The Inezgane community was probably among the most recent ones in Morocco. Located seven km away from *Agadir, Jews began settling there gradually among the Berber tribe of Ksima in the 1930s, thanks to the development of the town and the Jewish community of Agadir, whose port created new economic opportunities. Inezgane attracted hundreds of people from small communities in the *Sous region—*Ifran, *Goulimime, *Iligh, *Tahala, *Tillin, *Tiznit, *Tarudant, and even from the old port community, Agadir Ufella. The newcomers preferred to settle in the outskirts, among their Berber neighbors, either to protect their community traditions from the temptation of modern urban life, or because they could not afford expensive accommodation in the port city. In the 1950s, it already comprised about 500 people; the *Alliance Israélite Universelle opened an elementary school in 1955, but young graduates left the community and settled in Agadir.

Inezgane quickly became an important commercial center for the Berber tribes of the Sous; Jews played a significant role in the regional trade of fabrics and foodstuffs, thanks to their family connections in various towns of the region. They continued to work as traditional artisans—jewelers, blacksmiths, and cobblers—but added modern occupations such as auto or general mechanics.

Although not directly affected by the earthquake of Agadir in February 1960 (which caused about 1,600 Jewish victims out of a total of 10,000), the Inezgane community could not overcome the trauma. Its economic activities were gravely destabilized, which probably explains why almost the whole community of 487 people immigrated to Israel, when they had the opportunity in 1962 and 1963.

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, about three Jewish families remained in Inezgane, while Agadir, which developed as a commercial and tourist center after the earthquake, maintained a  Jewish community of about forty families).

Bibliography

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

Hirschberg, H.Z., Inside Maghreb: The Jews in North Africa (in Hebrew), Jerusalem: Jewish Agency Press, 1957), 104-105.