The first round table of Thursday 15 november 2018 dealt on the theme”Youth Sequence: Side by Side, face to face, together and separately, how to build the future?. Ms. Zhor Rehihil, conservator of the Museum of Moroccan Judaism, Mr. Ariel Danan, historian, Mr. El Mehdi Boudra, founding member of the Mimouna Association, Mr. Kamal Hachkar , historian and filmmaker, and Mr. Maxime Karoutchi, artist and community actor participated to the round table moderated by Mr. A. Aziz Rifki, Project Manager at the CCME.
Ms. Rehihil exposed the “hard work carried out by the Judeo-Moroccan Heritage Foundation and its Museum since 20 years”: “I see this meeting as the result of the numerous actions we have initiated” .
“Since 1997 we have organized considerable activities, especially in France, where an event was held at the Mosque Mohammed VI of Saint-Etienne in collaboration a joint effort with the « Alliance Israelite Universelle » in Paris and several other partners”.
« I remember that Jews and Muslims worked together, because we share this Moroccanity, that the late Simon Levi used to define in Arabic as ” tameghrabit “, said Ms. Rehihil, thanking on this occasion Mr. Marbi Marchich, rector of the mosque of Saint-Etienne for his support.
Ms Rehihil also also welcomed the joint efforts with the Union of Mosques of France to organize exhibitions on Moroccan Judaism in schools and Muslim places of worship. She annouced that a traveling exhibition on Jewish-Moroccan culture will be held soon in the city of Marseille and the suburb of Evry (Paris).
The Museum of Moroccan Judaism is the only institution in Morocco twhich preserves this common heritage, said Ms Rehihil adding, it also organizes activities of several civil society members : “with the Mimouna Foundation at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, we have prepared special content to explain the Holocaust to young Moroccans. Moreover the movie “Kamal Hachkar’s Tinghir Jerusalem film project was the result of a combined work with the museum,” she said. Ms. Rehihil also claimed the growing interest of the Jewish-Moroccan culture.
Mr. Maxime Karoutchi author of Memoirs of a -Casablancais- of Jewish confession »,for his his part spoke about his identity. For him, “living together used to be a self-evident and nothing separated us from our Muslim neighbors”. He added “I remember that the bread oven of the medina, held by a Muslim, closed Fridays to take care of the Jewish food of the city… ». It is only at the age of 14, that ” I discovered I was Jewish and Moroccan. It was the first time in my life that I heard the word Jewish” Maxime Karoutchi recalled, adding : “Foreign policy has created a gap between us”.
The speakers Mr. El Mehdi Boudra, founding member of the Mimouna Association and Mr. Kamal Hachkar , historian and filmmaker also intervened in this passionate debate.
(Summary)
