Jewish Morocco: Religious and national identity during the French Protectorate

Abstract

This article explores the complex layers of religious and national identity among Moroccan Jews during the French Protectorate, 1912–1956. Self‐assigned or state‐applied identity labels and language do not help to account for the diversity of nations or members of nation‐states. If one refers to the “Arab people,” this term does not reflect the diverse ethnic, religious, and national groups among this label. Located geographically and demographically between Africa and the Middle East and, equally, the Arab world and Europe, Morocco highlights the coming together of multiple identities and narratives. Though the Morocco of 1956, and the years leading to independence, came to construct and develop a religious and national identity that centered on Arab‐Islamic notions of its past and present, French Protectorate Morocco was a heterogeneous society comprised of Berber, Jewish, Muslim, and colonial influences that complicate an Arab‐Islamic understanding of this time. In the years since independence, scholars have built a considerable body of literature on the topic of Protectorate‐era Morocco and its Jewish communities. This article presents a thorough reading and understanding of the existing body of literature on Jewish Morocco and highlights key gaps that demand further investigation and representation.