Jews of North Africa - #1

Today, perhaps we know that there is still a Jewish community in Morocco, although it is smaller than it once was. Perhaps we know that there were Jewish communities in other parts of North Africa, the members of whom largely emigrated to Israel after the founding of the state. But we generally have no real concept of the size or nature of those communities, or of their history.

My interest in North African Jewry came largely from my reading of some extraordinary books. In a series of entries to My Blog, I will talk about some of the books I have read and what I have learned. You will be very surprised and, I think, equally intrigued.

It started when I was in college, and I was first introduced to Lawrence Durrell's "Alexandrian Quartet". I don't know if anyone reads these novels today ("Justine", "Clea", "Balthazar" and "Mountolive"), but when I was in school, they were very popular reading. Not that I remember a lot about them, but no one can forget the beautiful Justine, a Jewess of Alexandria, and her Coptic Christian husband, whom I think was Nissim. And no one can forget the extraordinarily cosmpolitan and exotic city of Alexandria, Egypt, the setting for the four novels. Were there really Jews in Alexandria, I asked myself? Were they as sophisticated, and as fascinating, as Justine? Were they so well integrated into such a complex society? I had no idea. The books are fiction, of course, but the characterization?

Today, Alexandria, still Egypt's second most populous city, has few if any Jewish residents. But during Greek and Roman times (Alexandria being named for Alexander the Great), when it was the city of Egypt, Philo, the Jewish Aristotelian philosopher, estimated that there were 1,000,000 Jews in Alexandria. And even in the twentieth century, when the city was so much only a shadow of its ancient self, the fiction of prize winning author Naguib Mahfouz, portrays a dowager empress of a city, seasoned by its former elegance, and, from a Jewish perspective the absolutely fascinating memoir, "Out of Egypt" by Andre Aciman, who now teaches creative writing in the United States, speaks of his childhood in Egypt, with his father who was a confidante of King Farouk, and his deaf mother, and his grandparents, and his relatives living in Europe, and Turkey and Palestine. "Out of Egypt" evokes a normal childhood in an extraordinarily abnormal time. And then I remember an article in the New Yorker magazine, perhaps fifteen or even twenty years back, which evoked a Jewish Cairo, again filled with comfort, sophistication and seeming permanence. I wish I remember who wrote this article, or when exactly it was published.

Some of the books that have interested me, and which I think will interest you, are:

Aciman, Andre, Out of Egypt, Farrar Straus Giroux (New York 1994).

de Felice, Renzo, Jews in an Arab Land: Libya, 1835-1970, University of Texas (Austin 1985)

Durrell, Lawrence, Justine, Clea, Balthazar and Mountolive ("The Alexandria Quartet"), originally published in London by Faber and Faber between 1957 and 1960. Reprinted in about one hundred million other editions.

Graham, Cunninghame, Mogreb-el-Acksa: a Journey in Morocco, National Travel Club (New York 1930), reprint of book originally written in 1898.

Romanelli, Samuel Aaron, Travels in an Arab Land (masa ba-Arab), late 18th century narrative, published in many editions.

Slouschz, Nahum, Travels in North Africa, Jewish Publication Society of America (Philadelphia 1927)

Over the next few weeks, I should be posting a number of articles, drawing on these and other sources. Stay tuned, and you will know more on this topic than readers of any other blog (as far as I know).