Morocco’s little idyll of Jewish-Muslim coexistence
Essaouira sets an example for the rest of the Middle East
ONCE a year the little seaside town of Essaouira, in Morocco, reclaims its lost Jewish community. Sephardic trills echo from its whitewashed synagogues. The medieval souks fill with Jewish skullcaps. Rabbis and cantors wish Muslims “Shabbat Shalom” and regale them with Hebrew incantations. “It’s our culture,” says a merchant from Marrakech, who travelled 200km (124 miles) to hear them this year.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Shalom alaykum”
From the November 4th 2017 edition
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