History
Five cemeteries, from the ocean to the river
Rabat and Salé face each other at the mouth of the Bouregreg; Kénitra watches a little further north, on the oued Sebou, and Souk El Arbaa du Gharb further inland. Some of the oldest Jewish communities of Morocco, and five cemeteries that keep their memory, a few tens of minutes from one another.
Rabat, the old cemetery
Avenue Jazirat Al Arab · 1773 records
The historic cemetery of the mellah of Rabat. Its stones, whitened by the spray of the Atlantic, carry the names of the great families of Rabat, and the graves of venerated sages, among them Rabbi Eliezer Davila and Rabbi Shalom Zaoui. Part of the old registers has been kept "as it stands": their verification, stone by stone, is under way from the photographs of Richard Zéboulon, Dr Yohanan Ouaknine and David Bennaroch.
Browse the records →Rabat, the new cemetery
Avenue Hassan II · 788 records
The cemetery of the modern community, still in use. Here rests Rabbi Micael I. Encaoua, Chief Rabbi of Morocco, together with the presidents and figures of the Rabat community of the twentieth century. Every photographed grave is read and indexed: the collection grows continually.
Browse the records →Salé
Right bank of the Bouregreg · 1095 records
On the far side of the river, the cemetery of Salé is one of the oldest Jewish sanctuaries of the region. It holds the mausoleum of Rabbi Raphaël Encaoua, the "Malakh Raphael", whose hilloula still draws pilgrims from the whole world, surrounded by many other rabbis and dayanim of the town. The photographic survey of Salé is the next stage of this memorial.
Browse the records →Kénitra
On the oued Sebou · 128 records
Further north, on the road to Tangier, Kénitra (the former Port-Lyautey) sheltered a young and active Jewish community, born in the twentieth century around the port and the railway. Its cemetery keeps the memory of those families and the mausoleum of their spiritual guide, Rabbi Yahia Bénarroch, Chief Rabbi and judge of the community for nearly seven decades.
Browse the records →The sages who rest here
Five figures among the many rabbis of Rabat, Salé and Kénitra.
Rabbi Raphaël Encaoua (1848–1935)
רבי רפאל אנקאווה
SaléThe man whom all Morocco called the "Malakh Raphael", the angel Raphael. Born in Salé, a Talmudist without equal and a judge of legendary integrity, he became in 1918 the first president of the High Rabbinical Court of Morocco. His wisdom reached beyond the bounds of the community: Jews and Muslims alike came for his counsel and his blessing.
His mausoleum, in the cemetery of Salé, has remained one of the great places of pilgrimage of Moroccan Jewry: his hilloula gathers each year the faithful come from France, Israel and Canada, on the bank where he taught all his life.
Rabbi Micael I. Encaoua (1895–1972)
רבי מיכאל אנקאווה
Rabat · New cemeteryHeir to the illustrious rabbinic line of the Encaoua, he bore the title of Chief Rabbi of Morocco, as the great white slab of his grave in the new cemetery of Rabat proclaims in French and in Hebrew. He accompanied the community through the upheavals of the twentieth century: the Protectorate, the war, independence, the great departures.
His grave, among those of the families he served, faces the river, on the far side of which rests the Malakh Raphael. Two banks, one house.
Rabbi Eliezer Davila (1714–1761)
רבי אליעזר די אבילא
Rabat · Old cemeteryOne of the geniuses of the Talmud that Moroccan Jewry produced. Nephew of the holy Or HaHaim, Rabbi Haim ben Attar, he led the school of Rabat and left a dense body of work (including "Maguen Guiborim") studied to this day in the yeshivot. Gone before his fiftieth year, he was mourned as a prince of the Torah.
His grave, in the old cemetery, remains one of the most visited of Rabat: students come to pray there before their examinations, faithful to the tradition that makes him the protector of those who study.
Rabbi Shalom Zaoui
רבי שלום זאוי
Rabat · Old cemeteryAmong the most venerated tsaddikim of Rabat. His repute for piety and humility has crossed the generations, and his grave in the old cemetery has remained a place of prayer where the families of Rabat come to light candles and entrust their wishes, to this day.
His hilloula is one of the faithful appointments of the memory of Rabat: proof that a cemetery is not a place of the past, but a house one comes back to.
Rabbi Yahia Bénarroch (–2000)
רבי יחיה בנהרוש
KénitraThe spiritual guide of Kénitra. He came to the town in 1934 and was its Chief Rabbi and its judge (president of the rabbinical court) until his death in 2000, serving his community for nearly seventy years, through all the changes of the century.
His mausoleum stands in the cemetery of Kénitra, where his memory stays alive for the families who remained and for those who come back. A rabbi close to his community, as it should be.