Yaakov C Lui-Hyden
1 min readNov 30, 2023

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I know plenty of Moroccan Jews and the history of Jews in Morocco including the pogroms against the poorer Jews and some Jews being able to stay alive because they had benefactors or positions of responsibility. Even Maimonides fled Spain to Morrocco and then had to flee for his life as the local Arabs tried to kill him.

47 Jews were killed in Morocco in a pogrom there in 1948.

There is a reason their number went from 265000 there to 2000 today.
In 1033 there was a pogrom.
In 1146 Jews were forced to choose between conversion and death. This is when crypto-Jews emerged who had to pretend to be Muslim outside their homes.
In 1148 there was a massive slaughter of Jews who did not convert.
In 1465 they were massacred again
In 1646 all the synagogues were damaged or destroyed
In 1670 they burned Jews alive
In 1790 Jews were expelled from a city and their cemetery used to build a mosque
In 1844 another pogrom
Between 1864-1860 307 Jews were killed for wearing shoes in the city, after the Sultan allowed them to wear shoes in the city for the first time
1912 another 50 Jews killed in a pogrom
And the whole period Jews had to pay crushing taxation.

Now go and talk again to a Moroccan Jew.

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Yaakov C Lui-Hyden
Yaakov C Lui-Hyden

Written by Yaakov C Lui-Hyden

Yaakov is a world traveller and is accused of being an Australian. Published several novels. He writes about travel, writing, geopolitics and trading.

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