Casablanca had the largest Jewish community in the Maghreb in the 20th century.[1]
A Sephardic Jewish community was in Anfa up to the destruction of the city by the Portuguese in 1468. Jews were slow to return to the town, but by 1750, the Rabbi Elijah synagogue was built as the first Jewish synagogue in Casablanca. It was destroyed along with much of the town in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.[2]
According to tradition, the first of the modern Jewish community in Casablanca came from Ben Ahmed near Settat to the south in the Chaouia plain, then under the control of the Mzab tribe.[1] After the reopening of the port of Casablanca for trade in 1831,[1] with commercial development through European economic penetration, industrial imports from Europe drove traditional Jewish crafts out of the market, costing many Jews in the interior their traditional livelihoods.[3][4] Moroccan Jews started migrating from the interior to coastal cities such as Essaouira, Mazagan, Asfi, and later Casablanca for economic opportunity, participating in trade with Europeans and the development of those cities.[5] Casablanca also attracted Jewish merchants from other major cities.[6]
| Year | Jewish population | Total population of Casablanca |
|---|---|---|
| 1866 | 1,800[7] | – |
| 1910 | 5,000[7] | 20,000[7] |
| 1926 | 20,000[7] | – |
| 1936 | ~40,000[7] | – |
| 1952 | 74,783[7] | 680,000 (nearly 100,000 of whom were French)[7] |
The Casablanca’s mellah was ravaged in the bombardment of Casablanca of 1907, the beginning of the French invasion of Morocco from the West.[8]
Jean-Louis Cohen highlights the role of Jewish patrons in the architecture and urban development of Casablanca, particularly in construction of the overwhelming majority of the city’s tallest buildings during the interwar period.[9] One notable example of this trend is the Lévy-Bendayan Building designed by Marius Boyer.[9]
Approximately 28,000 Moroccan Jews immigrated to the State of Israel between 1948 and 1951, many through Casablanca.[10] Casablanca then became a departure point in Operation Yachin, the covert Mossad-organized migration operation from 1961 to 1964. In 1956 there were 100,000 Jews registered in Casablanca.[11] In 2018 it was estimated that there were only 2,500 Moroccan Jews living in Casablanca,[12] while according to the World Jewish Congress there were only 1,000 Moroccan Jews remaining.[13]
Today, the Jewish cemetery of Casablanca is one of the major cemeteries of the city, and many synagogues remain in service, but the city’s Jewish community has dwindled. The Moroccan Jewish Museum is a museum established in the city in 1997.[14]
- ^ a b c Levy, Andre; Schroeter, Daniel (1 Oct 2010), “Casablanca”, Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, doi:10.1163/1878-9781_ejiw_COM_0005090, retrieved 2026-02-08
- ^ “Casablanca“. Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
- ^ Jean-Louis Miège, L’ouverture, vol. 2 of Le Maroc et l’Europe, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1961, 569
- ^ Mohammed Kenbib, Juifs et musulmans au Maroc, 1859–1948, Rabat: Université Mohammed V, 1994, 431-33
- ^ Gottreich, Emily R. Jewish space in the Morroccan city : a history of the mellah of Marrakech, 1550-1930. p. 54. OCLC 77066581.
- ^ Levy, Andre; Schroeter, Daniel (1 Oct 2010), “Casablanca”, Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, doi:10.1163/1878-9781_ejiw_COM_0005090, retrieved 2026-02-08
- ^ a b c d e f g Levy, Andre; Schroeter, Daniel (1 Oct 2010), “Casablanca”, Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, doi:10.1163/1878-9781_ejiw_COM_0005090, retrieved 2026-02-08
- ^ Adam, André (1968). Histoire de Casablanca, des origines à 1914. Éditions Ophrys.
- ^ a b Cohen, Jean-Louis (2021-10-05). “Casablanca la juive: Public and Private Architecture 1912-1960”. Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History (19). doi:10.48248/issn.2037-741x/12572. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
- ^ “IMMIGRANTS, BY PERIOD OF IMMIGRATION, COUNTRY OF BIRTH AND LAST COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE” (PDF). CBS, Statistical Abstract of Israel. Government of Israel. 2009. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 June 2011.
- ^ “Los judíos de Casablanca”. Retrieved 2025-05-06.
- ^ “MOROCCO 2018 INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT” (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-04-02. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ “Jewish in Morocco”. Archived from the original on 2019-04-02. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ Sauvagnargues, Philippe (15 February 2011). “Arab World’s Sole Jewish Museum Attests to Moroccan Tolerance”. Daily Star Beirut.
