Whether they were fleeing the Spanish Inquisition or the violence of World War II, Jews have found safety in Morocco and for millennia have been an integral part of the country’s history and culture.
JDC entered Morocco at the height of World War II, when it gave food, medical care, vocational training, and emigration assistance to Jewish refugees escaping persecution in Europe. For many of the 300,000 local Moroccan Jews who lived in poverty and lacked proper sanitation facilities, JDC collaborated with longtime partner OSE (Oeuvre de secours aux enfants) in the 1950s, an organization that helped secure medical services for the country’s poorest Jews. OSE still operates today.
In the 1950s, JDC also launched a full-scale assistance program that included homes for the elderly; Jewish school systems and nutrition programs within these schools; milk distribution stations; infant clinics and preschool centers that helped combat malnutrition and child mortality; and vocational training to help fight poverty.
Today, Morocco’s community is centered around Casablanca, with several smaller communities around the country, including Marrakesh. Numbering 1,000 after waves of immigration in past decades, the Jewish community is vibrant, with more than 20 synagogues and many kosher restaurants serving locals and Moroccan Jews visiting from abroad. JDC works in partnership with the community to provide social welfare assistance to the needy and power Jewish education and cultural programming for this small but dynamic community.
