For the past decade Morocco has enjoyed unprecedented stability under the rule of King Mohammed VI, who remains popular with his people despite developments in the region.
The millennia-old Jewish community of Morocco traces itself back to the destruction of the Second Temple and the expulsion from Spain in 1492. Rich with history and Sephardic tradition, Jewish life in Morocco today is strong and dynamic, with some 3,000 Jews living in Casablanca and smaller communities sprinkled throughout the country’s periphery.
JDC began working in Morocco in the 1940s, assisting refugees from Nazi Europe who had escaped to Tangier. Throughout the country, JDC partners with and provides critical assistance to local Jewish institutions to help implement a range of relief, education, and community strengthening programs.
Today, in collaboration with the local Jewish community, JDC:
- Saves Morocco’s poorest Jews by providing elderly in need with critical medical services and basic daily necessities. JDC also helps sustain a Jewish home for the aged that offers high-quality care to some of the community’s most impoverished and isolated people.
- Develops tomorrow’s Jewish leaders by ensuring that every Moroccan Jewish child has access to a Jewish education from kindergarten through high school.
- Revitalizes Jewish life by working to improve the community’s infrastructure and providing training for local communal professionals and leaders.
- Aids some of Morocco's most disadvantaged individuals through a mobile outreach unit for people with disabilities who would otherwise have no access to treatment or assistive devices that radically improve their quality of life. This is done in partnership with local NGOs and the Moroccan Jewish community.
For an inside look at how JDC in Morocco is impacting lives and reconnecting isolated Jews to their community, read one young filmmaker’s chronicles of her JDC travels Inside Jewish Morocco.
DID YOU KNOW?
JDC supports the delivery of Passover food packages to some 300 poor and low income Jews in Casablanca and the provinces of Morocco every year.
