Jewish Maghrib Jukebox

Friday, September 26, 2008

Fes

We departed for Fes on September 5 for a few days. Fes is definitely one of the focal points of much of the research on Jewish Morocco. It once had a large mellah, now inhabited by Muslims, with dozens of synagogues and other communal institutions. I was equipped with old and more recent photographs, a map of the mellah detailing street names and locations of synagogues, communal ovens, etc., and even a few addresses. Fes is also interesting because it contains the beautiful Ibn Danan Synagogue and a large cemetery that is extremely well maintained and currently both sites are somewhat major tourist attractions. I did not intend to find everything but a few places. I knew that Fes was a project in and of itself and so I sought to just get a feeling for the place.

No comments: