Bendrihem Synagogue at Tangiers, Morocco

Tangier

A coveted military and economic center for centuries, the city of Tangier is the northernmost city in Morocco, acting as a bridge between Europe and Africa. [1] Jews began to immigrate to Tangier as the Spanish Inquisition continued to force Jews out of Spain; at the time, in 1492, Tangier was under Portuguese rule. When Portuguese King Sebastian (r. 1557-1578) was killed in battle, he left behind no heir, and thus, the crown of Portugal was handed over to Phillip II of Spain in 1580, as he was a descendent of Portuguese royalty. [2] By crowning Phillip II, the Spanish and Portuguese empires were united under one crown as the Iberian Union. Phillip II reigned over Portugal until 1598. [3] The Spanish crown did a poor job of governing Portugal’s overseas territories, prioritizing the needs of the Spanish Empire over  the vast Portuguese Empire. The Portuguese revolted,  and Tangier was once again under Portuguese control by 1643. In 1662, the Portuguese gave Tangier to England as the dowry of Queen Catherine de Braganza (r. 1662-1685) of Portugal when she married King Charles II (r. 1660-1685); at the time, the Jewish community had fewer than one hundred people. 

Under British rule (1662-1684),  Jews were expelled from Tangier on “suspicion of espionage,” but at the same time, many Jews worked for the British governor’s office, serving as translators and working to help the British and Moroccans define the boundaries of Tangier. But, in 1684, the British abandoned the costly endeavor of maintaining Tangier and the city fell under Moroccan rule. Europeans remained in the city and the ruler, Pasha Ali Ben Abdallah a-Riffi, looked to reinforce the population of the burgeoning city by inviting Arabs from the Rif Mountains and Jews from Tétouan and Meknes to the city. [4]

Tangier’s Jewish community began to grow under the new leadership, which encouraged Jews from  Tétouan and Meknes to repopulate Tangier following the British withdrawal. [5] Jewish merchants from Salé and Tétouan came to Tangier with the promise of economic growth. Jews in Tangier were religious leaders, physicians, and property owners.

By the end of the eighteenth century, there were approximately two hundred Jewish families in Tangier. When the European consuls, under the supervision of Moroccan Sultan Saliman (1792-1822), decided to start a Sanitary Commission for Tangier in 1792, the “Jewish community participated as an independent entity,” effectively granting them recognition by the Sultan as an official community. [6] Throughout the nineteenth century, the Jewish community began establishing its own governing body (“the Junta”), schools, and larger synagogues. Furthermore, after Morocco signed a “most-favored nation” treaty with Great Britain in 1856, the “Jewish minority’s traditional role was reshaped.” [7] For generations, Jews had been employed in professions that were shameful to Muslim culture, handling executions and cleaning cesspits. Following the treaty, Jews were allowed to enter more prestigious roles, including handling global commerce.

The Jewish population of Tangier continued to thrive into the first half of the nineteenth century. More European settlers had arrived, and Jews were employed as translators and some were even business owners. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, pilgrims returning from Mecca brought a plague to Tangier, and economic devastation ensued. Tangier was ill-prepared to combat the spread of disease. The year of 1875 marked the beginning of a growing wave of emigration, with Tangier’s Jews leaving for the United States, Venezuela, and other Latin American countries. [8] The beginning of the twentieth century saw little improvement in the economic conditions in Tangier, and the Great Depression ravaged the port city. Yet, Tangier still remained a beacon of hope for Jews across Morocco who wanted to achieve financial success while living in a multicultural and peaceful port city.

Following the Great Depression and into the start of World War II, Tangier was accepting a growing number of European refugees. From 1938-1939, the Tangerian Jews welcomed about 750 Sephardim and 750 Eastern European refugees into their community, but faced financial troubles as a result. [9] The Jewish community could no longer financially support the educational institutions, and the quality of education in the local Yeshiva was beginning to degrade. Teachers were not attending regularly and students were undisciplined. [10] When France signed an armistice with Germany in June 1940, “the Armistice of 1940,” Tangier’s AIU school stopped receiving financial assistance from AIU’s Paris headquarters, which further sent the AIU school into financial disarray. 

In 1940, shortly after the Armistice of 1940, Spain invaded Tangier and the city became a part of the Spanish protectorate. Although Spain was nominally neutral during the war, the  Jewish community lost its standing and the Junta was effectively powerless. Jewish businesses were heavily taxed and the food supplies in Tangier continued to dwindle, making Tangier nearly uninhabitable.

The end of the 1940s marked a mass emigration of Tangierian Jews who found refuge in Israel. Among the remaining Jews, they elected a new Junta, but it could not raise the necessary funds to keep their community viable, and the population experienced a period of stagnation and decline.

Although Tangierian Jews have been leaving Tangier en masse since the conclusion of World War II, they  and their descendants have built communities in Argentina, Peru, Israel, America, and Spain. Tangier is now a site of memory and continues to host Jewish tourists from all across the world who wish to reflect on its period of grandeur. [11]