In Search of Matrouz: Andalusian Piyyut Through the Eyes of a Non-Jewish Moroccan

For the past year, Sephardi Ideas Monthly has been exploring the historical, cultural, religious, and aesthetic aspects of piyyut, Sephardi liturgical poetry and (soul) music. One theme of these explorations has been the receptivity and cultural richness that characterizes piyyut, an art form that has been informed by generations of inter-cultural exchange.

Click here to delve into a panorama of the Haim Pinto Synagogue, Essaouira, Morocco (Photo courtesy of Josh Shamsi/Diarna Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life)

Click here to delve into a panorama of the Haim Pinto Synagogue, Essaouira, Morocco (Photo courtesy of Josh Shamsi/Diarna Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life)

This richness is particularly true of Andalusian piyyut (see: “The Lost Andalusian Jewish Culture”) and is exemplified today in the work of contemporary Moroccan-Jewish interpreters of the Andalusian tradition, such as Rabbi Haim Louk (see: “No Greater Love”) and Omer Avital (see: “Jazz, Piyyut and Jewish Identity”).

Note, however, that this openness and receptivity is also a characteristically Moroccan trait. And so for the month of May, Sephardi Ideas Monthly is stepping outside of the Jewish circle to explore how non-Jewish Moroccans, fellow lovers of Andalusian art, relate to piyyut.
 
The notion that non-Jewish Moroccans are interested in Andalusian Jewish culture might sound strange in our day and age. After all, isn’t the Middle East, from North African to Iran, being overrun by a tidal wave of intolerance? Indeed it is, especially in the lands between Beirut and Baghdad and Bushehr. But this isn’t the whole story. Consider the following.

In early 2016 Moroccan religious authorities, together with the Moroccan government, issued the Marakkesh Declaration, a call to Muslims to recognize the rights of religious minorities. Walking the walk, King Muhammad VI has restored 167 Jewish cemeteries across the country. Morocco’s latest constitutional reforms already recognize Morocco’s Jewish heritage.  

ASF Vice President Florence Amzallag-Tatistcheff speaking at the ASF-Association Mimouna Moroccan Jewish Caravan, Congregation Shearith Israel: The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, 22 October 2014 (Photo courtesy of PAYAM Studio). Elmehdi Boudra, Mimouna’s Founder and President, looks on….

ASF Vice President Florence Amzallag-Tatistcheff speaking at the ASF-Association Mimouna Moroccan Jewish Caravan, Congregation Shearith Israel: The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, 22 October 2014 (Photo courtesy of PAYAM Studio). Elmehdi Boudra, Mimouna’s Founder and President, looks on….

Likewise, in 2007 a group of non-Jewish students from al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane established the Mimouna Club (now known as Association Mimouna), named after the Jewish post-Passover celebration, in order to celebrate Moroccan Jewish culture. And if you’re looking for the only Jewish museum in the Middle East outside of Israel, then you’ve got go to Casablanca, home to “The Museum of Moroccan Judaism.”

Special Photographic Feature: Moroccan Event Highlights Since the ASF-Association Mimouna Moroccan Jewish Caravan in 2014, there have been a series of events attesting to the good and growing bonds between the diverse Jewish and Moroccan communities in America. On May 17th, ASF, AJC ACCESS NY, Assoiciation Mimouna, and the Moroccan community in New York will be hosting “From Casablanca to NYC: A Night of Moroccan Culture.”   Peter Geffen/Kivunim held an historic Convocation to honor the memory of King Mohammed V of Morocco with the first Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr./Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Award, 20 December 2015 (Photo courtesy of Kivunim). Dignitaries pictured here include: Her Highness, Princess Lalla Hasna of Morocco; The Hon. André Azoulay, Counselor to the King; Rachad Bouhlal, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco to the United States; Omay Hilale, Morocco’s Ambassador to the UN; Serge Berdugo, The Kingdom of Morocco’s Ambassador-at-Large and President of the Moroccan Jewish Communities; and Mohammed Benabdeljalil, Counsul General of Morocco at New York

Special Photographic Feature: Moroccan Event Highlights

Since the ASF-Association Mimouna Moroccan Jewish Caravan in 2014, there have been a series of events attesting to the good and growing bonds between the diverse Jewish and Moroccan communities in America. On May 17th, ASF, AJC ACCESS NY, Assoiciation Mimouna, and the Moroccan community in New York will be hosting “From Casablanca to NYC: A Night of Moroccan Culture.”
 

Peter Geffen/Kivunim held an historic Convocation to honor the memory of King Mohammed V of Morocco with the first Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr./Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Award, 20 December 2015 (Photo courtesy of Kivunim). Dignitaries pictured here include: Her Highness, Princess Lalla Hasna of Morocco; The Hon. André Azoulay, Counselor to the King; Rachad Bouhlal, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco to the United States; Omay Hilale, Morocco’s Ambassador to the UN; Serge Berdugo, The Kingdom of Morocco’s Ambassador-at-Large and President of the Moroccan Jewish Communities; and Mohammed Benabdeljalil, Counsul General of Morocco at New York

Moroccan young professionals and members of Association Mimouna with Kuwaiti superstar and 2016 Pomegranate Award winner Ema Shah and ASF Executive Director, Jason Guberman-P., at the Midnight Orchestra After Party, 19th NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival, 16 March 2016 (Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)

Moroccan young professionals and members of Association Mimouna with Kuwaiti superstar and 2016 Pomegranate Award winner Ema Shah and ASF Executive Director, Jason Guberman-P., at the Midnight Orchestra After Party, 19th NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival, 16 March 2016 (Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)

Simo El Aissaoui and AJC ACCESS NY Board member Irina Tuskerman co-organize monthly meet-ups for young professionals from Morocco and various Jewish organizations in New York City in order to cultivate new relationships as a “counterweight to the stagnant model of intercultural and interfaith dialogues that have become so popular within the NGO world” (Photo courtesy of Irina Tsukerman)

Simo El Aissaoui and AJC ACCESS NY Board member Irina Tuskerman co-organize monthly meet-ups for young professionals from Morocco and various Jewish organizations in New York City in order to cultivate new relationships as a “counterweight to the stagnant model of intercultural and interfaith dialogues that have become so popular within the NGO world” (Photo courtesy of Irina Tsukerman)

Beginning in 2003 the Moroccan town of Essaouira has been hosting the annual Festival des Andalousies Atlantiques,  a musical extravaganza that celebrates, among other things, “the legacy of the Judaeo-Arabic musical tradition.” Of course, much of that tradition has been preserved in piyyut, and Andalusian piyyut has accordingly been featured at the festival.

So what happens when a non-Jewish Moroccan listens to Andalusian piyyut? One intriguing answer to that question is found in this month’s feature essay, “In Search of Sonic Translation,” Mohamed Belmaaza’s account of the 2013 Festival des Andalousies Atlantiques.

Israeli-Moroccan musician Neta Elkayam performing at the Festival des Andalousies Atlantiques, Essaouira, Morocco, 2013. In 2014, Haaretz critic Ben Shalev selected Howa Jani (“He has come to me”), a contemporary Andalusian composition written by Elkayam’s partner, Amit Hai Cohen, as one of the top ten songs of 2014-15

Belmaaza opens his essay by reporting on a 9:00 PM concert starring the “renowned” Orchestra of Fes that also featured a number of guest Israeli musicians, including the payytan Benjamin Bouzaglo. The concert was intended, writes Belmaaza, as “a tribute to a ‘golden age’ during which Muslims and Jews coexisted in harmony.” Evoking such harmony as a particularly Moroccan ideal, much of Belmaaza’s article revolves around the concept of “matrouz,” an Arabic term that literally means “embroidered” and that refers to “a Moroccan-Jewish tradition based on the interweaving of different concepts and ideas – Judaism with Islam, Arabic with Hebrew, the sacred with the profane.” 

Exemplifying the tradition of “matrouz,” Belmaaza participated in Shabbat prayers at the local synagogue in Essaouira , where “The divine voice of Benjamin Bouzaglo blessed the prayer.” Although Belmaaza was unacquainted with the service, the Moroccan piyyutim proved to be comfortingly familiar: “I’d like to think my experience was not so different from that of my Jewish friends. Interspersing rhythms from well-known Moroccan love songs, Benjamin made me feel at home, even though I didn’t understand the Hebrew words.” 

But Belmaaza doesn’t just leave it at the level of aesthetic or cultural pleasure. Recognizing the religious content of the piyyutim, he soon found himself carried away by the sacred intention articulated in a Moroccan mode: “The religious sentiments of the song, mixed with the sacred atmosphere and the familiar Moroccan sounds combined for a divine experience, to say the least, which left me in a trance.” 

While Belmaaza was entranced by the Shabbat service, he still concludes his essay on a sober note: “This year’s Festival des Andalusies Atlantiques came only a few weeks after a law was being debated in the Moroccan Parliament that would boycott every single aspect of cooperation with Israel.” The boycott was defeated—the yearly festivals continue and thousands of Israelis visit Morocco to celebrate Judeo-Moroccan ‘saints’—but only time will tell if Morocco has indeed found an alternative way, based upon a humane interpretation of Islam, to chart a more tolerant future. It should be noted that thoughtful people have questioned the efficacy of the Marrakesh Declaration, while some Moroccan Amazigh intellectuals have lobbied for thoroughly separating Islam from the state.

In the interim, however, thoughtful Jews should be able to recognize that the cultural richness that characterizes Andalusian piyyut also animates the contemporary Moroccan celebration of the country’s Jewish heritage. And in order to better appreciate this characteristically Moroccan openness and receptivity, Sephardi Ideas Monthly invites you to read Mohamed Belmaaza’s account of the 2013 Andalusia-Atlantic Festival, “In Search of Sonic Translation.”

Sephardic Dynasties: Irish Crypto Rabbis with a Converso Twist

May 19th at 6:30PM
Center for Jewish History 
15 West 16th Street, New York City

Presented by The Center for Jewish History’s Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute and The American Sephardi Federation

Sarina Roffé, founder of the Sephardic Heritage Project and an expert on Brooklyn’s Sephardic Jewish community, traces the journey of the Kassins, a rabbinic dynasty with rumored Converso heritage, from Spain to modern Brooklyn, using traditional genealogy methodology as well as DNA testing. Roffé also explores the claims that some descendants are rabbis who serve a secret Jewish community in Ireland. The last descendant of the Kassins is currently serving as Chief Rabbi of Brooklyn’s Sephardic community.

Please click here to RSVP

Greek Jewish Festival

May 22nd from 12-6PM
at the Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue & Museum
280 Broome St 
 

Join ASF at the Greek Jewish Festival as we celebrate the unique Romaniote and Sephardic heritage of the Lower East Side. Experience authentic kosher Greek foods and homemade Greek pastries, traditional Greek dancing and live Greek and Sephardic music, an outdoor marketplace full of vendors, arts and educational activities for kids, and much more!

Othello by William Shakespeare
in a Moroccan Adaptation

June 16th, 23rd, 26th, 28th and 30th
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street, New York City

ASF’s theatrical season (Merchant of Venice, Nabucco) concludes with David Serero’s Othello, a Moroccan adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic play about love and war, reason and race, fortuna and virtù. The production features Serero (as Othello), a diverse cast, and traditional music.
 

Please click here to purchase tickets
(General Admission $26; VIP $36)

Portugal, The Last Hope: Sousa Mendes’ Visas for Freedom

April 7th through September 9th
Center for Jewish History 
15 West 16th Street, New York City

The American Sephardi Federation, Portuguese Consulate of New York, the Sousa Mendes Foundation, and the Municipality of Almeida, Portugal proudly present a new exhibition in the Leon Levy Gallery honoring Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the courageous and creative Portuguese diplomat who saved Salvador Dali, the authors of Curious George, and thousands of other Holocaust refugees.
 

Please click here for viewing hours

$72

($54 tax-deductible)

Contact us by email or phone (917.606.8266) to sponsor future issues of the Sephardi Ideas Monthly in honor or memory of loved ones. 

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