This collection of family trees, as well as its extensive photographic material, has been entered into the Beit Hatefutsot database and currently is accessible to all onsite researchers.

Hundreds of Sephardic surnames and tens of thousands of individuals from all over the Jewish world are recorded on family trees spanning up to 500 years in the Georgette and Raphael Cohen collection from Meknes, Morocco, held by the Douglas E. Goldman Genealogy Center at Beit Hatefutsot—The Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. This collection of family trees, as well as its extensive photographic material, has been entered into the Beit Hatefutsot database and currently is accessible to all onsite researchers. A searchable index of all individuals mentioned in the family trees will be available by the end of 2009 at <www.sephardicgen.com>. Selected items from the collection have been published on the pages of the Douglas E. Goldman Jewish Genealogy Center on Facebook.

A native of Meknes, Raphael Cohen started his career as an educator at the Alliance Israelite Universelle (AIU) school in the city, and he has held a number of leadership positions in the community. In the late 1960s, he and his family immigrated to Canada. During the 1990s, Cohen dedicated much of his time and effort to document and preserve the rich heritage of the Jewish community of Meknes, amassing an impressive collection of family trees with the collaboration of relatives and friends from around the world.

In 1993, an Israeli cousin, a member of the Toledano family, sent Cohen a copy of Sefer Peh-Yesharim, a book of commentaries to the Hagaddah shel Pesach, by Rabbi Habib ben R. Eliezer Toledano (ca. 1800–70), first edition published in 1838 in Livorno and reprinted in Israel in 1991. The book contains a reconstruction of the Toledano family’s genealogy back to its earliest known origins in early 16th-century Salonika, then a city in the Ottoman Empire that had became home to many Jewish refugees from Spain. As was customary in many traditional genealogies, however, this genealogy of the illustrious Toledano family omits any mention of the women of the family, including Esther Toledano, Cohen’s mother. The omission triggered Cohen’s desire to research the history of the Toledano family and to add the missing information.

Typical of many other Jewish families, the history of the Toledano family of Meknes is intermingled with that of other Jewish families of that city and beyond. Given the high incidence of Meknes Jews marrying members of their own extended families or members of the local community, a genealogical study of any particular family in the community inevitably leads to an inquiry into the ancestry of other local families. The close relationships and friendships among the local families, along with the proximity of their homes, synagogues, schools, and shops, all assured a high degree of intimacy within the local community. In addition to the information he received from his family and friends and the study of older archives as well as modern bibliography, Cohen’s personal life story has contributed a great deal to his vast genealogical knowledge of Meknes families. His experiences as a young teacher at the local AIU school and his activities in several youth and other communal organizations were instrumental in helping him acquire a deep understanding of the family and social networks of the community. Further research and collaboration by many family members added significant information, especially about events during the years that followed Jewish mass emigration from Morocco after the country acquired its independence in 1956 and the dispersion of the members of the Meknes community and their families throughout the world.

The information is written in French with occasional Hebrew, English, and Arabic phrases. Although it cannot be described as academic research, the information is based on extensive bibliography of works in French, English, and Hebrew. Numerous interviews conducted with relatives and friends provided invaluable assistance, and occasionally chapters from their own research into the heritage and history of the Jewish families of Meknes have been included. The exact date and place of the birth, marriage, and death of all individuals recorded on the family trees are provided whenever available. The chronology of the other individuals was reconstructed empirically from the known family context with the addition of such remarks as “before,” “about,” and “after.” Every biography included in the family trees is supported by full citations. The material is divided into digital family trees and books that include in-depth histories of the prominent Jewish families of Meknes and essays into the history of the local community. Every book is dedicated to a particular extended family. Each book opens with a short methodological introduction entitled Lisez-moi auparavant (“read me first”) that identifies the specific research difficulties and other methodological explanations required to understand the material. The books always contain detailed contents and useful indexes of individuals, place names, occupations, and other personal information. Every family book has at least 300 pages; some have three or four times that amount.

Contents of the Collection

The Georgette and Raphael Cohen collection covers the ancestry of prominent Jewish families from the ancient Jewish community of Meknes arranged by extended families. Among these families are the Abergel, Abehsera (Abouhatsera), Amar, Attias, Azerrad, Azogui, Barchechath, Benabou, Benamara-Benamram, Benarrosh, BenAttar, Benchetrit, Benchimol, Benhaïm, Bensimhon, Berdugo, Boussidan, Cohen, Ederhy-Derhy, Elgrabli, Elhadad, Elkhrief, Hassarfaty-Serfati, Hassine, Kessous-Gozlan, Loubaton, Messas, Mrejen, Nahmani, Ohana, Sebbag Soudry, and Toledano families, to cite the surnames of only the main extended families. The history of each extended family is detailed in a family tree that, in addition to extensive genealogical charts generally featuring more than 1,000 members, also includes explanations of the meaning and origin of the family name, histories of the family, traditions and legends related to members of the family, biographies, documents, letters, and a large number of photographs. Each family tree generally covers the past two centuries and, in some cases, spans as many as 500 years from the time their earliest known ancestors left the Iberian Peninsula.

The addition of visual documentation is one of the main features of the collection. The huge number of photographs includes personal portraits, many from the first half of the 20th century, photographs of relevant documents such as ancient ketubbot (marriage contracts), drawings of family homes, historical photographs, and photographs of the graves of famous rabbis. The stories of these families are indistinguishable from the general history of Sephardic settlement in Morocco, its relationships with other parts of the Sephardic diaspora in North Africa, the Land of Israel, and elsewhere in the Jewish world, and the new dispersion in the second half of the 20th century following mass emigration from Morocco.

The genealogical survey does not end, however, with the mass emigration from Morocco. Cohen’s research into the genealogy of the Jews of Meknes continues with regular updates to the existing family trees and the addition of new ones. A close look at the biography of the former members of the community of Meknes and their descendants reveals a typical Jewish story of dispersal of siblings and cousins over distant places on three continents. The comparative study of the family trees is useful for a sociological inquiry into the fortunes of the last emigrant generations. Many of the Jews from Meknes have succeeded in their new homes: they pursue successful careers as physicians, lawyers, community leaders, rabbis, industrialists, and scholars. These achievements are especially impressive for a first generation of immigrants; most American Jews managed to achieve similar success only after two or three generations.

History of Jewish Meknes

The genealogical study of the Jewish families of Meknes serves as an additional helpful source for the research into the history of this Jewish community, long recognized as one of the most influential in Morocco and in the whole of North Africa. Meknes, one of the four cities that at different times in the past served as the capital of Morocco, has harbored a Jewish community since the Middle Ages. Following their expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula, many Spanish Jews settled in Meknes, strongly influencing the life of the local community. The city flourished in the seventeenth century. Sultan Moulay Ismail (1672–1727) of the newly established Alaouite dynasty, which still rules Morocco, turned Meknes into his capital in 1672. Seven years later, after the older Jewish quarters were destroyed to make place for the new buildings erected by Moulay Ismail, the Jews of Meknes were compelled to move to a mellah, as Jewish neighborhoods were known in Morocco. The Jews enjoyed the sultan’s protection in exchange for high taxes, but unlike other cities in Morocco, the location of the mellah of Meknes was distant from the royal palace. Despite restrictions, the relative prosperity of Meknes continued to attract Jewish settlers from all over Morocco.

The Jews of Meknes did not always lead tranquil lives. Toward the end of the 18th century they were affected by the anti-Jewish persecutions of Sultan Moulay Yazid (1790–92). Despite renewed attacks on the Jews of Meknes in the early 19th century (three synagogues were burned down in the riots of 1811), Jewish immigration to Meknes from other regions of Morocco grew late in that century. During that period, a relatively large group of Jews from Meknes immigrated to the Land of Israel, well before the Zionist waves of immigration, and settled in Tiberias.

French influence in Morocco and, then, the establishment of the French protectorate in 1912 provoked opposition to French rule among the local Muslim population. On many occasions, anti-French anger was directed against the Jews, and in Meknes it resulted in attacks and riots against the local Jewish community. In 1912, an estimated 150 Jews were killed in an attack on the mellah. Meknes is the only city in Morocco where a new mellah (known as mellah jdid) was established in the late 1920s during the years of the French protectorate. For most of the first half of the 20th century, Meknes was the home of a vibrant Jewish community. The old mellah had 19 synagoguges; the new mellah had 17.

After the late 1950s, following the end of the French rule in Morocco, the majority of the local Jews left the country with most settling in France, Israel, and North America. In 2009, about 200 Jews lived in Meknes. Two local cemeteries contain the graves of a number of venerated rabbis, among them Rabbi Haim Messas, Rabbi R. David Boussidan, and Rabbi Raphael Berdugo.

Jews of Morocco

Moroccan Jews tended to adopt surnames earlier than many Ashkenazic Jews. A survey of the surnames in the Cohen collection reveals the Iberian origin of many of the Jewish families of Meknes as reflected in names such as Berdugo, Serfati, and Toledano. Other family names are based either on the local Arabic dialect or a dialect of the Berber languages spoken widely in Morocco, including by many Jews. The family name Boussidan, for example, consists of the Arabic prefix “bou-” (western Arabic for “abou” = “father of“) and a derivation of another Arabic word, “sudan“, meaning the “south” (literally, “the country of the blacks“). The book on the Boussidan family genealogy mentions circumstances of the arrival and settling in Meknes in 1780 of Rabbi David (also Daoud or Daouad) Boussidan, along with some 150 members of his community after they had been expelled from their homes in the village of Tamlilt in the Sahara. Although not part of Cohen’s project, the collection of family trees provides researchers of Jewish surnames with a gold mine for inquiries into the origins of family names used by the Jews of Morocco, the time and the circumstances of their adoption, traditions connected with them, and the way in which the surnames were transmitted over generations.

The collection also includes statistical data on specific families. The book dedicated to the Mrejen family lists the dispersion of living members of the family in the year 2000. Of a total of 770 living individuals (396 men and 374 women), the largest number lived in France (380 individuals), closely followed by Israel (351). Ten additional individuals lived in Canada, five in the United Kingdom, two in Morocco, seven in Switzerland, nine in the United States, one in Japan, one in Hong Kong, and four in Spain.

Visual Documentation

Visual documentation represents a significant element of the collection. Cohen expended tremendous resources to add photographs to the family trees, and there are thousands of them, all displayed by Beit Hatefutsot’s new computer system. In addition, the collection includes many items of interest on the general history of the Jewish community of Meknes, including a rare collection of photographs documenting the life of the local Jewish community during the 1950s, shortly before the mass emigration. One item of special interest is a copy of a photograph album, one of twelve copies made in 1960.

The collection includes other important visual material that helps to illuminate the heritage of the Jews of Meknes. The family tree of the Soudry family, for instance, boasts recent photographs of Dar Bouy Ishoa Soudry, one of the homes of the Soudry family, an ancient edifice built in a typical Moorish design richly decorated with mosaics and wood carvings. The book of the Berdugo family incorporates a reproduction of a Hebrew document from 1840, itself based on earlier sources, attesting that the Berdugo family of Meknes descends from the Exilarch Bostanai (aka Bustenai), son of Hananiah (the first exilarch under Muslim rule, who lived in the middle of the seventh century), himself known as a descendant of King David.

The collection is an important source for the study of some major rabbinical families of Morocco, with photographic material and stories in addition to detailed genealogical charts. For instance, the book dedicated to the Amar family mentions the activities of Rabbi Abraham Amar (1811–71), president of the rabbinical court of Meknes. Rabbi Abraham Amar was involved in a prolonged dispute with the rabbis of Tiberias, who allegedly discriminated against the Jews from Meknes who had settled in the city, although they received significant support from the Jewish community of Meknes.

The addition of the Georgette and Raphael Cohen collection to the Beit Hatefutsot database substantially enriches research possibilities by creating links between various types of information. For example, a documentary movie about the Elhaddad family of Meknes, produced in 1980 and depicting the fate of ten children who left Meknes to settle in Israel and France, may be better understood after the inclusion of the genealogy of the Elhaddad family. On the other hand, their family tree is itself enriched with visual documentation. The same is true of the museum’s photographic collections. Various members of the Jewish community of Meknes who appear in old photographs can now be seen in their family context.

The collection of family trees, as well as extensive photographic materials, has been entered into the Beit Hatefutsot database and is accessible to all researchers at the museum. A searchable index of all individuals in the family trees is going to be placed on <sephardicgen.com>. The index includes all basic information available for the deceased individuals, names of all living individuals, and the registration numbers of their respective family trees at the genealogical database of Beit Hatefutsot.

Horia Haim Ghiuzeli is director of the Databases Department, including the Douglas E. Goldman Jewish Genealogy Center, at Beit Hatefutsot—The Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, Israel.