Moroccan Jews in France and Canada, livre ebook

Moroccan Jews in France and Canada provides an extensive exploration of the post-colonial migrations of Moroccan Jews to France and Canada. Yolande Cohen, herself a migrant, and her collaborators draw on vivid oral histories to uncover the emotional journeys of departure and exile. Why did Moroccan Jews leave? When and how did this migration unfold?
After the establishment of Israel and the Palestinian-Israeli wars, most Moroccan Jews migrated to Israel. Yet a significant more Westernized, minority settled in France and Canada, supported by transnational Jewish organizations.
In Montreal, a city with an important multi-ethnic Jewish community, speaking French became crucial for their integration. By tracing these journeys and analyzing the language of exile, Moroccan Jews in France and Canada reveals the deep traumas underlying this historic migration. A powerful and essential account shedding light on a little-known diaspora and its complex legacy.
The English and French version of this title, though distinct, complement each other to offer a more comprehensive look at the topic.

Why did they leave Morocco? When did this migration happen? And how can we analyze their journey? The period and context of their departure are fraught with complex issues. As colonial subjects of the French Empire, they were treated as “indigenes” in need of “regeneration.” Yet if some of them believed in French emancipation, it came to a brutal end with the implementation of the Vichy regime’s antisemitic laws in Morocco in 1942. With the ending of the French colonial empire and the decolonization process, Moroccan Jews’ rupture with France was (almost) complete. After the establishment of the State of Israel and the subsequent Israel-Arab wars, they joined in the mass exodus of Jews from Arab lands, leaving their countries to join refugee camps in the post-Shoah resettlement of survivors in Europe. In this context, the fate of the large Moroccan-Jewish community became an object of interest for the French, Moroccan, and Israeli states, as well as international Jewish organizations (Cohen and Tortel, 2025). Canada had not yet begun to become an active player, reacting only when the federal government came under mounting pressure from the Canadian Jewish Congress to open its doors to North African Jewish refugees.

List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Historiographical Framework
Scholarship on Moroccan Jews in Canada: Multidisciplinary, Multilingual, and Diasporic
Yolande Cohen and Stephanie Tara Schwartz
PART I: The Jews of Morocco and Their Departures
CHAPTER 1
From Synagogue to Mosque: My Grandfather’s House in the Old Mellah of Meknès
Yolande Cohen and Noureddine Harrami
CHAPTER 2
Zionism, Colonialism, and Post-Colonial Migrations: Moroccan Jews’ Memories of Displacement
Yolande Cohen
PART II: Between Paris and Montreal
CHAPTER 3
Marriage and Mobility of Moroccan Jews in Montreal and Paris
Yolande Cohen and Martin Messika
CHAPTER 4
Sephardi Jews in Montreal
Yolande Cohen
PART III: Memoirs of Migration in Canada
CHAPTER 5
Memories of Departures: Stories of Jews from Muslim Lands in Montreal
Yolande Cohen, Martin Messika, and Sara Cohen Fournier
CHAPTER 6
Forgetting and Forging: My Canadian Experience as a Moroccan Jew
Yolande Cohen
CHAPTER 7
A Piece of a Torah Scroll in My Basement
Yolande Cohen
Bibliography