Ait Ourir is a village of the Mesfioua tribe, 50 km south of Marrakech in the direction of Ouarzazat in Glawa land. It is known for its salt mine.

The Jewish community of Ait Ourir is part of a chain of mellahs scattered in the Telouet, and which may date back to the sixteenth-century, next to Tidhdiwin, Tamazzert and Iggi n-Isnain. It included a few dozen families that lived modestly from agricultural associations with their Berber neighbors, and from crafts. In 1963, they left for Israel.

The community is famous for the grave of the holy man Rabbi Habib Mizrahi, which lies in the local Jewish cemetery along with dozens of other graves, far from the mellah (*mallāḥ). In 1970, a follower of the holy man, Isaac Ohayon, had the grave repaired and had rooms built for pilgrims who came to celebrate the new *hillula, anniversary of the death of the holy man.

 

Bibliography

Ben-Ami, Issachar. Saint Veneration among the Jews in Morocco (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1998).

 

Goldberg, Harvey E. “The Mellahs of Southern Morocco:  Report of a Survey,” The Maghreb Review, 8, 3-4 (1983): 61-69.

 

Flamand, Pierre. Diaspora en terre d’Islam. I: Les communautés israélites du sud marocain (Casablanca: Imprimeries réunies, 1959).