On Monday November 8th 2021, the first academic delegation group of 11 people from Morocco attended a conference about Moroccan Jewish culture and law in Ramat Gan. Bar-Ilan University’s two-day conference, titled “Jewish Culture and Law in Morocco.”  The conference was co-hosted by Israeli and Moroccan research centers, the Aharon and Rachel Dahan Center for Culture, Society and Education in the Sephardic Heritage at Bar-Ilan University, and the Center for Studies and Research in Hebrew Law in Essaouira, Morocco.  This was the first gathering since the signing of the Abraham Accords

Abderrahim Beyyoudh, head of Morocco’s diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv, told The Times of Israel.,“ this conference arose from the dream of the preservation of Jewish heritage. The Moroccan Jewish heritage is the key foundation of the relationship with Israel.”

Morocco became the fourth nation to normalize relations with Israel in December 2020.

Morocco became the fourth nation to normalize relations with Israel in December 2020. In return, Trump signed a proclamation recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara. The delegation from Morocco is a group of all Muslim professors from the universities of Fez, Rabat, and from the Hebraic Law center. “I asked my colleagues, are we ready to go to Israel? Are we sure?” said Abdellah Ouzitane, the Moroccan scholar who founded the center on Jewish law in Essaouira. “One hundred percent, they said. It’s historic for me as a person, it’s historic for me as a professor.”.

2018 World Monuments Watch

The crumbling Jewish Quarter in the port town of Essaouira is a symbol of the plurality of Moroccan culture. Essaouira was established in the mid-eighteenth century by Alaouite Sultan Sidi Mohamed ben Abdellah on the site of a sixteenth-century Portuguese fortress. It quickly became a major trading post between Africa and Europe. During that period, the Jewish Quarter, called Mellah, was established to extend the sultan’s protection to the Jewish inhabitants. Making up 40 percent of the city’s population, the thriving and productive Jewish community was deeply integrated into Moroccan society, and the Mellah played an important role in Essaouira’s economic development.