Conversion, Intermarriage and the Legal Status of Jews in French Protectorate Morocco

In contrast to metropolitan France where Third-Republic notions of laïcité governed marriage and informed the civil code, French officials in Protectorate-era Morocco (1912-1956) found themselves committed to upholding a confessional system that treated Jewish and Muslim communities as distinct legal, political and social entities. While French efforts to create separate legal jurisdictions for Jews and Muslims served to reify the existing social divisions in Morocco, intermarriage and conversion from one faith to another challenged existing legal and social boundaries at the most personal and intimate level. The primary focus of this study is a set of petitions dating from 1938 to 1955 made by Christians (and one Muslim) who sought to convert to Judaism. The responses made by French administrators--often wary of offending majority Muslim sensibilities--serve to underscore the inherent tensions within France's confessional policy in Morocco. In contrast, independence introduced new anxiety for Jews concerned about assimilation and Jewish conversion to Islam.