Some accounts suggest the history of the Jews in Morocco to the sixth century BC, when they were expelled from Babylon and arrived in North Africa. The Jewish presence in the kingdom also increased with the fall of Andalusia, as the Spaniards expelled both Muslims and Jews.
Additional Curriculum
During the current school year, new textbooks were added to previous curricula that include Jewish heritage and history in Morocco, including this Moroccan stream, both throughout history and at present.
The Director of Curricula at the Ministry of National Education, Fouad Shafiqi, confirmed to “Sky News Arabia” that 3 school books containing texts and topics about Jews during previous seasons have been moved to 18 books in the current school season.
These books, which deal with various topics on the Jewish and Hebrew heritage in the Kingdom, will not only concern history as it was in previous school seasons, but will also concern Arabic and French, starting from the fourth primary level.
Courageous initiative
Commenting on this step taken by the Ministry of National Education, Rachid Dounas, a researcher in Moroccan Jewish history, praised “this very important step, albeit late, since since Morocco’s independence, educational curricula have not included lessons on the Moroccan Hebrew component and Jewish culture in general.” “.
And the researcher in Moroccan Jewish history considered, in an interview with “Sky News Arabia”, that the matter “led successive Moroccan generations to ignorance of almost everything about the Jewish tributaries that make up the Moroccan personality.”
Accordingly, “this courageous initiative comes to make up for that absence, which will allow current and future generations to know the vital roles played by Moroccan Jewish groups over the course of their presence in Morocco for centuries, as well as providing the possibility to understand the constraints and challenges they faced,” adds the researcher in Moroccan Jewish history. , Rashid Dunnas.
Authentic Moroccan ingredient
Morocco is witnessing successive transformations in order to revive the Hebrew heritage and Jewish culture, as the initiatives of the country’s King, King Mohammed VI, have combined to preserve the landmarks of the heritage rooted in the country’s history.
In this context, cemeteries and Jewish institutes in the Kingdom were initially restored, and the Museum of Moroccan Jewish Heritage was established in Casablanca, in addition to teaching Jewish culture in educational curricula.
The head of the (non-governmental) “Tamgharbet Bloc for Citizenship Convergences”, Abdallah Hattos, pointed out that “this shift in dealing with the Hebrew component in the textbooks in Morocco falls within the framework of reconsidering this component after decades of its inclusion in the unaccounted category for a while. “.
In his statement to “Sky News Arabia”, the head of “Tamgharbet Bloc for Citizenship Meetings” said: “Today there is a growing awareness among Moroccans of the need to restore respect to an important part of their identity, which is the Hebrew component, and the constitutional document opened the doors for initiatives aimed at empowering this component to It regains its place in the Moroccan social fabric, and the textbook is one of the most important of these initiatives.”
The head of the “Tamgharbet Bloc for Citizenship Prevention”, Abdullah Hattous, stressed that “the Moroccan Jews have the right to their country to restore respect to them, especially since the Moroccan Jews are the Jews who are most attached to their countries of origin.
A new biography of coexistence
Teaching Jewish culture in educational curricula can affect the culture and awareness of younger generations in the future, not only by reminding Morocco of historical facts, but also by contributing to the consolidation of the values of tolerance and the rejection of negative stereotypes about Jews in society.
The researcher in Moroccan Jewish history, Rachid Dounas, asserts that “the more our historical knowledge of the other and the conditions in which it is formed, and the constraints that governed his choices, the more this contributes to cracking the visions and judgments that are built in social and political contexts that reduce the other to one of its characteristics.”
Thus, Moroccan efforts for the sake of the Hebrew-Jewish heritage can crystallize a new biography of coexistence that characterizes Moroccans, by “overcoming the extremist discourses that flourished in the context of a Manichaean logic in which it is difficult to enshrine the values of difference and coexistence, in the horizon of noting the capabilities of Moroccan society, which is characterized by specialness in dealing with Moroccan Jewish minority,” according to the researcher in Moroccan Jewish history.
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