Moroccan Jews: nostalgia and echoes of national memory 'Tinghir - Jerusalem: Les Echoes du Mellah' as a case study

Moroccan Jews: nostalgia and echoes of national memory 'Tinghir - Jerusalem: Les Echoes du Mellah' as a case study

Author: 
Zahhaf, Bouchra
Place: 
Oxon
Publisher: 
Taylor & Francis Group
Date published: 
2023
Record type: 
Responsibility: 
Moumni, Omar
Journal Title: 
Journal of North African Studies
Source: 
Journal of North African Studies, Vol. 29, No. 4, 2024, p. 679-703
ISSN: 
1362-9387 (Print); 1743-9345 (Online)
Abstract: 

The Jewish past has always represented a distinct chapter in Morocco's history; an embodiment of a historic component of Moroccan society. 'Tinghir - Jerusalem: Les Echoes du Mellah' (2013): a documentary by Moroccan director Kamal Hachkar, excavates history through places and testimonies of Jews who left Morocco towards 'Israel' and Muslims still living in Tinghir in an attempt to investigate the factors that shaped Moroccan Jews' migration. Going back and forth diverse oral narrations about lived experiences, Moroccan Muslims and Jews recall their memories of good neighbourliness and coexistence during the 1950s and 1960s before the exodus. Memories clash and a new generation that did not witness anything about the history of Jews in Morocco except the Jewish cemetery; emerges, and although the perceptions regarding the Jews' departure diverge, the common feelings of belonging, intense nostalgia and diaspora of the soul appears to be shared.

Language: 
Country focus: 

CITATION: Zahhaf, Bouchra. Moroccan Jews: nostalgia and echoes of national memory 'Tinghir - Jerusalem: Les Echoes du Mellah' as a case study . Oxon : Taylor & Francis Group , 2023. Journal of North African Studies, Vol. 29, No. 4, 2024, p. 679-703 - Available at: https://library.au.int/frmoroccan-jews-nostalgia-and-echoes-national-memory-tinghir-jerusalem-les-echoes-du-mellah-case-study