Return to Casablanca: Jews, Muslims, and an Israeli Anthropologist

by André Lévy

In this book, Israeli anthropologist André Levy returns to his birthplace in Casablanca to provide a deeply nuanced and compelling study of the relationships between Moroccan Jews and Muslims there. Ranging over a century of history—from the Jewish Enlightenment and the impending colonialism of the late nineteenth century to today’s modern Arab state—Levy paints a rich portrait of two communities pressed together, of the tremendous mobility that has characterized the past century, and of the paradoxes that complicate the cultural identities of the present.  
           
Levy visits a host of sites and historical figures to assemble a compelling history of social change, while seamlessly interweaving his study with personal accounts of his returns to his homeland. Central to this story is the massive migration of Jews out of Morocco. Levy traces the institutional and social changes such migrations cause for those who choose to stay, introducing the concept of “contraction” to depict the way Jews deal with the ramifications of their demographic dwindling. Turning his attention outward from Morocco, he goes on to explore the greater complexities of the Jewish diaspora and the essential paradox at the heart of his adventure—leaving Israel to return home. 

240 pages, Paperback

First published November 5, 2015

Reviews

[Castles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a grim picture Levy is depicting here, about the jews left behind in Casablanca. almost no freedom of movement, constant stress and worries, and almost zero interaction between them and the the rest of the muslim population. to add to all of this, the ones who came to israel and went back to visit, can't help but noticing the depressing gap between memory and the current reality, shattering the nostalgic picture to the shores of everyday life, which today seem quite desolate for what is left of the vast jewish culture in the Magreb...

It was interesting to read about the cultural difference between jewish moroccans in israel meeting the jews of Casablanca, a fascinating lesson about the different approach of what basically are the same people, and the somewhat dissapointing realization of the alienation between them.

Jews came to morocco about a thousand years before the arab invaded north africa, and if this book is depicting a community of 4-5K people left there, from what i read recentely the number is now lower, around 2,000. such a huge culture, gone. what a pitty.

[The Jewish Book Council]

Review by Rachel Simon for the Jewish Book Council.