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I am the grandson of Moroccan-Jewish refugees (1956), with diasporic ties to the region from the 1st and 2nd Temple era, predating Arab, Spanish, and French influence. Here’s my family story 
#JewishRefugeeDay #Mizrahi
#JewishRefugeeDay #Mizrahi
There are 3 major waves of Moroccan Jewry, the largest Mizrahi/Seph. group:
•Those who came between the 2nd and 1st Temple era (my family from historic accounts, DNA testing)
•Those who came around the Spanish Inquisition (15th c.)
•Those from French colonial period (20th c.)
•Those who came between the 2nd and 1st Temple era (my family from historic accounts, DNA testing)
•Those who came around the Spanish Inquisition (15th c.)
•Those from French colonial period (20th c.)
Prior to their refugee experience from Morocco, my mom’s family (surname: Abi Serour / Avisror אבי צרור = “father of bundles”), lived relatively well despite periodic antisemitic violence in the Maghrebi kingdom. They and their Amazigh and Arab neighbors had close relations.
My family spoke a Jewish variant of Souss (southern) Darija and Tamazight #ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ (Amazigh/Berber dialect) at home and Arabic and French in business exchanges and other public settings. They were a part of Moroccan society, though still at the margins of it.
My grandfather, Yitzchak Abi Serour (Avisror אבי צרור) z”l, whom I’m named after, was a textile 
business owner. To the Arabs he worked with commercially and knew amicably, he was called Baba Haqi بابا حاقي from the Arabic ‘Ishaq’.
business owner. To the Arabs he worked with commercially and knew amicably, he was called Baba Haqi بابا حاقي from the Arabic ‘Ishaq’.
My grandmother, Sultana (maiden name Aburmad אבורמד) and her siblings worked the sewing machine from their childhood on, since their parents died young.
Both she and my grandfather lost everything when they fled
. Assets and business confiscated. No recog./compensation since.
Both she and my grandfather lost everything when they fled
. Assets and business confiscated. No recog./compensation since.
My mom’s family fled their longtime diaspora in Taroudant and Agadir in southern Morocco in 1956. They fled amid rising antisemitic violence in the country they resided in for generations, over the span of a year, finding refuge in the home they’d been longing for, Zion - Israel.
As I’ve written in my award-winning senior thesis, “State Consolidation & Indigenous Discourse in Post-Colonial North Africa & the Levant”, Pan-Arabism, along w/ French Vichy colonial Nazi-aligned ideology, exacerbated antisemitism and violence post-independence in the region.
My family fled to Gibraltar by train, then went to Marseille, France, then to Greece, and then to the port of Haifa, Israel through the Jewish Agency. They endured the ma’abarot (refugee camps) and harsh and meager living circumstances. Eventually, they settled in central Israel.
My saba (grandfather) went from being a textile business owner to being a hotel electrician in Tel Aviv. After a surgical accident, he passed away & my safta (grandmother) was left cleaning houses to raise 8 rowdy children on her own. They grew up poor, but they were happy.
My mom (born in Israel) and her brother then immigrated to the United States at my age of 22 for better economic opportunity, like many Mizrahi-Israeli-Americans in Los Angeles. Since then, their hometown has developed significantly into a strong suburban Mizrahi community.
I’m proud to say that today I have aunts, uncles, and cousins of Moroccan-Jewish diaspora heritage who have served in elite IDF units, worked in tech, government bureaucracies, modeling, taxi-cab driving, banking, and more! We are one family חמולה and we drive each other crazy.
I’m also incredibly biased towards Moroccan Dafina (Hamin) 
I’ve tried plenty of variations. My uncle’s hamin חמין is superior.
I’ve tried plenty of variations. My uncle’s hamin חמין is superior.
Many Westerners today view Moroccan and Moroccan-Jewish heritage as Arabic, Hispanic, or French. This is discriminatory & reductionist thinking. My family lived in Morocco w/ our own distinct heritage centuries prior to these invading hegemonies, alongside the indigenous Amazigh.
Fun fact: If you take the math of 250k Moroccan Jews (from the 856,000 Jewish refugees of Arab lands/ 940,000 with Iran) and multiply it according to natural population growth, Moroccan-Israelis make up around 11% of all Israeli citizens (the most of any single Mizrahi group).
I’m also related to one of the last rabbis of Timbuktu, Mali 
who came from Morocco - Rabbi Mardochay (Mordechai מרדכי) Abi Serour. He was an expeditioner who guided the French - and according to my mentor and professor - didn’t know what the colonial French intended.
who came from Morocco - Rabbi Mardochay (Mordechai מרדכי) Abi Serour. He was an expeditioner who guided the French - and according to my mentor and professor - didn’t know what the colonial French intended.
Our post-Pesah (Passover) Mimouna מימונה ⵎⵢⵎⵓⵏⵀ ميمونة celebration, like our foods and music have especially gone mainstream in Israeli and global Jewish societies (now also nationally recognized and celebrated). This took tireless activism over the course of decades.
My Moroccan-Jewish family were #Zionist to their core in the spiritual sense and socially, culturally, and morally prior to fleeing Morocco. They remain staunch political Zionists in favor of Jewish refuge and self-determination today, like most Mizrahim. 
With around 3,000 Jews left today (250k+ in 1948) in Morocco, connected largely with Israeli tourism and a lasting relationship with the sultanate/monarchy, many wonder if Jewish life can be restored there.
The younger gen. of citizens in Morocco is much more removed from Jews, mentally too. Occasionally, effigies of Jews and Israeli figures have been burned.
In other circumstances, there is much praise and yearning toward Jewish ties that used to be stronger.
I have yet to visit
In other circumstances, there is much praise and yearning toward Jewish ties that used to be stronger.
I have yet to visit
Today, we must realize as Mizrahim, with our expansive (although not equally influential platform as Ashkenazim), that our larger belonging within the new “binary”/“triangle” of Ashkenazi/Sephardi/Mizrahi obliges us to make room for and amplify other diaspora experiences.
Beta Israel, Bnei Menashe, Bnei Anousim, and more. We must use our growing inclusion in the “Jewish mainstream” to unite and uplift these more “peripheral” experiences and heritages as well. We may all be indigenous to Judea, but our exile has its own story as well. 
For more: please watch my recorded livestream with @JIMENA_Voice on Instagram 
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CIOaKAjnz-1/?igshid=z0dojcnps4xi
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CIOaKAjnz-1/?igshid=z0dojcnps4xi
