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Agdz, Morocco
The town of Agdz is surrounded by the Draa river, and was host to a flourishing Jewish community beginning in the ninth century.
Description
Agdz was home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in Morocco. There were around 500 Jewish families living in Agdz and the surrounding areas until the early nineteenth century.[1] The Jewish community of Agdz was subjected to persecution during the Almohad invasions of the 12th century, causing the community to flee, face death or forced conversion to Islam.[2] Jews were soon able to return to the protected dhimmi status under Muslim rule within the Agdz community. [3,4] Agdz’s Jewish community contributed to the Kabbalastic movement of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.[5] Agdz would also play a key role on the trans-Saharan trade route, and would much later become a center for European interest during the French protectorate period (1912-1956). [6,7] According to remix-culture.org, “Agdz became the site of a secret detention center operated by the French colonial powers.” [8]
Current day
There are no Jews that live in Agdz today. The community began to decline in the 18th century. By the late 1950s and early 1960s Agdz’s Jews migrated to Israel en masse because of economic, political, and societal upheavals.[9]
Sources
[1]https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/dra
[2]https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-almohads/
[3]https://referenceworks-brillonline-com.oca.ucsc.edu/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-world/draa-dara-SIM_000241
[4]https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/dra
[5]https://www.absolutemorocco.com/morocco-travel-blog/agdz-morocco-travel-guide
[6]https://www.britannica.com/place/Morocco/Decline-of-traditional-government-1830-1912
[7]https://referenceworks-brillonline-com.oca.ucsc.edu/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-world/draa-dara-SIM_000241
[8]https://www.remix-culture.org/agdz
[9]https://referenceworks-brillonline-com.oca.ucsc.edu/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-world/draa-dara-SIM_000241