Israeli DJ Traces Moroccan Roots in Emotional Journey to Ancestral Homeland

Since his emigration to Israel, Khen Elmaleh’s grandfather never returned to Morocco. This wish so dear to him will finally be fulfilled by his granddaughter, who thus rediscovers her true origins. Yet the grandparents, who represent for Khen’s generation "an ancient and irrelevant world", have still managed to instill in their descendants certain elements of "Moroccanness", the "Morocco of the past".

Today, if Khen can swell with pride in citing certain Israeli personalities of Moroccan origin, with whom this generation has been able to identify, including several famous actors, she feels a deep sadness about her "Moroccan identity" which "has been relegated to folklore, cuisine and amusing viral phrases that have boosted the audiences of television comedies".

Indeed, according to Khen Elmaleh, the reality experienced in Israel and suffered by the entire Moroccan community is racism, a discrimination actually directed at anything that resembles "Arabness". For Israel, Arabs are the enemy and we must therefore kill the ’Arabness’ in us", details Elmaleh.

Faced with all this, Khen finally decides to go to North Africa, to, she says, search for "the truth", in order to "understand the DNA of her existence" and to be able to "answer the questions that the next generations will ask". In Morocco, she first stops in Marrakech. Immediately, she is overwhelmed with emotion and bursts into tears. "I saw the land that is the foundation of my life". Memories come back to her, such as that of her grandfather who could not make this long-awaited trip.

In Essaouira, the city where Jews "represented about half of the population at the beginning of the last century", Khen arrives in the midst of the celebration of the "Gnaoua" music festival. She is seduced by the musical heritage of the Kingdom and discovers, at the Dar Souiri Cultural Center, the walls decorated with historical photos of several Jewish artists from the Arab countries. The emotion becomes even greater in this young Moroccan Jew who regrets all the rift maintained by Morocco and Israel, who cut ties in 2000, during the second intifada.