The Jewish Community of Tetouan

Tetouan

In Arabic: تطوان‎‎; Spanish: Tetuan; ancient name: Tamuda

A city in northern Morocco

Tetouan is one of two major port cities in Morocco on the Mediterranean Sea. It is located approximately 40 miles (60km) southeast of Tangier, and just south of the Strait of Gibraltar.

Tetouan's Jewish cemetery is more than 500 years old, with approximately 35,000 tombstones, making it the largest Jewish cemetery in Morocco. Among those buried in the cemetery is the Talmudist and tsaddik (righteous man) Rabbi Yitzchak Bengualid. Four days before Purim, on the anniversary of Rabbi Bengualid's death, pilgrims from around the world arrive at Rabbi Bengualid's unmarked grave to celebrate and commemorate him. The cemetery is open to the public and the caretaker, Mohammed, is willing to give tours.

Both Israel and Venezuela have Jewish communities made up of Tetouan Jews who have preserved their language, various customs, and traditional foods. Tetouan food tends towards the sweet rather than the savory; traditional Tetouan foods include couscous com hambriya, naranja (a celery and orange salad), pescado en charmila (marinated fish), and huevos al nido ("eggs in the nest"), pastelitos de patata (meat coated in mashed potatoes), paella, and various flans.

HISTORY

Tetouan was destroyed by the Spanish in 1399 but rebuilt a few years before 1492 by an Andalusian chieftain, Al-Mandari, who used it exclusively as a refuge for Moors and some Spanish Jews. It was beginning in 1511 that the Jewish community began to grow in prominence and importance, due in large part to the support they received from the authorities, and the development of maritime trade. Indeed, trade remained exclusively in the hands of the local Jewish community until the end of the 19th century.

Until 1772 Tetouan was home to envoys from European nations. After they were forced to leave for Tangier when Christians were forbidden from living in Tetouan, these Christian representatives were replaced by consuls and consular agents who were chosen from among the members of the local Jewish community. The community grew, and soon had thousands of people; at its peak there were more than 8,000 Jews living in the city.

The community's first av bet din (head of the rabbinical court) was Rabbi Chayyim Bibas, who came to Tetouan after being expelled from Spain. For years afterwards, the community's spiritual and political leadership rested among members of the same families: Abudaraham, Almosnino, Bendelac, Bibas, Cazes, Coriat, Crudo, Falcon, Hadida, Hassan, Nahon, and Taurel. Similarly, beginning in 1912 and throughout the 20th century political and community influence tended to be concentrated among a few prominent families. Rabbi Isaac Bengualid, the author of the two-volume Vayomer Yitzkhak (Leghorn, 1855), about the social, economic, and religious history of the Jewish community of Tetouan, was the community's dayyan (religious judge) during the 19th century. During the mid-20th century the community was run by a council led by Jacob Benarroch until 1954; in 1955 the government ordered that a new council be appointed. The rabbinical council was headed by Rabbi Judah Halfon. After his retirement, Rabbi Abraham Bibas was appointed as the community's dayyan.

One of the more unique aspects of Tetouan's Jewish community is that the Jewish descendants of refugees from the Spanish and Portuguese expulsions preserved their language (Castilian Spanish), their customs, and their unique traditions. In fact, until the middle of the 18th century the Jews of Tetouan absorbed Portuguese Marranos who sought to return to Judaism after settling in the city. Additionally, an influx of Jews from other Moroccan communities, attracted by the city's economic opportunities, arrived at Tetouan. These new residents were generally absorbed into the existing Spanish-Portuguese community, but they also introduced a number of new beliefs and customs, as well as the Haquetia dialect, a mixture of corrupted Castilian, Arabic, and Hebrew used by the Jews of northern Morocco.

The Jews of Tetouan who emigrated from the city helped establish communities in Melilla, Oran, Gibralter, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Lima, and Caracas. Emigration increased drastically when the Jews of Tetouan were forced to live in a Jewish Quarter (Juderia) in August of 1807; they were forbidden from living anywhere else in the town until 1912.

Nonetheless, relations between the local Jews and Andalusian Muslims were excellent. In fact, both communities experienced shared suffering, first in 1610 when the sultan suddenly imposed an exorbitant tax on both communities, and then in 1665 when the town was raided and the Bibas synagogue was burned and razed. A subsequent sultan, Mulay Yazid, led a series of persecutions against Tetouan's Jewish community, which had previously refused to loan him money to raise an army against his father. One of Mulay Yazid's sons looted the Jewish community in 1882, and the local Jewish and Muslim communities were subject to riots and looting during the Spanish Moroccan War of 1860.

By 1727 there were seven synagogues in Tetouan. The community had its own schools, in which the language of instruction was Castilian, as well as a number of yeshivas. The first Alliance Israelite Universelle school was founded in Tetouan in 1862, with the support of Rabbi Isaac Bengualid and prominent members of the community. The establishment of the Alliance also served to introduce French to Tetouan's Jewish community.

Tetouan eventually became the largest Jewish community in Spanish Morocco.In 1949, of the 14,196 Jews in Spanish Morocco, 7,630 lived in Tetouan. However, the Jewish population of Tetouan began to decline shortly thereafter, in the wake of emigration to Israel and to the international zone of Tangier; in 1951 approximately 8,000 Jews remained in Spanish Morocco, 4,122 of whom lived in Tetouan. The census of 1960 indicated that the Jewish population of Tetouan dropped to 3,103; by 1968 that number had dropped further, to approximately 1,000. This decline in population affected the community's institutions. The Jewish community in Tetouan had three Alliance Israelite Universelle schools, which enrolled 746 students in 1950 and 430 in 1957. Yeladim, the community's vocational school, enrolled 250 students in 1957. In 1961 the total number of students attending Jewish schools was 565. By 1968 most of the community's institutions had closed.