Community Magazine January 2019

TEVET - SHEVAT 5779 JANUARY 2019 29 However, in the U.S., where the numbers of Moroccans are small (following the second exodus, Moroccans mostly emigrated to French and Spanish speaking countries) our sense of identity is weak. Subsequently, we’re disappearing as a community,” Rabbi Attias said. He points out that there is something special about Moroccans' adaptability, for better and for worse. Moroccans have an uncanny ability to camouflage themselves into their surroundings. Unlike other Sephardic groups, Moroccans who study in Ashkenazi yeshivot speak Yiddish and wear their tzitzit dangling out of their slacks, for example. Moroccans are also innately spiritual. In Uman, for instance, they comprise the largest minyan by the Breslover Rebbe’s grave, and they are also heavily represented in Chabad. Despite that, Moroccans never founded yeshivot in the U.S. Subsequently, more and more religious Moroccans will continue attending Lakewood and other elite U.S. yeshivot and will marry into the Ashkenaz or Edot HaMizrach communities whose minhagim , mannerisms, and heritage differ from their own. More ominous are the large numbers of non-observant Moroccans assimilating into secular culture. Between the two factions, one way and another, the Moroccan mesorah is being lost. “In sixty years, we won’t have a Moroccan community in North America, even in Montreal, where 40,000 Moroccans live and flourish. Today, most of them are traditional; their children are less traditional, while their great grandchildren will probably end up going to shul only on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur,” Tchiprout says. The Moroccan community of Jackson is trying to curb that trend by establishing a nucleus of b’nai Torah strongly committed to their heritage, and whose influence extends worldwide. Community members aspire to building a place that Moroccans can call home. By the number of inquiries Tchiprout receives, and from the growing numbers of participants that attend their minyanim and shiurim , it is evident that many Moroccans want to be part of this nucleus. Whether they come for selichot , or Megillah reading, a pride of identity is developing, especially among youngMoroccans who, until now, saw themselves as a minority compared to the vibrant Syrian community in New York and New Jersey. Offering a New Home Mordechai Dahan* is one of those “disappearing Moroccans.” His history is somewhat typical. Dahan’s grandfather was a highly respected rav in Queitra, a tiny village in Northern Morocco. The family immigrated to the U.S. in 1967, penniless. With no rabbanim or nucleus of Torah to keep them intact as a religious community, the family retained a sprinkling of minhagim , such as the PesachMaimuna, the sfeng sponge donuts that are a must to eat on Hanukah, and eating couscous on Shabbat. Mordechai's father married an Ashkenazi woman. Mordechai and his siblings grew up disconnected from, and even ashamed of, their 2000-year-old Moroccan heritage. It was not until he traveled to Israel that Mordechai started connecting to his Sephardic roots, and began identifying more as a Sephardi than an Ashkenazi, despite his Ashkenazi yeshiva background. Because there was no Moroccan community in New York for him to cling to, he latched onto the Syrian community, which was well-established and close-knit. Unlike many of his Moroccan friends, who changed their names to Ashkenazi ones and married Ashkenazi spouses, he married a Syrian woman from a large extended family, and is raising his children according to the Syrian traditions. He expects his daughters to marry Syrian b’nai Torah . “To me, the Syrian community is beautiful. I don’t practice anything Moroccan,” he says. How do the two traditions differ? "There are more similarities in mentality than differences between them. Still, differences do exist. Whereas the words in our siddurim are the same, the havara is different, as are the foods we eat. The way we talk to one another and greet each other differs, as well. Syrians and Moroccans have different accents, and name their children different names. The major difference, though, is that Moroccans born and raised in the U.S. are ashamed of their heritage, whereas the Syrians are very proud of theirs.” Dahan wants to see that same kind of pride manifested within the Moroccan community. So, when the Jackson community opened in his neighborhood, and mainly since Rabbi Attias’s arrival, this renewal of Moroccan pride spoke to Dahan’s neshama . He recognizes the community’s enormous potential. Even though he does not live within walking distance of the shul, he encourages the community’s efforts. This year he prayed with them selichot and is looking forward to attending the night kollel when it opens. He could not agree more with the community’s raison d'être . “What better way to strengthen the Moroccan community from within than to have a nucleus of Torah, even if it’s in Jackson and far from the major Moroccan communities in the world? I feel this might be a way to save the few remnants of Moroccan Jewry that still exist in North America, as well as strengthen the religious commitment of more traditional Moroccan communities living outside of Israel,” he says. (R-L) Hacham Yosef Harari-Raful (Rosh Yeshiva, Ateret Torah Flatbush), Rav Naftali Suissa (Rabbi of Annecy, France), and Moshe Chaim Suissa (Moroccan Kehila of Jackson) at Shaul Meir Suissa's Bar Mitzvah. Rabbi Attias giving a shiur at a Technology Awareness Group neighborhood event. Rabbi Attias giving his Thursday night Humash shiur.