Rare Photos Unveil Morocco’s Vanished Jewish Communities at Paris Museum

The photos that are the subject of this exhibition were taken from 1934 to 1937, during the photographer’s stay in Morocco. He was interested in the rural Jewish communities of Morocco and the aesthetics of their traditional clothing. Even if these Jewish communities have disappeared today, Jean Besancenot’s photographs are proof that they existed, explains the museum in a press release.

Hannah Assouline, the co-curator of the exhibition, recounts how she managed to obtain these shots that pay tribute to the Jewish population of Morocco, some of which were already exhibited between 1934 and 1937 by the photographer Jean Besancenot, reports Arab News.

Among the photographs taken at the time, she says she recognized that of her father, Rabbi Messaoud Assouline. "I met Jean Besancenot in 1985, when my interest in photography began. As soon as Besancenot saw me, he immediately knew where I came from. He told me: ’You come from Tafilalet, and you are Jewish.’"

It must be said that Morocco was home to the largest Jewish population in the Arab world. It was estimated at over 250,000 nationals.