Letter to Herzl from Zionists in Morocco

The Ahavat Zion (“Lovers of Zion”) Society in Safi (in western Morocco) was one of several Zionist associations that emerged in North Africa around the turn of the twentieth century, founded by members of the local rabbinical and mercantile elite. The letter the Safi group wrote to Herzl indicates that, like their colleagues in Tetouan, Mogador (Essaouira), and Fes, they had learned about Zionist ideas through East European Hebrew periodicals, which had circulated in North Africa for some time within the framework of a shared Hebrew Haskalah tradition. Most of these organizations, including the Ahavat Zion Society in Safi, disbanded after their first few years, but Moroccan Zionist activism experienced a revival of interest after World War I.