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Haim Pinto Synagogue, Essaouira, Morocco
The Haim Pinto Synagogue (בית כנסת חיים פינטו), in Essaouira (אסואירה ,الصويرة, ⵜⴰⵚⵚⵓⵔⵜ, Mogador), Morocco (מרוקו, المغرب).
The Haim Pinto Synagogue, named for its founder, the famous 18th-century rabbi and miracle-worker Haim Pinto, is one of two remaining synagogues in the city of Essaouira. While only 50 Jewish families still live in Essaouira, it remains an active synagogue and was renovated several years ago. Located on the second floor of a three-story building, the synagogue is a single large room, with beautiful hanging lamps and woodwork that has been painted a brilliant shade of light blue.
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]
Haim Pinto Synagogue
Just off a small alley near the mellah’s center, Rabbi Haim Pinto’s home and Synagogue stands as one of the most renowned places in Essaouira. Rabbi Haim Pinto (1748–1845) is considered a Tzadik, a righteous and wise person, and his Hiloula, the anniversary of his death, brings a large amount of people into the town to pay tribute to his legacy on 26 Elul (the date falls between August and October in the Gregorian calendar). [22]
Rabbi Haim Pinto Haim Pinto was born in Agadir, Morocco, on July 1, 1749. His father died when he was twelve; the same year, an earthquake devastated much of Agadir, and many of the Jewish survivors settled in Mogador (now Essaouira). [23] Pinto had been known for the miracles that he performed even as a child, and in 1769 he became Dayan of the city at the young age of twenty. [24] He served as Chief of the Rabbinical Court for more than seventy years, during which time he founded this synagogue, one of the two synagogues that still exist in Essaouira today. [25] In addition to being a prolific writer, contributing significantly to judicial teachings throughout his time as Dayan, he gained recognition by his community as a saint and miracle worker within his own lifetime. Rabbi Pinto died on September 28, 1845, aged 96. Later on, in the twentieth century, his life became a popular subject in Moroccan hagiographies; his grave remains a major pilgrimage destination. [26]
Essaouira, known as Mogador until the end of French colonial rule in the 1960s, was one of Morocco’s largest and most cosmopolitan Jewish communities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As a large port city, Essaouira was at the heart of Moroccan mercantile trading in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. [27] Many of Morocco’s major Jewish families settled in the city in the first few decades after its establishment in 1764 and worked as key intermediaries in Morocco’s domestic and international trade. [28] An 1807 decree required the Jewish residents to move to a mellah (a separate Jewish quarter), but several merchants were exempted from the decree. [29] In the 19th century, the Jewish population of Mogador fluctuated between 30 and 50 percent of the city’s total population; there may have been as many as 10,000 Jews living in the city at one point.[30] Trade began to diminish in the late 1800s as the French began to develop Casablanca as their principal trading port; many major merchant families went bankrupt or left Mogador. The majority of the Jewish population emigrated in the 1960s; by 1980, only fifty families remained in the city. [31] Although only a small population remains, the Haim Pinto synagogue is still a part of the community and draws many visitors each year who come to pay their respects to Rabbi Pinto’s memory. [32]
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 “The Untold Stories of the Jewish Quarter of Essaouira.” n.d. World Monuments Fund. https://www.wmf.org/slideshow/walk-through-mellah
23 "Info." Rabbi Haim Pinto. 2008. Accessed July 29, 2014. http://www.haimpinto.com/
24 "Info." Rabbi Haim Pinto. 2008.
25 Alice Joundi. "Hilloula Rabbi Haim Pinto: The Jewish Museum of Essaouira." Made in Essaouira. August 30, 2013. Accessed July 29, 2014. http://essaouira.madeinmedina.com/en/article-hilloula-rabbi-haim-pinto-the-jewish-museum-of-essaouira-2133.html
26 Oren Kosansky. Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. "Pinto, Hayyim." Brill Online, 2014. Accessed July 29, 2014. http://0-referenceworks.brillonline.com.luna.wellesley.edu/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-world/pinto-hayyim-SIM_0017630
27 Daniel Schroeter . Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. "Essaouira (Mogador)." Brill Online, 2014. Accessed July 29, 2014. http://0-referenceworks.brillonline.com.luna.wellesley.edu/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-world/essaouira-mogador-COM_0007430
28 Daniel Schroeter. Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. "Essaouira (Mogador)."
29 Daniel Schroeter. Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. "Essaouira (Mogador)."
30 Daniel Schroeter. Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. "Essaouira (Mogador)."
31 Daniel Schroeter. Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. "Essaouira (Mogador)."
32"Hundreds of Moroccan Jews Celebrate Hiloula of Pinto's Legacy in Essaouira." Morroco World News, September 17, 2017. Gale In Context: Global Issues. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A560116558/GIC?u=mlin_m_wellcol&sid=ebsco&xid=b7a559fe.
Works Cited
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.
Deshen, Shlomo. “Israel, State of.” In Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Accessed July 30, 2022.
Gottreich, Emily. “Mallāḥ. ” in Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, ed. Norman A. Stillman, (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill), Accessed 20 July 2021.
"Hundreds of Moroccan Jews Celebrate Hiloula of Pinto's Legacy in Essaouira." Morroco World News, September 17, 2017. Gale In Context: Global Issues. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A560116558/GIC?u=mlin_m_wellcol&sid=ebsco&xid=b7a559fe.
"Info." Rabbi Haim Pinto. 2008. Accessed July 29, 2014. http://www.haimpinto.com/
“Jewish Quarter of Essaouira.” World Monuments Fund. Last modified March 2021. Accessed July 30, 2021. https://www.wmf.org/project/jewish-quarter-essaouira.
Joundi, Alice. "Hilloula Rabbi Haim Pinto: The Jewish Museum of Essaouira." Made in Essaouira. August 30, 2013. Accessed July 29, 2014. http://essaouira.madeinmedina.com/en/article-hilloula-rabbi-haim-pinto-the-jewish-museum-of-essaouira-2133.html
Kosansky, Oren. Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. "Pinto, Hayyim." Brill Online, 2014. Accessed July 29, 2014. http://0-referenceworks.brillonline.com.luna.wellesley.edu/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-world/pinto-hayyim-SIM_0017630
Schroeter, Daniel. “Essaouira (Mogador).” In: Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic
World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Consulted online on 13 July 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