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Jewish Cemetery, Fez, Morocco
Jewish Cemetery, Fez, Morocco
Description
alleys of cemetery almost like streets of the mellah, families buried together, cohen section, they way they lived in the mellah they were buried in the cemtery (once special section for people who committed suicide), once a year on Lag Ba'omer had big hiloula, party spot, drain system
Where was the original Jewish cemetery - before the mellah was built in 1438 - when the Jews lived in the medina?
Walking into the cemetery in Fez, one is greeted by a square grid of white stone half-cylindrical gravestones. The ancient Jewish cemetery, called a gisa, continued even after a new cemetery was necessitated by the establishment of a mellah in 1438. The new cemetery grew out of where victims of the pogrom of 1465 were buried at a particular space near the mellah’s entrance. The Jewish cemetery was an indelible part of Jewish communal life. Burial customs are a unique blend of Jewish law (halacha) and customs particular to North African Jewry. For instance, the entire community traditionally carries the deceased’s coffin on their shoulders on the way to the cemetery while a shofar is sounded. During the shiva period of mourning, the deceased’s family camped at the gravesite while the entire community gathered around to declare publicly their charitable contributions in the deceased’s memory.
