Sponsored by the Benjamin and Anna E. Wiesman Family Endowment Fund AN AGENCY OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA
Morocco’s Jewish heritage
November 29, 2013 26 Kislev 5774 Vol. 94 | No. 11
This Week
by DR. MOSHE GERSHOVICH This is part II in a three-part series about Morocco’s Jewish history. Part I appreared in our Nov. 22 edition; look far part III in the coming weeks. An Orphanage in Sefrou The following morning we left Fez and drove east to Bahlil, a charming Arab-speaking village in the midst of a Berber-speaking region, where we were treated to a tea ceremony in a cave-dwelling. From there we continued to Sefrou, the region’s administrative center. Located at the foot of the Middle Atlas Mountains, 28 km (18 miles) from Fez, this town of some 80,000 inhabitants has played an important role as a trading center on the route of caravans from the southeastern oasis of Tafilalt, birthplace of Morocco’s ruling dynasty. Nowadays, the local economy is based mostly on agriculture, and the town is known for its annual cherry festival in the month of June. Sefrou used to be a cultural crossroads where Jews and Muslims, Berbers and Arabs peacefully coexisted for centuries. This cultural mosaic led numerous American anthropologists, notably Clifford Geertz, to choose Sefrou for their field research. For much of its history,
Friends, families connect at Beth El’s Family Shabbaton Page 6
What was said about the Pew poll: Part 2 Page 7
The city of Sefrou Sefrou had been one of a handful Moroccan villages with a high percentage of Jewish population. By the time of Moroccan independence in 1956, Jews still composed a third of Sefrou’s population, about 5,000 living in the
Friedel’s field trip
small Mellah. Only a few remain there since the mass exodus of Morocco’s Jews in the 1960s and early 1970s. The Jewish Mellah is now inhabited by Muslims and the property left behind is taken care of by them.
Our group visited one of these places, an orphanage named Em Habanim (“Mother of the Boys”), situated just outside the Mellah in an enclosed compound. The orphanage Continued on page 2
A busy six days for the Center for Jewish Life
Israeli-Iranian DJ group spins for peace in Berlin Page 12
Inside Point of view Synagogues In memoriam
Next Month Senior Living See Front Page stories and more at: www.jewishomaha.org, click on Jewish Press
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From left to right: Friedel students Shushan, and Zoë Berman. by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Friedel Jewish Academy “We appreciate the diversity of our student body,” noted Pam Cohn, principal of Friedel Jewish Academy. With a student body that represents
Rebecca Denenberg, Nehoray Ben all three Omaha synagogues, “It’s important for other students to see where their peers attend synagogue and talk about the similarities and differences of the synagogues,” she added. She described a visit to Beth Israel in early November as “an educational celebration of that diversity.” Each year around the time of Kristallnacht, a series of coordinated attacks in November 1938 throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria, the Friedel students learn about the Night of Broken Glass. In conjunction with this unit, which left more than 1,000 synagogues burned, Jewish homes, hospitals, Continued on page 2
Lynne Golodner by MARY SUE GROSSMAN Program Coordinator, The Center for Jewish Life While it certainly was not the creation of heaven and earth or Adam and Eve, the Center for Jewish Life recently had its own memorable “creative” stretch, presenting
four events over a six-day period. The events began on Nov. 12 when Eliad Eliyahu Ben Shushan, Omaha’s Community Shaliach, presented not one, but two sessions of Eye on Israel. The first session held at Noon and the second in the Continued on page 2