Migration of Moroccan Jews to Israel

Anti-Jewish riots in Oujda and Jerada during the 1948 Palestine war, coupled with concerns that Morocco's eventual independence from France might result in the persecution of the country's Jewish population, prompted a substantial wave of emigration.

Between 1961 and 1964, Operation Yachin saw Mossad and HIAS strike a clandestine agreement with King Hassan II to covertly facilitate the migration of Moroccan Jews to Israel.

[5] By 1967, approximately 250,000 Jews had left Morocco, with some seeking refuge in Europe and the United States, while a significant portion chose to immigrate to Israel.

The cultural barriers and discrimination they encountered prompted protests (such as the Wadi Salib riots) and, over time, contributed to a gradual transformation in the Israeli political landscape.

The overcrowding, the decline in the financial circumstances and the need to pray in secret motivated some young families to emigrate to Israel or move to neighboring Tunisia, which employed a more liberal policy for Jews.

The Aifragan brothers, who were bankers back in Fez, could not adapt to life in Israel; they bid their cousins, the Zane family, goodbye in 1918, and moved to France and subsequently to Canada.

In the summer of 1911, a baby boy; Moshe Vezana, was born, a son to Simcha (Pircha) and David, aboard the ship on their way to Israel.

It was a large family of Mughrabi; the greatest living inside the walls of the Old City, until their escape to Katamon due to War of Independence.

In a nearby area, a group of Muslims gathered, armed with axes, picks and knives, and rode on buses towards the coal mining town of Jerada.

[9] The year 1954 saw additional pogroms against Moroccan Jews, considerable theft of property, and arson at "Kol Israel Haverim" schools.

[12] It was based out of an office in Casablanca and operated cells in large cities as well as a transit camp along the road to al-Jadida, from which Jewish migrants would depart for Israel via Marseille.

[14] When Mohammed V returned from exile, he decided he wanted the Jews to remain in Morocco after its independence from France in 1956; Jewish citizens were given equal rights.

Following the emigration ban, a large number of international organizations cooperated with the Israeli government to do everything in their capacity to persuade Moroccan authorities to allow Jewish citizens of Morocco to leave the country.

Representatives of the various Jewish organizations succeeded in forming good relations with the Moroccan authorities, however they failed to convince them to allow the Jews to leave.

The Six-Day War in 1967 led to another wave of emigration of Jews from Morocco, primarily to France, but also to Canada, the United States, Israel and other countries.

After the sinking of Egoz, pressure was exerted on Morocco and a secret treaty was signed with King Hassan II and consequently a massive exodus of Jews from Casablanca port was carried out under the supervision of General Oufkir.

The transition of Moroccans from villages on the frontier to the city and their rejection of an agricultural lifestyle was assumed to indicate their refusal to participate in productive enterprises and the Judaization of the land that the state intended for them, and an active strategy of dealing with separation and socialization processes which the country implemented in the 1950s.

Many of the first and second generation of immigrants from Islamic countries (the "second Israel") felt that this change in regime would give them a voice and influence over the leadership of the state, which had previously been denied to them during Mapai's reign.

Descendants of the Moroccan community now constitute one of the pillars of Israeli culture in such areas as television, theater, literature, song, poetry, and film.

In Jewish Morocco, Emily Gottreich presents different views in the discussion about "whose fault it was that the Jews, acknowledged today on (almost) all sides as “true” Moroccans, left their ancestral land":[16] In her words:Moroccan Nationalist Movement blame the colonial powers for having destabilized the traditional social structures that had long sustained the Jews.