The mellahs without jews: a lost memory

• Yazid Hamdouni Alami ^[1]
  1. [1] Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University

     Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University

     Fes-Medina, Marruecos

     
• Localización: Journal of Tourism and Heritage Research: JTHR, ISSN-e 2659-3580, Vol. 2, Nº. 3, 2019, págs. 227-251
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Resumen

  • Abandoned by its former inhabitants who left mainly to populate the State of Israel created in 1948 and replaced by the local populations, the “Mellah” (Formerly, Jewish quarter of Moroccan cities) registers as an anthropological fact that deserves to be studied. The inhabitants change, but the “Mellahs” recall a secular coexistence, almost acceptable, between Muslims and Jews. Today, “Mellahs” without Jews is still invested with places of worship, synagogues, cemeteries, etc. The architectural heritage remains virtually the same and the toponymy is a testimony that cannot be erased in recent upheavals. Through some examples, this article attempts to analyze the future of a heritage whose social content has completely changed. However, the break with the land of the ancestors seems to diminish by an episodic return to the native country to pay tribute to past generations, indicating the birth of roots tourism.