.”
6 Daniel Schroeter.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Emily Gottreich, “Mallāḥ,” in Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, ed. Norman A. Stillman, (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill), Accessed 20 July 2021.
10 Daniel Schroeter.
11 Ibid.
12 “A Pluralistic Community,” World Monuments Fund, 2019, https://www.wmf.org/slideshow/what-it-was-pluralistic-community
13 Daniel Schroeter.
14 “Jewish Quarter of Essaouira.”
15 Carmen Ascanio-Sanchez, Miguel Suárez Bosa, and Juan Carlos Almeida Pérez, “Tradition and Modernity: The Water Sector in Morocco During the French Protectorate (1912-1956),” African Historical Review 51 (1): 67–86, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1080/17532523.2019.1628491.
16 David Schroeter.
17 Shlomo Deshen, “Israel, State of,” in Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman, accessed July 30, 2022.
18 “Jewish Quarter of Essaouira.”
19 Ibid.
20 “Wandering Through the Mellah,” World Monuments Fund, 2018, https://www.wmf.org/blog/wandering-through-mellah#:~:text=The%20Mellah%20is%20the%20old,its%20story%20before%20it%20disappears
21 Aomar Boum. Memories of Absence: How Muslims Remember Jews in Morocco,
Stanford University Press, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucsc/detail.action?docID=1358595.
22 “Cimetières juifs,” Made in Essaouira. n.d., accessed August 2, 2022, https://www.madein.city/essaouira/fr/places/cimetieres-juifs-21056/
23 Ibid.
24 “A Walk Through the Mellah,” World Monuments Fund, 2018, https://www.wmf.org/walk-through-mellah
25 Regina Keil-Sagawe, “A Moroccan Jew with Arabo-Berber Roots,” Qantara, March 31, 2011, https://en.qantara.de/content/the-writer-edmond-amran-el-maleh-a-moroccan-jew-with-arabo-berber-roots
26 “Cimetières juifs”
27 “A Pluralistic Community.”
Works Cited
“A Walk Through the Mellah.” World Monuments Fund, 2018. https://www.wmf.org/walk-through-mellah
Ascanio-Sanchez, Carmen, Miguel Suárez Bosa, and Juan Carlos Almeida Pérez. “Tradition and Modernity: The Water Sector in Morocco During the French Protectorate (1912-1956).” African Historical Review 51 (1): 67–86. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/17532523.2019.1628491.
Boum, Aomar. Memories of Absence: How Muslims Remember Jews in Morocco,
Stanford University Press, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucsc/detail.action?docID=1358595.
“Cimetières juifs.” Made in Essaouira. n.d., accessed August 1, 2022. https://www.madein.city/essaouira/fr/places/cimetieres-juifs-21056/
Gottreich, Emily. “Mallāḥ. ” in Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, ed. Norman A. Stillman, (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill), Accessed 20 July 2021.
“Jewish Quarter of Essaouira.” World Monuments Fund. Last modified March 2021. Accessed July 30, 2021. https://www.wmf.org/project/jewish-quarter-essaouira.
Keil-Sagawe, Regina. “A Moroccan Jew with Arabo-Berber Roots.” Qantara, March 31, 2011. https://en.qantara.de/content/the-writer-edmond-amran-el-maleh-a-moroccan-jew-with-arabo-berber-roots
Schroeter, Daniel. “Essaouira (Mogador).” In: Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic
World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Consulted online on 13 July 2022.
Deshen, Shlomo. “Israel, State of.” In Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Accessed July 30, 2022.
“Wandering Through the Mellah,” World Monuments Fund, 2018, https://www.wmf.org/blog/wandering-through-mellah#:~:text=The%20Mellah%20is%20the%20old,its%20story%20before%20it%20disappears