by Geoff | Feb 12, 2020 | Essaouira, Jewish, Juif, Medina, Mellah, Morocco
Mellahs across Morocco have become synonomous with urban decay, poverty and increased risk. There is nothing different about the Mellah in Essaouira. Although culturally rich it has become neglected and necrosed. Here are some photographs at dusk portraying some...
by Geoff | Feb 11, 2020 | Aisha Qandisha, Art, Artist, Essaouira, Gnaoua, Juif, Mellah, Morocco, Street art
Filali Mostafa paints in a small studio in Jotiya, close to the surging waves of the Atlantic ocean. Sourounded by the detritis of a flea market, his paintings of ordered simplicity and detail could not be further away from the unmitigated chaos of the landscape...
by Geoff | Dec 16, 2019 | Essaouira, Juif, Mellah, Morocco
I had lunch today in the old Jewish Mellah in Essaouira, in a restaurant converted on the second ( top ) floor of a former Talmud Torah, or Jewish primary school. On the ground floor the building had been converted into a Day Hospital for people suffering with...
by Geoff | Jul 25, 2019 | Essaouira, Juif, Mellah
Much of the available online literature provides a positive description of Jewish/Arabic settlement in Morocco, suggesting a substantial legacy of intra-racial tolerance, accord and cultural harmony. Indeed, Morocco seems to be advertising this positive...
by Geoff | Jul 23, 2019 | Cemetery, Jewish, Juif, Meknes, Mellah, Morocco, Ramadan
Link to a full Gallery of images here. The low concrete dwelling was as white as the line of old tombs to its right, sepulchres built into the tall medina wall which formed one boundary of the old cemetery. A young boy emerged from the dwelling and approached me,...
by Geoff | May 7, 2019 | Fes, Juif, Morocco
The group of Hasidic Jews from New York congregated around the mausoleum of Rabbi Vidal Haserfatty, a large tomb which looked down over the extended white blanket of graves of Beit HaChaim, the restored Jewish cemetery at the edge of the ancient mellah in Fes. After...
