Rabat & Fes, Morocco- Days 9 & 10

Tuesday may have been the least eventful day thus far, but being on Kivunim every day is still long and tiring. We began the day by visiting King Mohammed V mausoleum for about 20 minutes in Rabat,

and then got right back on the bus for another long drive to Fes- Morocco's second largest city.

Though before getting to Fes we made a little pit stop in Meknes, a city with only 55 Jews. The highlight of the day may have been when we visited a synagogue where an older Jewish man who was clapping and singing “Shalom Aleichem” greeted us.

The most powerful part of the visit, and maybe one of the most powerful parts of the trip, was when we davened mincha in this shul that is no longer in use. The joy we saw on this seemingly lonely Jew’s face was very inspiring and heartwarming.

We arrived in Fes in time for dinner and spent the night hanging out, excited for our trip through the incredible souk of Fes the next day.

Our last day in Morocco was a great one. We got to see everything Morocco is known for from their leather products to their ceramic creations.

We visited Morocco’s biggest tannery dating back to the 14^th century.

We saw their beautifully detailed ceramic and metal works.

Lastly we saw how their sewed scarves and table clothes.

My appreciation for all of the above work has increased tremendously. Whether the work was tedious or simple, long or short, the hard work and in some cases minute detail required to make these truly authentic products cannot got without recognition. The stuff you see in souvenir shops may not just be junk, but the product of hard, backbreaking work.

Though, it was difficult to enjoy the day fully because of the constant heckling. But it wasn’t the hecklers; it was the way people would shoo them away like flies that buzzed in their ears. It was just brought to my attention that the hundreds of people we’ve seen over this trip struggle to make a living by practically begging for people to buy their knick-knacks.

We left the souk around 2 and drove for maybe 4 or 5 hours to Tangier where we are going to depart from for Spain tomorrow (Thursday, January 31) morning. 

Marakech & Casablanca, Morocco Days 7 & 8

I’m writing this on Thursday, and this blog is for Sunday and Monday, the 27th and 28th of January, so I apologize for the possible ambiguity and/or poor writing because I’m so behind, but here we go.

On Sunday morning I woke up in Marakech to some out of the norm sounds on the busiest street in Marakech. I walked out on my porch to see a sea of people on the street running the Marakech marathon.

We made our way to the souk after cutting through the middle of the marathon, surely pissing off plenty of runners.

Despite the guys trying to put snakes and monkeys on us, the souk in Marakech was one of the few times we were really able to see Morocco for what it is. After traversing through the old Jewish quarter of the Medina, the word for the old Arab or non-European quarter of a North African town,

 we visited a cosmetics shop, for lack of a better word. It was a shop that sold oils and creams for what seemed like anything, from congestion to hemorrhoids, and dry skin to mosquito repellent.

We spent a little bit more time in the souk then took another four hour or so bus ride to Casablanca and arrived just in time for dinner. We went to one of the four or five Jewish clubs there and had our first meat meal in what felt like weeks.

The next morning we went to King Hassan II mosque, the third biggest mosque in the world.

Here are some quick fun facts about it!

• The architect of the mosque was Christian.
• The minaret, which is the tall tower on all mosques, is the tallest in the world at 200 meters high.
• 2,000-3,000 people come to pray daily; 15,000-20,000 on Fridays, and up to 80,000 come on Ramadan!
• The marble floors are heated for the winter, and they open the retractable roof a couple times a year for the big holidays.
• And lastly, the mosque cost between 600 million and 5 billion euro (or between $808,140,000 and $6.75 billion). The numbers are huge and the range between them is also massive, but those are the numbers I got from my two sources, Raphy and our tour guide at the mosque.

After our visit to the mosque we visited one of the last remaining Jewish schools in Morocco, sang and played with the kids, and then had lunch. Before leaving Casablanca we visited the “Moroccan Jewish Museum,” founded and run by our guide Raphy.

He collected Jewish items left behind from all over Morocco, and has been working for years to restore synagogues and make the memory of the Jews in Morocco a lasting one. It was an incredible, once in a lifetime opportunity to be given a tour of a museum by the founder of that museum.

After spending about an hour at the small museum we drove to Rabat, the capital of Morocco, ate a delicious dinner and spent the night in the hotel.

I wanted to end with a question I’ve been thinking about for a couple days now. It doesn’t really have an answer, but it’s something to think about. After learning about the great relationships between the Muslims and Jews in Morocco for hundreds of years, I can’t help but wonder what it would be like if the Jews stayed in Morocco and their relationship with the Muslims remained the same. The majority of the Jews left only 50 years ago. Could Morocco have been the driving force behind a more tolerable Muslim world towards the Jews through both example and advocacy?

Last thing, the wifi opportunities have been limited hence the delayed posts, but I'm doing what I can. The trips almost over, but hopefully I can get them out one by one so I don't just dump a whole bunch on you at once. I hope you've enjoyed!