El Jadida Jewish Cemetery and the Tomb of Rabbi Yahia Assouline

Jewish families from Azemmour settled inside El Jadida’s Portuguese citadel from the 1820s, and the town grew into an Atlantic port with strong links to Europe. Their cemetery is a large walled ground next to the Portuguese City. Its 19th-century tombstones include those of Jewish translators and employees of foreign consulates, which says a great deal about the work this community did.

The town no longer has a functioning Jewish community, as JTA reported in 2019. Care of the cemetery is part of the programme announced by King Mohammed VI in 2010 to restore at least 167 Jewish burial sites across Morocco.

Before the work, weeds had grown wild among the tombstones. The renovation paved the whole surface to keep them from returning, washed and repainted the walls and some tombstones, and replaced the entrance gate.

About 200 people, including Moroccan officials and Jewish community leaders, gathered to mark the completed work in 2019 and used the occasion for a pilgrimage to Rabbi Assouline’s grave. Reports differ on the date: JTA, writing on 23 August 2019, said the gathering took place earlier that month, while Bladi reported it in early September.

Very little is documented about him. News reports describe Rabbi Ihya Haim Assouline as a 19th-century expert in Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition, and heritage guides list him as a saint of El Jadida. Among Moroccan Jews such a figure is a tzaddik, a righteous person whose grave families visit to pray and light candles. We could not find reliable dates for his birth or death, or details of his teaching, so we do not give them here.

If your family came from Mazagan, this is the place to look for them. We know of no published index of the graves, so a search starts with what you bring: names in French and Hebrew spelling, approximate dates of death, and any photograph of a stone. The guardian and the Jewish community in Casablanca can sometimes help. We cannot promise a grave will be found, but we build time into the visit for a proper look. Our Jewish roots trip guide explains how to prepare.

This is a consecrated burial ground, cared for on behalf of families now living around the world. Walk on the paved paths rather than over graves, keep voices low, and leave stones as you find them; placing a small pebble on a grave is a traditional sign of a visit. Men usually cover their heads. Travellers who are kohanim (of priestly descent) traditionally do not enter cemeteries, and we can plan around that. A tip for the guardian is customary.