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This was the newer of the two synagogues in Tetouan we visited. IIRC, it dates to the early 20th c. I don't remember the name and haven't found much web presence for it; perhaps it is not open to the public. It is marked on Google Maps in Hebrew (perhaps by an Israeli visitor) as "Bet Knesset Tefilah", which means "prayer house of assembly" and might be either a name or a generic descriptor. The caretaker is wearing a kipah out of respect, but is not Jewish.
The modern history of Tetouan starts in the late 15th century, as in the early 15th century the Castilians destroyed the existing settlement in retaliation for piracy. It was re-built and fortified by Ali al-Mandri, who emigrated from the Nasrid city of Granada in the decade before it fell in the hands of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile in 1492. Thousands of Muslims and Jews from Andalusia settled in the north of Morocco and on the ruins of the city of Tétouan. The city went through a prosperous period of reconstruction and growth and became a center for the preservation of Andalusian civilization. Some families still keep keys belonging to their old homes in Granada.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were about a thousand Jews and sixteen active synagogues in the Jewish quarter of Tetouan. Now only a few Jews remain – we met one of them, and I think he said there were 12. Much of the population emigrated to Israel following that country’s founding; others went to South America, Europe, or North America.
To hear the Moroccans tell it, Morocco was a paradise of coexistence, and the Jews lived here in peace as honored citizens until the Mossad came calling. The Mossad would send a rep to each village and convince the rabbi to convince his congregation to migrate en masse to Israel. I suspect the reality of living here as a Jew was more nuanced. Nevertheless, it is touching that modern-day Moroccans recall their Jewish neighbors with affection and that they pride themselves on religious tolerance.
The history of Tetouan can perhaps serve as a microcosm of Jewish existence in Morocco over the centuries. In 1790, a pogrom occurred, started by Sultan Yazid. The mellah (Jewish quarter) was pillaged and many women raped. At this point there was an emigration of Tetouani Jews to Gibraltar, where the large Jewish population maintains links with the community in Tetouan. (When we visited Gibraltar, we were surprised at how many Jews we saw. We had assumed the population was recent; the ones we talked to were Israeli. Nope!)
In 1807, Sultan Slimane (Sulayman) relocated the mellah south of the medina to build a large mosque at its previous location inside the medina. The entire community was displaced and had to rebuild from scratch. The second synagogue we visited was built at this time. It was led by the chief rabbi of the town, Isaac Ben Walid, and is named for him. Ben Walid (or Bengualid in Ladino) is revered locally as a tzaddik (righteous man), and an annual pilgrimage of expats and their descendents commemorates the anniversary of his death. This seems to be a cultural borrowing from Moroccan Sufism, where local saints (sidi) are similarly venerated.
The new mellah was sacked in the Hispano-Moroccan War of 1860. This was followed by appeals in the European Jewish press to support Jewish communities like the one in Tetuoan, leading to an international effort called "The Morocco Relief Fund." The Paris-based international Jewish organization Alliance Israélite Universelle, along with Rabbi Isaac Ben Walid of Tetuoan, opened its first school in Tetuoan as the mellah rebuilt in 1862.
Tétouan is a city in northern Morocco in the Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceïma Region. The name comes from the Berber word ⵜⵉⵟⵟⴰⵡⵉⵏ (Tiṭṭawin) and in Arabic is written تطوان. Alternative spellings are Tetuán in Spanish and Tetouan in English. The Berber name means literally "the eyes" and figuratively "the water springs." Tétouan is one of the two major ports of Morocco on the Mediterranean Sea. It lies a few miles south of the Strait of Gibraltar, and about 40 miles southeast of Tangier. In 2014 the city had 463,968 inhabitants.
In 1913 Tétouan became the capital of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco, which was governed by the Jalifa (Moroccan prince, serving as Viceroy for the Sultan), and the Spanish "Alto Comisario" accredited to him. It remained such a capital until 1956, when Morocco regained its full independence.
Information from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A9touan
Most of the Hebrew here is beyond me, but I believe this is a ketubah (marriage contract). It was on the wall of the Rabbi Isaac Ben Walid Synagogue, which dates from the early 1800s and is now a museum; almost all of the Jews of Tetouan are long gone. There were two of these on the wall, both by the same hand. A ketubah is not something that would be put on the wall of a synagogue, but, with its artistic calligraphy and illumination, it is certainly something that would be put on the wall of a museum as a fine example of local Judaica.
It's definitely a contract of some kind, and does seem to be in Hebrew or Aramaic, not Ladino; I recognize the word "ratzon" (wish) in the line at top, which must be a biblical quote, perhaps from the Song of Songs. (Attempts to translate it got me nowhere.) The drop-capitals towards the bottom are "chai" (life). The first word is "revi'i" ("fourth", part of the formula "on the fourth day of the week" beginning a date). I believe the other bolded words are the names of the parties to the contract. I can make out "Yaakov", "Ben Sultan" (also written "Ben Soultan" -- interestingly, transliterated in Hebrew with a hard "ts" sound instead of an "s"; not sure what the actual Arabic sound is), "Ben Tata" and "Ben Naim". I believe the latter three are surnames here, rather than Hebrew patronymics. The remaining name might be Gamilah, which is Arabic for "beautiful" or "graceful". Any translation help would be appreciated!