*
.
Memories, fantasy and a touch of pop culture
sweeten a trip to Morocco.

WRITTEN BY BEN G. FRANK

C

re

1 /4.-

•

Bogey, standing on the tarmac of a
small airport in Casablanca, declares
for posterity, "Louis, I think this is
the beginning of a beautiful friend-
ship."
Or Charles Boyer, who made
famous the line, "Come with me to
the casbah," when he invited Hedy
Lamarr for a romantic interlude.
Even Bob Hope and Bing
Crosby, dressed in native jellabas,
and Dorothy Lamour, in flowing
kaftan, trekking through the Sahara.
These iconic images of Morocco
have helped to create a fantastic
picture of Africa's coastal kingdom.
Though visitors to 21st-century
Morocco won't find Bogey on the
tarmac, they will find it exudes a

Top: A Moroccan man waves greet-
ings to passersby. Left: The Great
Mosque in Casablanca.

24 •

APRIL 2007 •

platinum

magical, larger-than-life quality
nonetheless. Home to the cities of
Marrakesh, Casablanca, Fez and
Rabat, it is also a country where
Jews and Muslims have flourished
side by side for more than 1,000
years.
Called the "playground of
Europe," Morocco seems to have
it all: Geographic and climatic
contrasts that range from des-
erts to snowcapped mountains,
Mediterranean and Atlantic beaches,
green valleys and ancient forests
— and it's only nine miles across
the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain.
Take a camel ride in the desert,
including sleeping overnight in a
Berber encampment. Play golf on
fine courses in Rabat and Fez. Go
mountain climbing, hiking or skiing
in the High Atlas.
Equally impressive, Morocco has

some of the best shopping to be
found — which demands fine-tuned
bargaining skills. Stop at luxury
boutiques, or have a guide lead you
down the narrow passageways of the
medieval shuk (market) in Fez and
practice your haggling for gorgeous
and colorful rugs, jewelry, leather
goods and wood carvings — all of
which you can watch being made on
premises.
The first Jewish communities in
North Africa date from the destruc-
tion of the Temple in Jerusalem by
Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE. At
one time, Morocco was the home of
a great and learned Jewish commu-
nity of more than 300,000 members.
In the decades following World War
II, much of that population emi-
grated to Israel, France, Canada and
the United States; today, fewer than
3,000 Jews remain.