History of the Jews in Morocco

Moroccan Jews constitute an ancient community. Before the founding of Israel in 1948, there were about 250,000 to 350,000 Jews in the country, which gave Morocco the largest Jewish community in the Muslim world, but fewer than 2,500 or so remain. Jews in Morocco, originally speakers of Berber languages, Judeo-Moroccan Arabic or Judaeo-Spanish, were the first in the country to adopt the French language, and unlike the general population, it remains the main (and in many cases, the exclusive) language of members of the Jewish community there.

The Jewish presence dates back over 2,500 years, to the time of the Carthaginian state. The Hebrew or Aramaic languages used by Jews were closely related to the Punic language of the Carthaginians; many Jews also settled amongst Berbers and adopted their languages. When the Jews began to disperse throughout the Roman empire after the Roman conquest of Judaea, many settled in Mauretania including part of modern-day Morocco. These settlers engaged in agriculture, cattle-raising, and trades. They were divided into bodies akin to tribes, governed by their respective heads, and had to pay the Romans a capitation-tax of two shekels. Later, under the dominion of the Romans and (after 429) the Vandals, Mauretanian Jews reportedly increased in number and prospered.

As Christianity was adopted by the Roman state, the church Councils of Carthage adopted policies that discriminated against adherents to Judaism. The Justinian edict of persecution for North Africa, issued after Vandal rule had been overthrown and Mauretania had come under the dominion of the Byzantines (534), was directed against the Jews as well as the Arians, the Donatists, and other dissenters.

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