Jewish Morocco: A History from Pre-Islamic to Postcolonial Times

Emily Benichou Gottreich

Feb 2020 · Bloomsbury Publishing

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The history of Morocco cannot effectively be told without the history of its Jewish inhabitants. Their presence in Northwest Africa pre-dates the rise of Islam and continues to the present day, combining elements of Berber (Amazigh), Arab, Sephardi and European culture. Emily Gottreich examines the history of Jews in Morocco from the pre-Islamic period to post-colonial times, drawing on newly acquired evidence from archival materials in Rabat. Providing an important reassessment of the impact of the French protectorate over Morocco, the author overturns widely accepted views on Jews' participation in Moroccan nationalism - an issue often marginalized by both Zionist and Arab nationalist narratives - and breaks new ground in her analysis of Jewish involvement in the istiqlal and its aftermath. Fitting into a growing body of scholarship that consciously strives to integrate Jewish and Middle Eastern studies, Emily Gottreich here provides an original perspective by placing pressing issues in contemporary Moroccan society into their historical, and in their Jewish, contexts.

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Emily Benichou Gottreich is Associate Adjunct Professor in Global Studies and the Department of History at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. She is also former President of the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS). She holds a PhD from Harvard University, USA.