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Gallery Kasbah (former Slat Ruben El Maleh), Essaouira, Morocco
Gallery Kasbah (former Slat Ruben El Maleh) in Essaouira (אסואירה ,الصويرة, ⵜⴰⵚⵚⵓⵔⵜ, Mogador), Morocco (מרוקו, المغرب).
Located in the kasbah, where the wealthiest Jews of Essaouira resided, is the former synagogue of the prominent El Maleh family, which was transformed into an art gallery.
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]
Gallery and Former Synagogue
The former synagogue Slat Ruben of the El Maleh family, later the Abdecassis family, is located within what is today the Gallery Kasbah. [22] The small synagogue is located on the first floor of the gorgeous Riad style building with several plants in its courtyard.
Remembering the synagogue: David Bouhadana, a Jewish Souir, now living in France, pointed us in the direction of this well-hidden synagogue. According to him the Abdecassis family left for Canada in 1970/71. Sidney Corcos, a descendent of a prominant Essaouira Jewish family who spent his childhood in Essaouira, pointed out the importance of the El Maleh family in Essaouira.[23] The El Maleh family was descended from great rabbis and was historically wealthy, with members of the family serving as community leaders. [24] El Maleh family members are some of the last of Essaouira’s Jewish community who were buried in the city’s Jewish cemeteries. [25, 26] According to Sidney Corcos, the Abdecassis family moved into the house in the 20th century.
The current owner of the building puts in a lot of effort to keep the original character of the building. He is also planning to restore the former Bimah of the synagogue and reserve a room for a small permanent exhibition as a house museum.
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 "Stories of the Mellah," World Monuments Fund Cultural Mapping project, n.d., accessed August 1 2022, https://www.wmf.org/untold-stories-jewish-quarter-essaouira
23 “Who Left: Ongoing Significance to the Jewish Community,” World Monuments Fund, 2018, https://www.wmf.org/slideshow/who-left-ongoing-significance-jewish-community
24 Daniel Schroeter, "Anglo-Jewry and Essaouira (Mogador), 1860—1900: the social implications of philanthropy." Transactions & Miscellanies (Jewish Historical Society of England) 28 (1981): 80-83.
25 Ibid, 83.
26 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
Photographs courtesy of World Monuments Fund, Stories of the Mellah Cultural Mapping project. All photography by Amine Bennour, Laura Brandt, and Yousef El Miadi.
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.
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. "Anglo-Jewry and Essaouira (Mogador), 1860—1900: the social implications of philanthropy." Transactions & Miscellanies (Jewish Historical Society of England) 28 (1981): 60-88.
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.
"Stories of the Mellah." World Monuments Fund Cultural Mapping project, n.d., accessed August 1 2022. https://www.wmf.org/untold-stories-jewish-quarter-essaouira
“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
“Who Left: Ongoing Significance to the Jewish Community.” World Monuments Fund, 2018. https://www.wmf.org/slideshow/who-left-ongoing-significance-jewish-community