Tazenakht is located in the Sirwa massif, next to the Anti-Atlas mountains in the east, and at the crossroad of many mountainous throughways between the *Dra‘a and *Sous valleys and the Dadès. Caravans and troops have crossed it at least since the sixteenth-century, and a large market was held there weekly. The town is now known for weaving and selling Berber carpets. The Jewish community probably settled in Tazenakht in the sixteenth-century at the time of Sa‘di rule when trans-Saharan commerce grew.

In the twentieth-century the Jewish population of Tazenakht ranged from about 200 to 300 individuals. The majority made a living from regional and interregional commerce and distribution—dates from the Dra‘a, olive oil, almonds and cereals from the Sous region of southwest Morocco. During the period of the French protectorate, wholesale merchants of fabrics and staple goods got their supplies in Marrakech and Casablanca, and distributed them in the area and in the Sous.

The mellah (*mallāḥ) is located in Tazenakht al-Qadīm (old Tazenakht), about three km away from the town of *Foum Zguid, and developed independently. In the twentieth-century, there were two synagogues, one of which had rare drawings of ritual objects on the walls, and a small-size Torah scroll that was greatly venerated. It was called Sefer Tislit and probably came from the ancient neighboring community of Tislit. It is now kept in a synagogue in Ashkelon (Israel), where a large *hillula is still organized yearly at the end of the month of Tishri in honor of the Sefer. This celebration brings together hundreds of people originating from Tazenakht and other neighboring communities, such as Tama’ruft, where the grave of the holy rabbi, Eliezer Tore Zahab, lies.

In 1954, the *Alliance Israélite Universelle opened a school in Tazenakht; a few children studied there until the dispersion of the community in 1963, mainly to Israel.

 

Bibliography

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

 

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

 

Jacques-Meunié, Djinn. Le Maroc saharien des origines à 1670, 2 vols. (Paris: Editions Klincksieck, 1982).