Beit Yehuda Museum (Assayag Synagogue), Tangier

The Assayag synagogue was founded in 1890 in the Siaghine quarter of the medina, opposite Dar Niaba and just off the Petit Socco. It stood a little north of the Beni Idder quarter, where most of Tangier’s synagogues clustered; the city never had a walled mellah. A 1901 Baedeker map of Tangier already marks it.

It served as a synagogue until the late 1950s, as the community emigrated, and was then abandoned for about six decades, and by the time restoration began the building was at risk of collapse.

Restoration was carried out under the royal programme for the rehabilitation of the Tangier medina. Works began in 2021, led by the architect Malika Laâroussi, and the structure was rebuilt to its original design while keeping elements more than a century old. The Ministry of Culture paid for the building works, about 2 million dirhams, and the Tangier Jewish community committee funded and produced the exhibition, designed by the museographer Isabelle Timsit. The museum was inaugurated on 19 August 2022.

Several bodies worked together on the project. The works were launched by the Dona and Haïm Benchimol Foundation, the Tangier Jewish community and the Foundation for Moroccan Jewish Cultural Heritage, and carried out with the northern development agency, the regional authorities and the Ministry of Culture. The result returns what L’Economiste calls one of Tangier’s oldest synagogues to public use.

The museum is organised around the old synagogue’s central patio, with galleries running around it, three exhibition rooms and a small shop. Its stated purpose is to preserve the heritage of the megorashim, the Jews of northern Morocco descended from those expelled from Spain, whose language and customs set them apart from communities further south.

The collection draws on artifacts, documents, photographs and Judaica that the Tangier Jewish community saved and inventoried as synagogues and homes closed. We have not found a published catalogue or a room-by-room description of the displays, so expect the exhibition to be best explained by a guide or a member of the community.

In 2022 the Tangier community also launched a research and archives centre on the Judaism of northern Morocco, based at the community office, which collects sources, archives and objects and works with local university researchers.

We have not found published opening hours or ticket prices in any source from 2022 to 2026. Check with the Tangier Jewish community before scheduling; we arrange the visit through them when we plan your trip, ideally together with the other medina synagogues. In 2021 the community planned a heritage circuit linking the museum with the Nahon and Rabbi Akiba synagogues and the old cemetery on Rue du Portugal.

The museum occupies a former synagogue. Dress modestly, men may be asked to cover their heads, and ask before taking photographs of the displays.

The Moshe Nahon Synagogue and the Rabbi Akiba synagogue are a short walk away around Rue des Synagogues, and the old Jewish cemetery lies just outside the walls below the American Legation. Our Tangier Jewish quarter page links them into a walk, and our sample Jewish heritage tour shows how Tangier fits into a longer trip.