Morocco opens museum of Jewish culture in Fez

The Museum of Moroccan Jewish Culture was inaugurated on Monday in Fez. The project was launched at the initiative of King Mohammed VI.

It is the first museum of its kind in the Arab-Muslim world. Its collection documents more than 2,000 years of Jewish life in Morocco and reflects what organizers describe as a spirit of tolerance and mutual respect between Jews and Muslims.

The ceremony was attended by Minister of Endowments and Islamic Affairs Ahmed Toufiq. Also present were Serge Berdugo, President of the Council of Jewish Communities of Morocco, Mehdi Qotbi, President of the National Foundation of Museums, and Khalid Ait Taleb, Governor of the Fez-Meknes region. Ambassadors and other dignitaries also took part.

A royal initiative

Construction began after the King visited Fez on April 16, 2019. The museum was built as part of the "Fez Medina 2018-2023" rehabilitation program. It stands close to the Batha Museum, which is devoted to Arab-Muslim art and was also being restored.

The National Foundation of Museums oversaw the project. Berdugo chaired its scientific committee. When the project was announced, he called it "of great symbolic significance" and said it stemmed from the King's vision.

The building covers about 1,730 square meters of floor space on a plot of roughly 1,170 square meters, with a ground floor, an upper level and a garden-level floor.

What the collection covers

The museum tells the history of Moroccan Jews from the Roman era onward. It covers their traditions and their political, economic, social and cultural contributions. The foundation drew on works from its own reserves. A specialized committee also ran an acquisition campaign and sought donations.

"This type of museum exists nowhere else in the Arab-Muslim world," Qotbi said in 2021.

Morocco has long presented its Jewish heritage as part of its national identity. Casablanca already has a Jewish heritage museum, which is much smaller. 

The new institution is the first dedicated to the Moroccan Jewish heritage in a historic imperial city, in a country that was home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the Arab world.