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When this ostensibly quiet scene was photographed, Morocco was in the throes of a struggle for independence against its French occupiers. The uprising was becoming increasingly violent, with riots…
In 1832, after the French conquest of Algeria, French artist Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) traveled to North Africa, creating a series of paintings and drawings that exoticized scenes of daily life in…
The back of this brass Hanukkah lamp from Morocco is adorned with birds and a row of keyhole-shaped windows. The ring at top is designed to allow the lamp to be hung outside on a doorpost, a custom…
Built in the seventeenth century by the prominent Ibn Danan family, the Ibn Danan synagogue is located in the oldest and largest Jewish quarter of Fez, Morocco. It is one of the few remaining old…
Inscriptions on the stems of these silver Torah finials indicate that they were made by Joseph Arvatz and Chaim Maman in Morocco, and inscriptions on their rims state that they were owned by Rabbi…
Les Hitlériques was a collection of anti-Hitler verses that Knafo composed in Mogador, Morocco in September and October 1939. This courageous and biting publication was very different from his…
This unusual heart-shaped amulet from Morocco is inscribed with the words “God Almighty,” followed by the priestly blessing (Numbers 6:24–26) and an individualized text: “May God give him life and…
This manuscript copy of Sefer ha-kavanot (The Book of [Kabbalistic] Intentions [in Prayer and Performance of Precepts]) by Ḥayim Vital was written in Meknes, Morocco. The kabbalists in Safed stressed…
This photograph by Zédé Shulmann is one of the last taken of the Jewish community of Ifrane (also known as Oufrane), Morocco, whose last members immigrated to Israel in the 1950s. According to legend…
Purim plays (Purim shpiln, in Yiddish), sometimes also called Esther plays, have been known since the fifteenth century in both Ashkenazic and Sephardic communities. These folk plays were performed on…
