When was the last time you heard about someone Jewish attending a Jewish wedding in Krakow, Poland or Sanaa, Yemen and mingling warmly with the non-Jewish locals? Probably never. It simply does not happen. My wife and I recently returned home from a weeklong trip to Morocco where we attended the wedding of someone in our community. Admittedly, we were nervous about traveling to a Muslim and Arab country after October 7. Even though we were assured that it was safe, we thought to ourselves that all it took was a lone wolf bent on sowing chaos. Our fears could not have been further from reality. Not only did it not feel intimidating, but we were actually welcomed warmly. We spoke to taxi drivers, merchants and waiters, who were quickly able to discern our Jewishness, at which point they welcomed us and even spoke to us in Hebrew. My wife and I are both of Moroccan background and when they discovered this, we were reassured that Morocco belongs to Muslims and Jews alike. Although my wife and I are both fluent in French, which most Moroccans speak, the little Moroccan Arabic that we know went a long way to create closeness with the locals. My wife openly walked with her obviously Jewish head covering with no issues. We visited a few tzaddikim, all of whose burial sites are tended to by Muslim locals, who take care of it as though it was their own. Many Muslim Moroccans believe in the merit of these tzaddikim.
I am under no illusions that antisemitism or anti-Israel sentiments do not exist in Morocco. They do. But the overarching feeling was one of warmth and welcoming. I now understand why many Jewish businesses and institutions display portraits of King Mohammed VI. He and his father, the late King Hassan II, maintained positive relations with the local Jewish community and allowed it to practice Judaism freely. Unlike Jewish communities from, say, Europe, which seemed to separate themselves from the non-Jewish community at large, the Jews of Morocco embraced the country and adopted their music, food and language (albeit with some modifications). We should have hakarat hatov to the king and people of Morocco and I encourage all Jews to visit the land that produced the Rif, the Or HaHaim Hakadosh and many other gedolim, as well as a deeply rich Jewish heritage.
