Community Magazine January 2019

30 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE Moshe Chaim Suissa – Steeped in Moroccan Mesorah Unlike Dahan, Moshe ChaimSuissa grewup proud of his heritage. He was born and raised in Annecy, France, home to a significant Moroccan community. However, after moving to the States and studying in various American yeshivot, he fully understands Dahan’s sentiments, and is saddened by them. “I keep meeting Moroccans who don’t share my sense of pride. Intellectually, they understand that they share a significant and beautiful Moroccan mesorah , but they don’t feel connected to it. They see themselves as a minority, and they want to move towards the majority. Since there are so few Moroccans left here, they tell me, why bother perpetuating a legacy their children won’t inherit? In Monsey I met pockets of Moroccans who were proud of their heritage, but they were few and far between,” Suissa says. Despite his mother being Ashkenaz and his wife Syrian (her uncle is Hacham Yosef Harari-Raful, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Ateret Torah) and easily integrating into the Ashkenaz and Syrian communities, the 41-year-old father of six identifies as fully Moroccan. With no established Moroccan community in sight, he felt a profound void in his life. So, when Raphael approached Suissa with the idea of founding a Moroccan community for b’nai Torah, he enthusiastically came on board. Even though he learned in Ashkenazi yeshivot, Suissa says he grew up steeped in the mesorah he received from his father and his community. This applied to his derech ha’limud , as well. After leaving Morocco, his father, Naftali Suissa, studied in the Sunderland Yeshiva, but his approach to learning remained very much Moroccan, an approach he passed on to his sons. The elder Suissa appreciated the Moroccan way of learning Talmud so much that he augmented Moshe Chaim’s yeshiva studies by hiring a private rebbe from Morocco to learn with him a few hours a day for two years. It was a derech appreciated by Ashkenazim, as well. “My rebbe was so beloved that Rav Aaron Schechter hired him to be his son’s private tutor,” Suissa recalls. It was an excellent move on his father’s part. Suissa now integrates both approaches into his learning. “Each of these worlds has its tradition. I take the best of both worlds to end up with the best understanding of Torah that I can.” Influence of Isaac Shalom The strong connection between Moroccans and the Ashkenazi yeshiva world began in 1947 with the founding of the Otzar Welcoming Ceremony for Rabbi Attias The Moroccan kehila of Jackson will hold a welcoming ceremony in honor of Rabbi Attias and the Rabanit on January 26 th , Motsaei Shabbat Parshat Yitro . For information about shul events or dedication opportunities, please email: MKnewjersey@gmail.com or call Moshe Chaim Suissa at 732-552-8258. HaTorah Educational Network. This involved a collaborative effort by Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz and Jewish leaders in Morocco and Tunisia, and was in conglomeration with the JOINT, directed by Isaac Shalom. Its purpose was to strengthen traditional Judaism in Northern Africa, as well as to counter Alliance Francaise, a pro-Zionist, pro-secular educational network whose influence was widespread throughout the Sephardic world. Otzar HaTorah established 28 yeshivot in Morocco that included Neveh Shalom, named after Isaac Shalom, as well as Talmud Torahs and girls’ schools. Rabbi Kalmanowitz also arranged for student visas for some boys to attend North American yeshivot, such as the Mir and Chaim Berlin. Other teenagers went on to study in the Torat Emet yeshiva, as well as the Sunderland Rabbinical College in England, while others were sent to France to study in Yeshivat Aix Les Bains and Ohr Yosef Novardok Yeshiva. Each of these yeshivot produced outstanding talmidei hachamim . Yehudah Azoulay, is of Moroccan descent and is the founder of the Sephardic Legacy Institute for Sephardic Heritage that promotes Sephardic Judaism. Azoulay commends fellow Torontonian Raphael Tchiprout, as well as Moshe Chaim Suissa for their efforts in founding this community. “As long as they keep trying to get closer to their Moroccan heritage, they are on the right path,” he says. Revival of Moroccan Culture Suissa points out that Israel is experiencing a renaissance of Moroccan culture. When he was last there, he discovered a store called Yotzrot Ha’Maghreb that carries only books from and about Jews of Morocco. Azoulay bought a coffee table book with 1000 photos of the Jews of Marrakesh alone, as well as a three-volume set profiling its hachamim . “Ours is a beautiful legacy and heritage that must be preserved,” he says. Suissa could not agree more. “Our mesorah is ancient and represents a unique derech in approaching tefilla and avodat Hashem . The feedback we get from congregants attending our minyanim – even the Ashkenazi ones – is that they can feel the strength of our mesorah in the prayers alone. My four-year-old son now loves coming to shul. For the sake of our children, we must keep our mesorah alive. In the States, that won’t happen naturally; our numbers just aren’t large enough. Therefore, we must create this outcome for ourselves.” * The name was changed to protect privacy. Hoshaana Rabah, all night learning at the Moroccan Kehila of Jackson. Rabbi Eliyahu Attias giving words of hizuk.