Zédé Schulmann

Zédé Schulmann was a photographer, filmmaker, and collector who recorded Moroccan Jewish culture during the first half of the twentieth century. Schulmann was born in Safed and in 1913 moved to Morocco, where he began documenting its Jewish culture. Schulmann’s project took on greater urgency when Morocco gained national independence in 1953 and much of the country’s Jewish community immigrated to Israel or France. Schulmann endeavored to record the material culture and folklore of the country’s Jews before they disappeared. He photographed, filmed, and recorded religious events, traditions, dances, and songs and collected objects of worship, clothing, and jewelry. Schulmann’s collection was donated to the Israel Museum in 1965 and was part of an exhibition on Moroccan Jewry in 1973.