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Slat Lezama, Marrakesh, Morocco
Slat Lezama Synagogue in Marrakesh, Morocco
Description
Located in Marrakesh’s Mellah, this synagogue stands out from the others in its particular aesthetic appeal, with gilded doors and multiple menorahs, as well as a blue tiled courtyard. This building was far more than just a house of prayer; it likely housed or neighbored the offices of the local rabbinical court as well as a ritual bath complex and the schools of the local Jewish community (Emily Gottreich, The Mellah of Marrakesh: Jewish and Muslim Space in Morocco’s Red City. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007, 36). Young children as well as rabbinical students would study at these schools, which would eventually evolve into the yeshivot, or rabbinical academies, for which Marrakesh become renowned, drawing pupils from all over southern Morocco (Ibid).
Built at the turn of the last century, the synagogue is well-tended. The eastern side has only recently been embellished by a gallery for women (ezrat nashim) whereas previously women traditionally remained at the entrance to the synagogue or in a separate room. The originally wooden movable lectern has been replaced by one of marble along the eastern wall.
There is a local legend that the synagogue was built during the Second Temple period by Jews who had never lived in Eretz-Israel and had not witnessed the destruction of the Temple. Hence they were not bound by the same rituals and prohibitions as other Jews and ate meat during the period of mourning from the 17th of Tammuz to the ninth of Av (the day on which both the first and second Temples were said to have been destroyed) (Ariella Amar, “Moroccan Synagogues – A Survey.” ARIEL, Vol. 108, 1998).
