In Memory of The American Sephardi Federation’s Vice President Florence Amzallag-Tatistcheff, A”H, a proud and elegant Moroccan Lady, a force of character who championed the classic Moroccan Sephardic tradition, the vibrancy of the Judeo-Moroccan heritage, and the cause of coexistence through her early and invaluable support of Association Mimouna ~ Elmehdi Boudra (President, Association Mimouna) and Jason Guberman-P. (Executive Director, American Sephardi Federation).
17 June 2019
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Sephardi Ideas Monthly is a continuing series of essays from the rich, multi-dimensional world of Sephardi thought that is delivered to your inbox on the second Monday of every month.
The American Sephardi Federation and Association Mimouna are hosting a unique three-day conference this month dedicated to, “Uncommon Commonalities: Jews and Muslims of Morocco.” With lectures, panel discussions, interviews, and live musical performances featuring outstanding scholars and artists from Morocco, Israel, France, Canada, Spain, and the United States, the conference, from 17-19 June, is set to explore the historical, cultural, and religious connections between Jews and Muslims who lived at the remarkable crossroads of African, Arab, Amazigh, Andalusian, and Jewish cultures that is called Morocco.
In celebration of the conference, this month’s issue of Sephardi Ideas Monthly is shining the spotlight on one of the great exemplars of the earthy, mystical, and dialogical spirit of Moroccan culture, Rabbi David Bouzaglo (1903-1975), the great 20th century practitioner of the Jewish liturgical (soul) music known as piyyut, and master of the Moroccan variation on “the songs of seeking,” to use Edwin Seroussi’s wonderful translation, known as baqqashot. But we won’t be using an article or interview to do the work. Instead, this month, R’Bouzaglo assumes center stage with Shir Yedidot (“A Song of Loves”), a 2015 documentary film dedicated to his life written and directed by Rafael Balulu. The film is largely in Hebrew, but with English subtitles.
(Photo courtesy of Docaviv)
Rabbi David Buzaglo
Bouzaglo’s life was too rich, his spirit was too raw, sensitive, and complex, and his influence on Moroccan Jewry was too deep to introduce him in a few brief paragraphs. But you have to start somewhere, so in order to offer some kind of entrance into his life, we can note that Bouzaglo was born in Zawiya, near Marrakesh, in 1903, and raised on a diet of traditional Jewish studies at which he excelled thanks in large part to his remarkable memory. In 1919 Bouzaglo moved to Casablanca, where he fell in love with Arab-Andalusian music and plied his musical trade in pious and bohemian circles. Bouzaglo began to go blind in 1949, but entire traditions continued to live in his extraordinary mind, and after moving to Israel in 1965, Bouzaglo almost single-handedly breathed new life into the baqqashot traditions practiced by Moroccan Jewish communities in Israel’s periphery. Bouzaglo’s spirit was shocked by the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and he passed away in 1975.
Tragedies and deep silences marked Bouzaglo’s life, side-by-side with the musical dialogues that he carried on with Arab and Islamic culture on the one hand and new secular Jewish cultures in North Africa and Israel, on the other. A man who enjoyed his shots of alcohol and didn’t shun pleasure, Bouaglo retreated into an increasingly mystical-spiritual world after one of his children passed away, and he adamantly refused to be recorded for most of his life. Bouzaglo’s musical legacy lives on thanks to the efforts of his many admirers and select students, including the present master of Moroccan piyyut, R’Haim Louk.
Click here to watch Shir Yeditot (“A Song of Loves”)
This very short preface will have to suffice in introducing one of the titans of contemporary Moroccan Jewry who was also one of the great figures in 20th century Jewish music. Unfortunately, not everyone can attend the upcoming conference, but we can still share its spirit, and so we invite our readers to begin exploring and enjoying Moroccan culture for themselves with Rafael Balulu’s remarkable documentary film on the life of R’ David Bouzaglo, Shir Yeditot.
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