|
Despite the misleading titles this is a penerating documentary about the lost Jews of Morocco, lost on two accounts: lost to Morocco when the left en masse in 1965 emmigrating to Israel, and then, Lost in Israel, the "Promised Land" whose promise turned out to be a big disappointment when they were treated there as second class citizens by the European Jews who had established the State of Israel in 1947.
Anyone following the fortunes and misfortunes of Israel over the decades would be aware of the so-called Moroccan problem surrounding the fact that a sizable portion of the country's population are Sefardic Arabic speaking Jews from Morocco who have only grudgingly been accepted by the majority Ashkenazic Jews from Eastern Europe who run the country.
Ms. Wazana who is herself of Moroccan Jewish ancestry, but born and raised in Canada, spent several years tracing her roots and interviewing Moroccan Jews in Israel and in Morocco where there is still a remnant who never left. Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel Morocco had the largest Jewish population in the Arab World, firmly established and dating back to pre-Islamic times. many of them were very much integrated with the original Berber population, and to this day, even in Israel, still speak Tamazight and other Berber dialects.
Wazana visits one such former Jewish town in the midst of the Berber outback which is now a ghost town of bare stucco walls in a beautiful mountain setting. An interview with a elderly Berber gentleman in Essaouira indicates that the Jews were fully accepted there, and he wishes they would return. And this is exactly what this film is about. Misguided displacement and a slender hope if replacement!
Wazana makes the point (through interviews) that the supposed threat to Jews which caused a panic and mass exodus of Jews from their long established homeland in Morocco, did not actually correspond to the reality on the ground and was basically Israeli propaganda used to gather in a needed work force to build the nation.
While the Jews in other Arab Countries such as Egypt and Iraq may have had good reason to fear anti-Jewish violence this apparently was not the case in Morocco, the Arab country with by far the largest Jewish community. Moreover the basic Arab culture of the Moroccan Jews in Israel caused them to be viewd as outsiders. They were in fact settled at first in the worst border regions of the country far from the "better life" they were promised along the sea in the Israeli heartland to lure them to Israel in the first place.
The bulk of the film follows a well known Israeli woman activist of Moroccan origin, Shira Ohayan, on an visit to Morocco where she us determined to trace her roots. In Tetouan up north, a Spanish speaking area, she finds somebody who vaguely remember the family of her mother who used to live there.
In Casablanca major she visits the Jewish museum and has a heart to heart talk in French with the director who is a distinguished member of the remaining Casablanca Jewish community. At one point, to demonstrate their inherent Arabness she challenges him to speak in Arabic, which he does -- but she apologizes that she only knows Egyptian Arabic, not the local dialect - Darija! in the course if this discussion the negative treatment of Arab minorities in Israel is painfully addressed, whereupon Ms. Ohayan throws up her hands and exclaims: "Je ne suis pas chez moi nul part!" -- I don't feel At Home anywhere ---
Which basically sums up the identity dilemma of the Berber speaking Moroccan Jews of Israel -- and would have made a much more appropriate title for the film to start with.
The reference to Seville in Andalusian Spain will be lost to the general viewer as a reference to the medieval moorish conquest of Spain when many prominent Jews such as the philosopher Maimonedes took up residence there, and the business about "Promising them the sea" is misleading, suggesting a sea journey rather than the resettlement in a new land. .
A straightforward title like "The Lost Moroccan Jews" would be much more apt and likely to attract the broad audience this remarkable study of confused cultural identity deserves to have. It has relevance not only for Morocco and Israel and for Jews and Arabs, but for everybody, especially now in the age of mass Islamic migrations caused by the upheavals in the Middle East. These people will have similar identity problems in the host countries of Europe.
Kathy Wazana's timely film could open many eyes on both sides of the cultural divide if and when it reaches them.
|
