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The Jews ofTetuan[1][2][3][4] are members of a community founded by Jews who had beenexpelled from Spain andPortugal to Morocco, along with Muslims who had also beenexpelled from the Iberian Peninsula. They were distinguished by the characteristics of the Spanish-Andalusian culture that they brought with them: language, manners, appearance, dress, education and occupation. The community was called "Jerusalem de Maroco" - Jerusalem of Morocco, or "Little Jerusalem." It was served by renownedrabbis anddayanim, and the synagogues had a large collection of ancient holy books.
The Jews of Tetuan, like the rest of the Jews of northern Morocco, used to speak a specificallyTetuani dialect ofLadino calledHaketia, which combines words from Spanish, Hebrew, and Arabic.
Tetuan (Arabic:تطوان;Standard Moroccan Tamazight:ⵜⵉⵟⵟⴰⵡⵉⵏ,romanized: Tīṭṭāwīn 'the springs'[5]) is situated at the mouth of theMartil River and the flanks ofJabal Darsa [ar] of theRif, near the ancient Berbero-Roman city ofTamuda in Northern Morocco.[6] Little is known about thegarrison town or its Jewish community before theexpulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492.[6] It was left abandoned after a Portuguese raid in 1437.[5]
Tetuan was re-established in the late 15th century by Jewish and Muslim refugees from theIberian Peninsula. The founder ofChefchaouen around the time of theFall of Granada,Sharīf ʿAlī b. Rāshid al-ʿAlamī, welcomed Andalusi refugees.[5] TheGharnati refugeeAbū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī al-Manẓarī re-established Tetuan as manySephardic Jews were arriving following the expulsion of Jews from Spain.[6]Haketia, or Spanish as spoken by Sephardic Jews in North Africa, remained the mother tongue of the Tetuani Jewish community into the 20th century, according toJessica Marglin.[6]
The Jewish community in Tetuan was formally established in 1530 with Rabbi Ḥayyim ben Abraham Bibas, who came from a Sephardic family that had originally settled inFes.[6] He founded ayeshiva and established thetaqqanot of the Spanish Jews in Fes, which remained a major source ofcustomary law in the city.[6] His synagogue was destroyed in 1610, but by 1727 the city had seven synagogues. One of his descendants is RabbiYehuda Bibas, considered one of theforerunners ofZionism. Among the founders of Jewish customs in the city was RabbiYaakov Halevi [he], the city's rabbi in the 17th century. Among the prominent Jews in the city during the 17th century was the poet and halachic arbiterYitzhak Aruvash [he], who later moved to Italy. RabbiHasdai Almoshenino [he] (1640–1727) served as a judge in the city. He later moved his seat to Gibraltar. He is known for his books "Mishmeret Hakodesh" on Rashi's commentary on the Torah and "Chesed El".
The Sephardic Jewish refugees from Iberia were referred to within the widerMoroccan Jewish community asRūmiyīn (Moroccan Arabic:روميين,lit. 'Romans, Europeans, foreigners')[7] orMegorashim (Hebrew:מגורשים "expelled"), in contrast with theBildiyīn (Moroccan Arabic:بلديين,lit. 'of the country, natives')[7] orToshavim (Hebrew:תושבים, "residents"). The descendants of theMegorashim in Tetuan (as in Tangier and other cities) maintained their own unique identity. According to Moisés Orfali, these Spanish-speaking Tetuani Jews would refer to all otherMoroccan Jews—includingToshavim as well asMegorashim that becameArabized and lost the ability to speak Ladino—asforasteros 'outsiders'.[8]
The Jewish community grew in the 16th century as the city became an international commercial center. Jewish merchants established trade relations withAlgiers,Tunis,Livorno,Lisbon,Gibraltar, andAmsterdam.[6] Tetuan also became a center ofpiracy, an activity in which Jews participated mostly as intermediaries in the sale ofChristian captives.[6]
In the 19th century, the city was home to the Dayan RabbiYitzhak ben Walid (1789–1870), author of the book "And Yitzhak Said" (ויאמר יצחק) which includes information about the social, economic, and religious life of the city's residents. He supported theAlliance Israélite Universelle. In 1862, this organization established a Jewish school for boys in the city, the first Alliance school in Morocco, and in 1868 it also founded a school for girls. The schools provided modern education in Spanish and French, and also included Jewish subjects and Hebrew studies.
Following SultanSidi Mohammed ben Abdallah's death in 1789,Mulay Yazid ascended to the throne, which resulted in a horrific slaughter of Moroccan Jews who had refused to back him in his struggle with his brother for the crown. When he entered the city of Tétouan, the city's wealthy Jews were punished by being tied to horses and dragged through the streets, and his soldiers broke into the Jewish quarter and disrupted the community.[9] Observers remarked that Yazid authorized hisblack troops to plunder Tétouan's Jewish quarter.[10]
At the beginning of the 19th century, around 1807, SultanSulayman forced Jews to move tomellahs in the towns of the coastal region, inRabat,Salé,Essaouira, andTétouan.[11][7] In Tétouan, the Spanish wordjudería was later used as the name of the district.
In 1860, during theHispano-Moroccan War, and before the city fell after the Moroccan defeat in theBattle of Tétouan, disorganized Moroccan troops stormed the city's Jewish quarter, killing about 400 of them. Most of the others fled for their lives.[9]
Zionism in Morocco dates back to the period just beforecolonization, around 1900–1912[12] due to the influence of European Zionist activists, and it was mostly limited to coastal cities, which had more direct contact with Europe as well as populations of Jews who received a European education, especially from theAlliance Israélite Universelle.[13][12][14] Among these coastal cities wasTetuan, where theRussian physician Dr.Ya'akov Barliawsky settled and established theShivat-Zion (שיבת ציון 'Return to Zion') Association[a] around 1900.[12] The AIU facilitated the arrival of Dr. Jacques Berliowsky (Yaʿaqov Barliawsky) in 1891.[15]Judah Leon Jalfón [he], a rabbi in Tetuan, wrote toTheodor Herzl of the establishment of the Shivat-Zion society as early as 1900.[16] The society did not last long, but it started a Hebrew library with modern Hebrew literature.[17]
Zionist activity in Morocco was stifled after the formal establishment ofFrench andSpanish colonial rule in Morocco in 1912, with the activity of local Zionist associations mostly limited to the dissemination of Zionist literature and the popularization of theshekel.[12] In 1919, the Tetuani RabbiJudah Leon Jalfón [he], a pillar of Zionism in the Spanish zone, published an article in support of Zionism inEl Eco de Tetuán, a Spanish newspaper, in which he fuses political and religious Zionism, describedZion (Palestine) as the birthplace of the Jewish nation, and described Zionism as "the idea of a people living in their free homeland."[18]
In the early and mid-1920s, envoys from Zionist organizationsKeren Hayesod and theJewish National Fund, such asAvraham Elmalih, Nathan Halpern, andAriel Bension, encountered difficulties in soliciting donations and support from Northern Moroccan Jews in cities such as Tetuan and Tangier.[18][19] According toAriel Bension, the main reasons for resistance to Zionism among Northern Moroccan Jews were that they saw it as an irreligious movement and not concerned with the interests of Sephardim.[18] In 1921, Zionists inSpanish Morocco elected to send Ariel Bension as their delegate to the TwelfthZionist Congress, marking the first time Moroccan Jews were represented at anyZionist Congress.[20] The influential Zionist activistSamuel-Daniel Levy was born to a Sephardic family in Tetuan in 1874.[21]
By atreaty[22] betweenFrance andSpain on 27 November 1912, Tetuan and its Jewish community came under Spanish rule with the establishment of theSpanish protectorate in Morocco, which had Tetuan as its capital. SpanishAfricanists in theSpanish military andMinistry of Foreign Affairs espoused politicalphilosephardism [es] (filosefardismo), which sought to sponsor the Sephardic community in Morocco, pursue its Hispanicization, and promote within it a sense of loyalty to Spain.[16][23] The policy of philosephardism was welcomed by part of the Sephardic elite, especially those who had been Spanishprotégés, had business ties with Spain, or heldSpanish citizenship.[16] Unlike the territory to the south underFrench colonial rule, there were no antisemitic laws passed in the territory under Spanish colonial rule.[b][23] In colonial documents, Jews were referred to as 'Hebrews' or 'Israelites' and were considered neither "indigenous" nor "locals"; they were instead viewed by colonial authorities as "mediators" between the Spanish colonial authorities and the local population.[23]
In 1913, in compliance with the dahir of KhalifaMuley el Mehdi Ben Ismail, the population census and housing statistics were carried out, resulting in a population of 18,533 inhabitants, of whom 11,623 practiced Islam, 4250 Judaism and 3006 Roman Catholicism.[24]
| Quarter | Population | Muslims | Jews | Catholics | Protestants | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Bled | 4 435 | 4 154 | 0 | 278 | 3 | 0 |
| El Rabat Es-Sefli | 3 878 | 3 032 | 40 | 802 | 1 | 3 |
| El Trancats | 2 201 | 1 775 | 18 | 407 | 1 | 0 |
| El Aiun | 2 707 | 2 252 | 0 | 455 | 0 | 0 |
| El Mellah | 4 799 | 2 | 4186 | 605 | 3 | 3 |
| Outside the walls | 513 | 48 | 6 | 459 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 18 533 | 11 623 | 4 250 | 3 006 | 8 | 6 |
Into the 20th century, the mother tongue of the Jewish community of Tetuan was a distinctTetuani dialect ofHaketia orLadino,Ibero-Romance as spoken by Sephardic Jews.[8] In discussion of theTalmud, Tetuani scholars would use Haketia inHebrew script.[25]
Nina Pinto-Abecasis [es] has studied the use of humor in nickname culture among Tetuani Jews.[26][27]
Musical genres in the musical traditions of Jewish communities in northern Morocco includedromances,ballads, andcoplas, or "praliturgical poems in rhyming couplets and triplets," among other genres.[28][29]
Rabbinical scholars in Tetuan did not study only in local synagogues; many Tetuani scholars went to study in Fes, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries.[25]
In those centuries, unlike nearby cities under European rule, such asTangier orCeuta, there was no Jewish religious education and no evidence of use of Jewish languages—Hebrew and Haketia or Ladino—Tetuan had active Jewish religious schools and Hebrew and Haketia were spoken as a part of daily life.[30]
In the late 1940s, Rabbi Dr. Salomon Ben Shabbat established the Instituto Maimonides (Maimonides Institute) in the city, which researched the poetry and literature of Sephardic Jewry.[31]
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About 200 years ago, the newMellah was built and the Jews of the oldMellah, who had been expelled from it generations earlier, were moved to it. The newMellah was built of straight, parallel streets and long, narrow alleys, similar to most of theMellahs of Morocco. It excelled in order and cleanliness. The synagogues were beautiful and well-kept.[8] In 1900, the "Shivat Zion" Association was founded in the city, the first Zionist association in Morocco (together with the "Shivat Zion Association", which was founded at the same time in Mogador). At the initiative of the association's president, Rabbi Yehuda Leon Kalfon, a Hebrew library was established in the city with modern Hebrew literature.
The city's old cemetery, which is over 300 years old, has tombs with a unique shape, with a human face embossed on the tombstone.
The Jews of Tetuan had close ties with the Jews of Gibraltar, from where its founders came. There were family ties between the communities and the mutual sending of students to educational institutions[9]. There were also extensive trade relations between the communities. For many years, the Spanish authorities imposed a blockade on Gibraltar and its ongoing supplies were dependent on Morocco[10]. Morocco's only port city on the Mediterranean coast was Tetuan, and with the help of the goods that arrived from there, the Jewish merchants of Gibraltar were able to transport supplies to the citizens of the colony and to the British army.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)As for the educational and linguistic spheres within Moroccan regions under foreign control, such as Tangier and Ceuta, no evidence was found of a functioning or organized Jewish educational structure, in contrast to what is well documented in major centers under Islamic authority, such as Fez and Tétouan. Nor was there any indication of the use of Jewish languages such as Ladino or Haketía, which were traditionally associated with institutions of religious education and rabbinical training. On the contrary, historical documents – foremost among them the statutes proclaimed by the Bishop of Ceuta, Agostinho Ribeiro, during Sunday Mass on 4 January 1609, in Mazagan (which were also enforced in Tangier and Ceuta) demonstrate the extent of restrictions imposed on Jews in these centers. Jews were forbidden from using any language other than Portuguese or Spanish, and from possessing books considered contrary to Christian doctrine. This reveals a linguistic and educational policy aimed at erasing the cultural and religious distinctiveness of the Jewish community.3
