Morocco embraces its Jewish heritage

Morocco has the first Jewish Museum in the Arab world, Jewish studies in schools and a new group promoting ties with Moroccan Jews abroad

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI kick-started the process on Wednesday of establishing a committee to boost the country's ties with Moroccan Jews abroad.

The Committee for Moroccan Jews Abroad will be one of three new bodies slated for establishment by the kingdom, as part of broader recognition of Judaism as a "component" of national culture in Morocco, according to the official Moroccan News Agency.

The decision could pave the way for closer ties with 470,000 Moroccan Jews in Israel, who comprise the second-largest Jewish ethnic group in the country, data from Israel's Central Bureau for Statistics in 2020 shows.

Acting on the king's orders, Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit proposed two other bodies after consulting with the country's 3000-strong Jewish community, which will be responsible for managing the Jewish community's affairs in the country and dealing with all things related to preservation of heritage respectively.

Even before its normalization agreement with Israel in 2020, the Kingdom became the first Arab country to incorporate Jewish history and culture into its school syllabus and inaugurated the first Jewish museum in the Arab world.

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