"You know, every once in a while
I try to understand why it is so different and why it matters, and suddenly in one of the meetings we had there a Moroccan Muslim from the Turks, the one with the big turban, says to me: 'It is impossible to describe or understand Morocco without the Jews, you are Morocco! And when you left here and left - you tore us apart, and since then we are lost and wounded. 'And you hear that and understand how many Moroccan Jews were an integral part of Moroccan identity when they lived in Morocco.
"Today the tiny Jewish community that remains there does much to preserve the memory. There is the Jewish Museum in Casablanca, the synagogue in Marrakesh, but if young non-Jewish Moroccans are not included in the picture, in the fields of art, art and academia - the memory of the Moroccan Jewish era will fade. In fact, the arena was abandoned to al-Jazeera, and for young Moroccans today, the image of the Jew as a soldier chasing a Palestinian and shooting him in the back is becoming more established. "
Sami Shalom Sheetrit is a lighthouse in the Israeli sea of consciousness.
In an era in which Kol Yisrael from Jerusalem broadcast on one and the same channel, that "we are all Israelis, and whoever wants to succeed" and "enough people ate me, drink me", and that Meritch and Verch go out mainly a triple finger to those who are on the wrong side of the screen - in this world, his books Sheetrit's shone in the distance and signaled that this was not the whole truth.
Whether it was the book on "The Mizrahi Struggle in Israel", or the book of poetry "Songs in Ashdod", his books gave a punch to the dough of my consciousness and that of many and many.
Sheetrit documented and revealed the interaction that took place between the State of Israel and its eastern immigrants over the years.
But at the same time as the erased history, his poems touched and united the soul built from its many crises.
If until that moment I thought my life and obstacles were a private case, his books made it clear that as a child of immigrants from the wrong side of the Mediterranean, I was just part of a much bigger game.
I felt that his books had given me the task of meaningfully fulfilling the concept of "Oriental," but not as I had been dictated all my life, but as I had chosen and found fit.
Over the years our paths have crossed.
I invited him to speak at conferences I produced, and in each lecture I felt the inner burning that burns in him for doing justice and the right thing.
His opponents saw him as an angry man, accused him of wanting to tear Israeli society apart from within.
But up close I was exposed to the soft side of the fist, the clever humor and the enlightened view of the world.
We met to talk about a unique academic course that Sheetrit leads as head of the School of Film and Performing Arts at Sapir College.
Although I teach in the Department of Communication, it was hard not to notice the excitement surrounding the unique course that appeared on this year’s list of courses.
For 44 years there has been a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, 18 years with Jordan, but who has heard of academic cooperation with them?
Peace with Morocco is less than two years old, and is already a warm and groundbreaking peace that enables an academic course in which students from Sapir College and Muhammad VI University from the city of Ben Greir, near Marrakesh, study together.
"I was called by Prof. Taha Belhafrag, who set up seven centers for training young leadership with education for progressive democratic values, equality and civil rights at Moroccan universities. He suggested 'Let's do something together.' We were already there.
We have discovered enthusiastic, knowledgeable people who speak three languages, and are willing to learn, research and read everything.
I asked them what they knew about the Jews of Morocco and we discovered that the younger the respondents, the greater the ignorance regarding Moroccan Jewry.
"We decided to do a joint course where students would produce five documentaries about the connection and relations that existed between Jews and Arabs in Morocco, to stimulate Moroccan and Israeli memory. We started zooming in. Two full months At the same time, Philip Blaish taught them how to make a documentary. Then we went to Morocco for two weeks. I really did not know how they would receive us, but from the moment we arrived they hugged us and received us with great warmth. The students divided into Israeli-Moroccan teams ".
The conflict with the Palestinians,
of course, is not absent from the background of the joint work.
"The teams talked about it non-stop," Sheetrit describes. "But they learned to notice the different approaches to resolving the conflict within Israeli society. If at first our students were a little apprehensive, towards the end one of them told me how difficult it would be for him to return to Israel and this situation where he and his neighbors near Sapir College could not work and live together."
Amit Harel, one of the students, says of the collaboration that emerged: "The main experience was the ease with which it was possible to document in complete collaboration, despite the fundamental differences in language, values, behavior and culture. Throughout Marrakech I felt at home. Movies without knowing the language, just feel and be there in this moment, even if it happens to see a Moroccan girl who was excited to see a camera and decide to interview her and be surprised to find that she knew Jews who lived there. I was really curious about them. "
Why is it interesting for
young Moroccans to deal with the history of Moroccan Jews who have left, I wonder to Sheetrit.
"This departure created a very big rift. Everywhere I introduced myself I was asked 'why did you go?'
And not only in academia, but also in the market. I have academic answers and I have answers from my stomach, and yet in the face of this question I do not know what to say.
It goes back thousands of years, even before the expulsion of Spain, before the Arab conquest.
Jews lived in Morocco and were part of Morocco's identity, and that Moroccans are afraid of losing.
Sami Shalom Sheetrit, Photo: David Peretz
"When I come to Morocco I feel I have come home. For me, I did not renew contact with any Arab country, but with my homeland. My father is 85 and he keeps coming back to his days in Morocco as a government official in the Ministry of Finance, who came here against his will. He told me 'I do not "I can look them in the eye. There's nothing they didn't give me, and yet I got up and ran away like a thief. I feel I was betrayed in my homeland."
The vision, according to Sheetrit, is not necessarily to unite the rift by returning Moroccan Jews to their homeland, but through cultural channels.
"Moroccans do not say come back, and that's it. I estimate there are more than a million Moroccans in Israel, and it's time for the two countries to reconcile the rift between us, and there is no better tool than culture to cross this bridge. I am glad that we "They can take part in this, and for me it is also the transfer of responsibility and social leadership to the next generation."
This week, the students will work together in the editing rooms of Sapir College.
At the end of the editing week, the films will be shown at the Sderot Cinematheque.
For Sheetrit, this is only the first swallow: "Academic cooperation with Morocco is just one of dozens of unique projects that I intend to encourage to create connections within Israeli society and with our neighbors, thus improving and enriching our lives in this time and place."
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we would love for you to share it with us
