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JEROME SOCOLOVSKY
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Madrid
ince the wave of Jewish immigration out
of Morocco began half a century ago,
Anita Ben-Sadon has done everything she
can in Spain to preserve her Moroccan Jewish cul-
ture in her adopted homeland.
The centerpiece of her efforts has been a wedding
dress of crimson velvet, with a silk sash and golden
embroidery. She calls it the "Traje de Berberisca,"
the Berber wedding dress, because it was influenced
by the customs of Morocco's Berbers.
"My Aunt Ester used to dress all the brides in
Tangier," Ben-Sadon said. "But when she got old,
she wanted the tradition to continue, so she gave it
to me, and I've been dressing all the brides here for
the last 40 years. With the same dress."
The wedding dress, one of only two of a kind
remaining in Spain, was the centerpiece of a land-
mark exhibit last year on the life of Sephardi Jews in
northern Morocco being held at the Museo de la
Cuidad, the municipal museum of Madrid. It was
titled "The Sephardim of Northern Morocco: A
Bridge with Spain."
"It's an honor and a recognition by the govern-
ment, which has known there are Jews in Spain, but
whose politics have leaned more toward the Arab
world," said exhibit curator Yolanda Moreno Koch,
who teaches Jewish history at Madrid's
Complutense University.
The bulk of the Moroccan Sephardim moved to
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2005
48
Madrid, Barcelona and other Spanish cities after
Morocco gained its independence in 1956. More
came later after the Arab defeat by Israel in the
1967 Six-Day War fomented violence against Jews
in the Muslim African kingdom.
Before independence, Morocco was divided into
southern and northern zones that were French and
Spanish protectorates, respectively. Tangier, at
Morocco's northern tip, was an international zone.
Jews in "Spanish Morocco" and Tangier, both a
stone's throw away from the Spanish coast across
the Strait of Gibraltar, were mainly descendants of
Jews expelled from Spain in 1492.
They have prospered since coming to Spain,
mainly in business. Madrid's Jewish community
numbers 4,000 and was almost exclusively of
Sephardi origin until the recent wave of economic
refugees from Latin America, most of whom have
Ashkenazi roots.
Another 10,000 Jews live elsewhere in Spain and
in Spanish enclaves on the North African coast.
The exhibit's list of patrons included Queen Sofia,
Foreign Minister Ana Palacio and Jon Juaristi, the
director of the Cervantes Institute.
Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardon, also a
patron, told a crowd of hundreds of people assem-
bled at the inauguration that the expulsion of Jews
from Spain in 1492 was "probably the biggest mis-
take we have ever made."
"It was a disgrace for Spain, but ironically it was
beneficial for Spain in those places where Jews set-
tled," Gallardon said.
Gallardon was referring to the role that Sephardi
Jews abroad have played since expulsion, promoting
Spanish language, culture and business interests
from northern Morocco to the Balkans.
The mayor also paid tribute to the longing of this
"diaspora within a diaspora' to return to Spain, a
nation that had treated them dismally.
"The Sephardic Jews, which Spain had rejected
and expelled, kept Spain in their heart," he said.
Jacobo Israel Garzon, president of Madrid's Jewish
community, noted that the Jews in Spanish Morocco
were "a people that was very Hispanicized."
"We were a nexus between Spain and Morocco
when we were in Morocco, and we are now a nexus
with Morocco," he said, referring to the communi-
ties' links with prominent Jews still in Morocco.
The Moroccan Jewish community has shrunk to
about 4,000 from around 250,000 in 1948. But
some prominent Jews remain active in Moroccan
public life. Jewish financier Andre Azoulay is one of
King Mohammed VI's closest advisers, and Serge
Berdugo was minister of tourism under former King
Hassan II.
The Moroccan ambassador to Spain, Abdeslam
Baraka, was present at the exhibit's opening.
In an interview, the ambassador suggested that
Spain's Jewish community can play a conciliatory
role in the often thorny relations between Spain and
Morocco.
Last year, the two countries' militaries clashed
over an islet in the Strait of Gibraltar, and recrimi-
nations constantly fly back and forth over the rising
tide of illegal African immigrants crossing the strait.
"The Jewish community knows that both coun-
tries can have a relationship that is based in peace
and prosperity," the ambassador said.
Nevertheless, several speakers at the exhibit's inaugu-
ration made reference to insecurity among Moroccan
Jews after recent terrorist attacks. Last May, Al-Qaida
terrorists blew themselves up near Jewish targets and at
a Spanish restaurant, and two Jews were killed in
September in suspected terrorist murders.
Juaristi, of the Cervantes Institute, called on the
Spanish government to use its influence with the
Moroccan government to safeguard the community
and also to "recuperate the heritage that is in the
empty towns in the synagogues and cemeteries."
Some of those synagogues, with hanging gardens
of chandeliers under Moorish arches, were pictured
at the exhibit.
Other items on display included ketubot, (Jewish
wedding contracts), ornately embroidered Torah
covers and old copper Chanukah menorahs.
During the opening, Ben-Sadon basked in the
glow of a celebrity, less because of the wedding dress
than the platters of Moroccan desserts — swimming
in honey — that she had baked for the occasion.
As part of her effort to perpetuate Moroccan
Sephardi culture in Madrid, she has given classes to
young Jews in how to make the pastries.
Ben-Sadon praised the government's patronage of
the exhibit. But she said Spain can never do enough
to make up for the expulsion and the subsequent
hounding of suspected secret Jews by the
Inquisition, or, more recently, for the ban on overtly
Jewish institutions during the Catholic Church-
backed dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco,
which ended in 1975.
"Everything they do is too little, because we've
been shunned from the Inquisition, and when we
came back we were merely tolerated. But now,
thank God, there's a very big religious opening up,"
which has allowed Jewish culture to flourish again,
she said. Cl