Persecution of Moroccan Jews Through the Ages – The Untold Story 🇲🇦 (Subtitles: FR, HE, AR)

For a long time, I’ve been wanting to start a video series about the persecution of Jews

in Arab countries throughout history. And I’ll begin this series with the largest

Jewish community in the Islamic world: Morocco. This is a story many people don’t know—and some

even deny. There’s a popular myth that Jews lived well under Islamic rule. But

this is simply not true. From Iran in the East to Morocco in the West, Jews

faced persecution. Today, we’ll focus on Morocco. Jews arrived in Morocco around 2,000 years ago,

during the Roman Empire. They settled mainly in coastal cities and were heavily involved in trade.

Keep that in mind—it’ll be important later. In the 8th century, Islam arrived in Morocco,

and from that moment on, Jews lived under Islamic rule. According to the Pact of Umar,

the legal framework governing non-Muslims in Islamic territories,

Jews were classified as dhimmi, or “protected people.” That protection came at a price:

extra taxes and numerous restrictions. They couldn’t build new synagogues,

couldn’t ride horses with saddles, and had to wear distinct clothing, among many other limitations.

Were these laws enforced all the time? No. And that leads us to an essential point: Jewish life

under Islam was inconsistent. There were periods of relative freedom and prosperity—and periods of

brutal persecution, oppression, and massacres. Everything depended on the ruler and the era.

The first Muslim ruler of Morocco, Idris I—the country’s founding father—persecuted Jews and

forced many to convert to Islam. His son was more tolerant, granting Jews more freedom.

He made Fez his capital, turning it into one of the most important Jewish centers in North

Africa. But Fez was also the site of horrific pogroms in which thousands of Jews were murdered.

There’s a strong parallel between the roles Jews played in medieval European kingdoms and

those they played in North Africa. Jews were traders, and they had two massive advantages:

First, almost all Jewish men could read and write, while over 90% of the non-Jewish population could

not. Second, Jews had a common linguistic foundation—Biblical Hebrew. While a Jew

in the Atlas Mountains might not fluently converse with a Jew in the Rhine Valley,

they could communicate due to shared Semitic linguistic roots. This gave them a significant

advantage in international trade and earned them senior roles in both European and Islamic courts.

Another reason Jews were trusted in royal courts: they posed no threat to the throne. Imagine a

Moroccan king appointing his brother or cousin to a sensitive financial role—there was always the

risk of betrayal. But a Jewish advisor? The king could rest easy. No Jewish adviser ever tried to

seize power or convert an entire kingdom to Judaism. It never happened—not in Morocco,

Iraq, France, or Germany—not in the 9th century and not in the 17th. An interesting

fact that tends to be ignored. Judaism simply doesn’t aim to conquer the world. In contrast,

Muslims, according to Islamic theology, aspire for the world to accept Islam. The same goes

for Christianity, which is why missionaries were sent across the globe to spread Jesus’ message.

Modern ideologies echo this. The Nazis wanted global domination. The communists

wanted the world to go red. Of course, I’m not equating Christians with Nazis or Muslims with

communists. I’m saying these worldviews all had a global vision. Judaism doesn’t.

Yet Jews are always accused of wanting to control the world. In truth, those making that accusation