Moshe Nahon Synagogue, Tangier

The synagogue was built by Moïse (Moshe) Nahon, an educator and scholar from an influential Tangier Jewish family. Most sources date it to the 19th century; one Moroccan newspaper gives 1876.

Tangier never had a walled mellah. Jewish families lived mainly in the lower medina, and synagogues clustered in the Beni Idder quarter around Rue des Synagogues. Estimates of how many prayer houses the city once had range from 16 to more than 20.

As the community emigrated in the second half of the 20th century, the Nahon synagogue stopped functioning and fell into disrepair. After its restoration in 1994 it became a museum. Besides its own fittings it displays ritual objects gathered from closed synagogues, including old chandeliers, ceremonial glassware and textiles embroidered in Hebrew.

A corridor leads to a small courtyard, and the prayer hall opens beyond it. The decoration is Andalusian in style: carved stucco walls with ornamental embedded columns, trilobed arches and arabesques in floral and geometric patterns. Arabic calligraphy is repeated in three vertical medallions, and the lower walls are lined with carved wood panels.

The high ceiling is elaborately decorated, with a large skylight at its centre. Silver chandeliers and lamps hang throughout, many given by former congregants in memory of relatives. The wooden heikhal (the ark that holds the Torah scrolls) and the panels above it carry Hebrew calligraphy, and a carved wooden lectern stands on the south side of the hall. Look at the benches: many still bear brass plaques with the names of the families who sat there. Semicircular windows above the entrance are set with floral stained glass.

A staircase from the courtyard climbs to the hazara, the women’s gallery. Its walls are plain and now serve as exhibition space for framed embroidery, tapestries, banners, ketubot (Jewish marriage contracts) and other objects donated by Tangier’s Jewish community.

The synagogue is a regular stop on Jewish heritage walks through the medina. In 2021 the Tangier Jewish community included it in a heritage circuit with the Rabbi Akiba synagogue, the Jewish museum in the former Assayag synagogue and the old cemetery on Rue du Portugal. Families still rent it for celebrations such as bar and bat mitzvahs and anniversaries.

We have not found published opening hours. Access is normally arranged through a guide or the Tangier Jewish community, and we set it up when we plan your trip. It appears on our sample Jewish heritage tour.

This is a consecrated synagogue as well as a museum. Dress modestly, and men should cover their heads. Ask before taking photographs, and do not photograph a family celebration if one is under way.

The Rabbi Akiba synagogue, also kept as a museum, is close by, and the Beit Yehuda museum lies near the Petit Socco. The old Jewish cemetery is just outside the medina walls, below the American Legation. Our Tangier Jewish quarter page links the sites into a walk, and the Tangier and Tetouan guide covers the wider region.