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Akiva Laredo Synagogue at Tangier, Morocco

Description

The Laredo Family: The Laredo family (originally from Laredo, Spain) included prominent rabbinic and lay members of the Jewish community in Tangier, as well as in Gibraltar and Ksar el-Kébir.¹ Notable members of the family included Joseph Laredo, a signatory of the Tangier Jewish community's original ordinances; Rabbi Mordecai Laredo, another signatory; Isaac Laredo, a journalist and sociologist and the first president of the Alliance Israélite Universelle alumni association; and Abraham Isaac Laredo, president of the Jewish Community Council in 1956 and author of Les Noms de Juifs du Maroc.²

Tangier: The Jewish presence in Tangier was limited until the late 17th century, when the Muslims regained control of the city from the English. The local economy did not recover from the destruction caused by the English until the eighteenth century, by which time the Jewish population had grown more numerous. The English doctor William Lempriere noted in 1789 that "the Moors and the Jews live intermixed in Tangier, and maintain a more friendly intercourse than elsewhere in this quarter of the globe."³ By 1856, Tangier had become the largest port in Morocco. In that time, the Jewish community had established schools, hospitals, and other charitable works, as well as participating in civic groups such as the Comission of Hygiene.⁴ In 1925, Jews were assigned three of the twenty-six seats on the International Legislative Assembly, Tangier's governing body, giving them a certain amount of formal political power.⁵ The aftermath of World War II proved to be a golden age for Tangier's Jews, many of whom lived prosperous and cosmopolitan lives, but Moroccan independence in 1956 led to slow but steady emigration. As of 2007, less than one hundred Jews remain in Tangier.⁶

Tangier, Morocco

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