Jewish Heritage of Southern Morocco: Souss, Draa and Tafilalet

Jewish life in the south is old, although its earliest chapters survive mainly as tradition. Ifrane of the Anti-Atlas is commonly held to be Morocco’s oldest Jewish community, and legends in the Draa speak of a Jewish kingdom with its capital at Tamegroute; historians have not confirmed either story. Firmer history begins with the caravan cities. The University of Haifa’s Jewish communities project dates the Draa communities to at least the 9th century, and Sijilmasa, near today’s Rissani, had an important Jewish community until the Almohad conquest of about 1146, when many of its Jews were massacred.

Over the following centuries Jews in the south were traders, craftsmen and farmers. In the Draa they financed caravans, worked West African gold into bars and coins, owned date palms and worked as jewellers, tinsmiths, saddlers and cobblers. In the Souss they were silversmiths, tailors, pedlars and agents for the merchants of Agadir and Essaouira, and many spoke Tashelhit (Berber) as well as Arabic. Draa Jews also used a coded language of their own, known as Lashoniyya. The Tafilalet became a centre of Jewish learning and the home of the Abuhatzeira rabbinic family.

Haifa’s researchers estimate more than 6,500 Jews in the Souss in the 1950s, including about 2,000 in Agadir, and about 30 small communities in the Draa, the largest with 200 to 300 people. Then, between the mid-1950s and the mid-1960s, almost every community emigrated, most to Israel and some via Casablanca. Whole villages left together: Ifrane’s community departed as a group in 1958, and all 321 Jews of Ighil n’Oghou left in 1963.

Agadir. On 29 February 1960 an earthquake destroyed the old city of Agadir. Estimates of the Jewish dead range from several hundred to about 1,200; Haifa puts it at about 1,000 of the city’s 2,300 Jews. In the Agadir Jewish Cemetery about two-thirds of the tombs belong to victims of the earthquake. The tomb of Rabbi Khalifa Ben Malka, an 18th-century merchant, poet and leading rabbi of Agadir, was moved in 1927 to a marble shrine in Talborjt; whether it survived the earthquake intact is not confirmed. His hilloula is on 3 Elul (5 September in 2027).

Taroudant. The walled city had the largest mellah of the Souss, with about 950 Jews in the 1950s, and was a centre of Kabbalah: Rabbi Moses ben Maimon Albaz began his work Hekal haKodesh here in 1575. The former mellah of Taroudant lies inside the walls and is seen on a walk through town; its former synagogue in the house of Sisso Zafrani is now a crafts shop. A small number of Jewish families, mainly of French origin, lived on the outskirts in 2023.

Rabbi David Ben Baroukh. East of Taroudant, near Ouled Berhil, the Shrine of Rabbi David Ben Baroukh HaCohen is a major pilgrimage site of the Souss. He was an 18th-century Kabbalist and miracle-worker (died 1760 or about 1785), and the Azugh family still maintains the complex, which has hundreds of pilgrim rooms. His hilloula, the annual pilgrimage on the anniversary of a tzaddik’s death, is held around the last day of Hanukkah (2 Tevet; 12 December in 2026) and draws hundreds to over 2,000 pilgrims. Outside the hilloula, visits are arranged through the caretakers. He is not the 20th-century Rabbi David HaCohen Azugh, “Baba Doudou”, who is buried in Marrakech.

Ifrane of the Anti-Atlas (Oufrane). This oasis south-east of Tiznit is traditionally Morocco’s oldest Jewish community; dates such as 361 BCE or “after the destruction of the Temple” are legend. Parts of the mellah of Ifrane are in ruins, but its synagogue, with wall benches, candle niches and a raised central platform, was restored as a visitable site (Diarna gives 1999), and a guardian lives next door. About a kilometre away, an ancient hillside cemetery with Hebrew-inscribed stones lies beside the cave where, according to tradition, the ashes of about 50 Jews burned for refusing conversion were buried, in either 1790 or 1792. Haifa’s researchers note that Jewish tradition forbids Jews to enter this martyrs’ cemetery, a custom observant visitors will want to know before they go.

Akka, Tata and Tiznit. The oasis communities of Akka, Tata and Tiznit, and mountain villages such as Tillin, are now mostly remembered rather than visited; Akka keeps a damaged synagogue and a cemetery of stone-heaped graves (see the list below).

Taliouine. In the saffron country of the Siroua, the synagogue of Ighil n’Oghou served the central mellah of the region, which existed by the 16th century. Its 321 Jews all left in 1963, and the decaying synagogue was restored by the Foundation for Moroccan Jewish Cultural Heritage in the early 2000s. Access arrangements are not published, so we confirm them, probably through a local key-holder, before you go.

Ouarzazate. The mellah of Ouarzazate was built beside the 17th-century Taourirt Kasbah and housed about 170 Jews in 1954. One former synagogue, marked by a Star of David, survives inside a shop that displays Berber-Jewish objects and calls itself a museum, so expect a commercial visit. The walled Jewish cemetery is mostly rubble, with one maintained cupola over two rabbis’ graves.

Tazenakht. West of Ouarzazate on the road to Taliouine, the Jewish Cemetery of Tazenakht is described by Diarna as one of the best-kept rural Jewish cemeteries in North Africa. The Casablanca businessman Charly Bouskila began its restoration in 2005, and it was rededicated on 2 June 2008 with a synagogue hall, a guesthouse and a canopy over the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bouskila; a guardian lives on site. Tazenakht’s trading community of 200 to 300 Jews revered a Torah scroll known as Sefer Tislit, whose hilloula is now celebrated in Ashkelon, Israel.

Skoura and the Draa. The Skoura oasis had its own “Jewish kasbah”, and its cemetery holds the venerated Rabbi David Arama. South of Agdz, the Draa valley held about 30 Jewish communities. At Amezrou, across the river from Zagora, the mellah and synagogue survive in better shape than most, with separate doors for Jews and Muslims; its community left around 1958, and local craftsmen still work from Jewish-era designs.

Travellers coming from Marrakech over the Tichka pass can stop at the shrines of Moulay Ighi and Rabbi David ou Moshe at Agouim, covered in the Marrakech and High Atlas guide.

Tinghir. The kasbah of Tinghir held a Jewish quarter of about 70 homes in 1930, and the community left in the 1950s and 1960s. Its story is told in Kamal Hachkar’s documentary Tinghir-Jerusalem: Echoes from the Mellah, and descendants still return to pray at their ancestors’ graves. The old quarter can be seen from outside.

Erfoud. About a third of Erfoud was Jewish in 1954, and 1,183 Jews were counted in 1960. Its refurbished cemetery has a new complex over the tomb of Rabbi Shmuel Abuhatzeira, grandson of the Abir Yaakov and cousin of the Baba Sali, with a hall and synagogue for his hilloula in December. A Muslim guardian lives on the site with his family and welcomes visitors.

Rissani. The Tafilalet was the seat of the Abuhatzeira dynasty. Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira, the Abir Yaakov, was born in the Tafilalet in 1806 and died in Egypt in 1880. His grandson Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira, the Baba Sali, was born in Rissani on 26 September 1889, on his father’s estate with its yeshiva and rabbinical court; no surviving house has been identified. Just outside the town walls, the Jewish cemetery was restored under the royal cemeteries programme, with a shrine over the grave of Rabbi David Abuhatzeira, described in some sources as the Baba Sali’s brother.

Because whole villages left within a few years, many families can name an ancestral village in the Souss, the Draa or the Tafilalet but have never seen it. Cemeteries are often the best-preserved link, especially where families or the state have restored them, as at Tazenakht, Erfoud, Rissani and Boudnib. Mellahs are often ruined, and many village synagogues are locked, converted or gone.

Bring every family name in Hebrew and French spellings, the names of grandparents and great-grandparents, old documents, photographs and any village names you have heard, including Amazigh forms. Caretakers and older neighbours can sometimes point to a house or a grave, and a few cemetery guardians keep registers, but no one can promise that records survive for a particular family. The guide to tracing your Jewish roots in Morocco explains how to prepare.

Agadir has a small Jewish community with its Beth El synagogue. Chabad of Agadir, nearby, offers kosher catering, Shabbat and holiday hospitality and kosher supervision (website updated September 2026); contact it well ahead for meals or a minyan. At Sukkot and Pesach, international operators run seasonal kosher programmes at resort hotels such as the Fairmont and Hilton at Taghazout Bay and The View in Agadir; the listings do not always name the supervising body, so check before booking.

Beyond Agadir there is no kosher restaurant, shop or caterer in the south. The large shrine complexes provide food and lodging for pilgrims during a hilloula, but not at other times. For the rest of the journey, plan on meals from a certified caterer packed for the road, sealed products and a careful vegetarian and fish approach in hotel kitchens. Shabbat is best spent in Agadir or Marrakech. The hilloula guide covers planning around pilgrimage dates.

The south is large, and distances are long. Agadir and the Souss need two days: one for Agadir and Taroudant with the Ben Baroukh shrine, and a second for Ifrane of the Anti-Atlas via Tiznit or for Taliouine. A full southern loop from Marrakech over the Tichka pass to Ouarzazate, the Draa, the Dades and Todra and the Tafilalet takes four to six days, and it continues naturally north to Fes through Errachidia and the Ziz valley. Most rural sites open only through caretakers, so a driver-guide who arranges access ahead is essential. Agadir has an international airport, though most North American trips start and end in Casablanca.

Our sample Jewish heritage tour shows how a southern loop fits into a longer private trip.