Jewish Fes, Meknes and the North-East: A Traveller’s Guide

Jews lived in Fes almost from the city’s beginnings. Idris II, who made Fes his capital in the early 9th century, encouraged Jews to settle, and a community grew in the old city, Fes el-Bali, with a concentration near Bab Guissa. The philosopher Moses Maimonides (the Rambam) lived in Fes with his family from about 1160 until around 1165, when they left during the Almohad persecutions.

In 1276 the Marinid dynasty founded a royal new town, Fes el-Jdid, beside the old city, and at some point the Jews were moved into its southern part, an area first called Hims and later the Mellah. Historians do not agree when: some see a gradual move through the Marinid period, many link it to 1437–38, and the Encyclopaedia Judaica gives 1438. The sources agree that it was Morocco’s first mellah; only the date is disputed. Jews were still recorded in Fes el-Bali in the mid-14th century and were well established in the mellah by the end of the 16th.

The quarter’s history has dark chapters. Thousands of Jews were killed in the revolt of 1465. In 1790–92 Sultan Moulay Yazid drove the community out to the Kasbah Cherarda and turned a synagogue into a prison; after his death the mellah was restored to them. In April 1912 riots in the mellah left more than 100 victims, and many Jews took shelter in the neighbouring royal palace. The Slat al-Fassiyin was the synagogue of the toshavim, the long-established Judeo-Arabic-speaking Jews of Fes, who kept their own rite there into the 20th century, distinct from that of the Sephardic exiles who arrived after 1492.

By the end of the 19th century the mellah had about fifteen synagogues. Families moved out to the French-built Ville Nouvelle during the 20th century, and emigration did the rest: by 1997 only about 150 Jews remained in the whole city, and none in the mellah. The restorations of the last three decades, and the museum opened in October 2026, have made the quarter a place of memory more than of residence.

The Fes Mellah lies beside the royal palace, Dar el-Makhzen, and is entered by Bab Semmarine. Its main street, Rue des Mérinides, was laid out by the French in 1924 and is lined with tall houses whose open wooden and wrought-iron balconies face the street, a hallmark of mellah architecture. The houses are private, so admire them from outside.

Off Rue des Mérinides, down Derb Djaj, is the Ibn Danan Synagogue, a family synagogue of the 17th century (sources give dates between the early 1600s and 1701) that tradition credits to a wealthy merchant, Mimon Boussidan. It keeps its historic Torah ark, benches and women’s gallery. Placed on the 1996 World Monuments Watch, it was restored with funding from American Express, Morocco’s Ministry of Culture and the Judeo-Moroccan Cultural Heritage Foundation and reopened in 1999; a mikveh (ritual bath) was discovered beneath it during the work. A guardian shows visitors around, usually for a small fee or tip.

Nearby, on one of the oldest lanes of the mellah, the Slat al-Fassiyin is dated by some historians to before 1492 and by others to the 17th century. It closed around 1970 and served as a carpet workshop and then a boxing gym before a two-year restoration, funded by Germany, the Fes Jewish community, the Foundation for Moroccan Jewish Cultural Heritage and the Moroccan state, led to its reopening in February 2013. It is used as a prayer hall with an on-site supervisor, and visits are best arranged through a guide. Wikipedia lists the names of more than a dozen other mellah synagogues, but most are now private or reused buildings with nothing to enter.

At the edge of the quarter, the Jewish Cemetery of Fes is a slope of tightly packed, whitewashed tombs, repainted in 2019. The present cemetery dates from the 19th century, after a relocation, and some older remains were moved here; estimates of the number of graves range from about 13,000 to 22,000. Look for the tomb of Lalla Solica (Sol Hachuel), a 17-year-old from Tangier executed in Fes in 1834 after refusing to convert to Islam, whom Jews and Muslims both venerate; accounts of her trial differ. A tomb covered in mint-green and black tiles is shown as that of Rabbi Yehuda Ben Attar (1655–1733), chief judge of the Fes rabbinical court, though one 2020 report says he is buried elsewhere, so we confirm on site; tradition says he survived a night in a lions’ den. One building holds only the tombs of chief rabbis, and at least one grave recalls a victim of the 1912 riots. Since 2015 a donor-funded project has excavated and restored older graves. A small former synagogue at the north-east corner, known as the Habarim synagogue, served for years as the caretaker family’s museum, though some of its objects may have gone to the new museum.

The cemetery has been listed as open daily from 7:00 to 19:00, but that information is undated and Saturday opening is not confirmed. Dress modestly, do not step on graves, and leave a pebble or light a candle if you wish.

The Museum of Moroccan Jewish Culture was inaugurated on 12 October 2026 in the mellah. Launched by royal initiative in 2019 on land given by the Fes Jewish community and built with public money by ADER-Fès and the Fondation Nationale des Musées, it has about 1,200 m² of galleries showing Torah scrolls, marriage contracts (ketubot), festive clothing, musical instruments, goldsmith work and a timeline of Jewish life in Morocco. As of mid-October 2026 no opening hours or prices had been published, and press reports disagree on its exact address, so we confirm both before building it into a day.

In the Ville Nouvelle, the Bensadoun Synagogue (1920s) is unusually large by Moroccan standards, with carved plasterwork in the style of mosques and madrasas. It stands near the Maimonide community centre, set up in the early 1980s in a former Talmud Torah school, which has a modern synagogue and is the hub of today’s small community. Both are visited by arrangement.

In Fes el-Bali, a popular tradition places the House of Maimonides on the Tala’a Kebira, opposite the Bou Inania madrasa, beside the façade of the medieval water clock (Dar al-Magana). That Maimonides lived in Fes is accepted by historians; which house he lived in is not documented, and the clock dates from 1357, some 150 years after his death. A small plaque on Derb Margana marks the traditional site. It is a street stop on a medina walk, seen from outside.

Meknes, about an hour west of Fes, had one of Morocco’s largest and most learned Jewish communities, home to rabbinic families such as the Toledanos, Berdugos and Messas. In 1682 Sultan Moulay Ismail, who made Meknes his capital, settled the Jews in a district south-west of his royal citadel, entered by Bab el-Khemis, although a synagogue traditionally dated to 1540 suggests Jews lived in the area earlier. Under the French protectorate an unwalled New Mellah was built alongside, a move unique to Meknes. The Meknes Mellah counted 15,482 Jews in the 1947 census; around 120 remained by the late 1990s.

The Meier Toledano Di Tanja Synagogue, known as Slat Rabbi Baroukh (built in 1930 or 1935), reopened in May 2023 with a prayer floor and a museum floor of early 20th-century documents, including lists of Meknes Jewish families and papers on building the New Mellah, which makes it valuable for roots travellers. The older Rabbi Meir Toledano (Mahrit) synagogue is traditionally dated to the 13th century and was rebuilt by the Toledano family in 1646 after an earthquake; its current condition is unconfirmed. The walled Jewish cemetery, on land granted by Moulay Ismail in 1682, was fully restored in 2022 and holds the tombs of revered sages including Rabbi Raphael Berdugo and Rabbi Haim Messas. Since 2022 it has hosted a collective Hilloula des Tsadikim on Lag BaOmer; the fifth was held on the night of 4 May 2026. At other times, visits are arranged through the community or the guardian.

About 30 km north of Meknes, Roman Volubilis holds some of the earliest evidence of Jews in Morocco: a Hebrew gravestone of ‘Matrona, daughter of Rabbi Yehuda’, a Greek epitaph of a ‘head of the synagogue of the Jews’ and a bronze lamp decorated with a menorah (now in Rabat), dated by a 2019 study mainly to the 3rd century CE (older references say the 2nd). Ask at the site whether the inscriptions are on display in its lapidarium.

Sefrou, 27 km south of Fes, was nicknamed ‘Little Jerusalem’: in the late 19th century Jews made up nearly half its population, and the mellah filled about half of the walled old town. A 1950 count recorded about 6,100 Jews. Floods in 1890 and 1950 hit the community hard, nearly all families emigrated between 1948 and 1968, and only four elderly Jews remained in the early 1980s. Tall houses with wooden balconies survive, though the quarter is poorly maintained and best walked with a local guide.

The walled Jewish cemetery, about four hectares, is looked after by a Muslim caretaker who has guarded it for some 35 years, reads Hebrew and guides the more than 1,000 visitors a year, most of them descendants. Former residents restored it, setting old headstones inside protective cement monuments. It holds the tomb of Rabbi Raphael Moshe Elbaz (1823–1896), whose hilloula falls on Lag BaOmer, and memorials to 21 victims of the 1950 flood. There is no electricity, so visits end at dusk; a tip is expected. On the hills above town, two caves, Kaf Lihoudi and Kaf el-Moumen, were once places of Jewish pilgrimage.

At Asjen, a village about 9 km north-east of Ouezzane, is the shrine of Rabbi Amram Ben Diwan, one of Morocco’s best-known Jewish pilgrimage sites. Born in Jerusalem, he went to Hebron in 1743 and was sent to Morocco to raise funds, taught in Ouezzane and died there in 1782. His grave is a mound of stones under an old olive tree; tradition holds that attempts to build a monument over it failed. A walled compound around it has a synagogue, a hall, pilgrims’ houses and a small restored cemetery.

His hilloula on Lag BaOmer (18 Iyar, which falls on 25 May in 2027) is organised by the Council of Jewish Communities of Morocco; reports from 2016–17 speak of hundreds to a few thousand pilgrims, with a bonfire lit on the cairn. Press reports from 2017 say that only Jews may enter the site. Outside the hilloula, visits must be arranged in advance, and we check beforehand whether a non-Jewish driver or guide can come in. Ouezzane lies on the road between Fes and Chefchaouen, so the shrine fits a northbound route. His son, Rabbi Haim Ben Diwan, is venerated at Ouirgane in the High Atlas.

For roots travellers from the eastern communities, the road from Fes towards Oujda passes three places worth a dedicated detour. Taza had a Jewish quarter in its upper town that was already partly in ruins by the First World War.

Debdou, a mountain town south of Taourirt, was one of Morocco’s most unusual Jewish towns: in the late 19th century most of its inhabitants were Jews, many of them Cohanim (priestly families) of the Cohen-Scali clan, who traced their arrival to refugees from the 1391 massacres in Seville. Tradition says their leader, Rabbi David Hacohen, struck a rock and a spring burst out, the Aïn Sbilia, or ‘Spring of Seville’, beside which the Debdou mellah grew. The community left in the 1950s, a few families staying into the 1970s. The restored spring survives, but the synagogues are in ruins; the newer of its two cemeteries has tombs of local tzaddikim with small hearth-like niches for candles.

Oujda, near the Algerian border, has a Jewish cemetery restored under the national programme, with memorials to the victims of the June 1948 riots in Oujda and nearby Jerada, in which more than forty Jews were killed (sources give totals between 42 and 47). Its mellah was rebuilt afterwards and looks modern today. On the high plateaux south of Oujda, traces remain of Vichy-era labour camps that held mainly European Jews. These stops need a local guide and careful planning. Oujda lies about 15 km from the Algerian border, which would place it inside the Government of Canada’s 20 km avoid-all-travel zone (advice checked 18 October 2026), so we talk through the advisory and its travel-insurance implications before including it on any route.

The Fes community is small, and its life centres on the Maimonide community centre in the Ville Nouvelle; Meknes has a similarly small community around its restored synagogue. The communities, and the Council of Jewish Communities, are the contacts for access to synagogues and cemeteries.

Kosher food needs planning. Dragon, a restaurant in the Hotel Palais Medina & Spa in the Ville Nouvelle, opened in 2022 advertising OU, Lubavitch and Moroccan Beth Din supervision, and it is the only kosher restaurant in Fes in current directories, but its latest dated review is from July 2023, so we confirm with the hotel before relying on it. The Maimonide centre has served kosher meals in the past; we found no evidence since 2020 and arrange any meal there through the community. A medina restaurant called Chez Maimonide is a different, non-kosher business. Meknes, Sefrou and the smaller towns have no kosher options, so we arrange certified catering, packed meals and Shabbat food in advance. Our kosher travel guide explains how.

Fes has its own airport and is roughly two and a half hours by train from Rabat and about four from Casablanca. Allow two full days for Fes itself: one for the mellah, cemetery and museum, and one for Fes el-Bali and Sefrou. Add a day for Meknes and Volubilis, and a long day (or an overnight on the way to Chefchaouen) for Ouezzane. The north-east is a two- to three-day specialist detour.

Saturday visits to synagogues are not guaranteed, so we keep Shabbat for rest or for non-Jewish sights. If you want to attend a hilloula, the Hebrew calendar comes first: Lag BaOmer brings Ouezzane, Meknes and Sefrou together in a single week, and Rabbi Yehuda Ben Attar’s hilloula usually falls in June. Our hilloula guide has the dates.