The Archives of Morocco and the Archives of Israel signed, Wednesday in Rabat, a memorandum of understanding aimed at preserving Jewish-Moroccan memories and heritage.
The memorandum was penned during a visit to Morocco by the Director of the State Archives of Israel, Ruth Avramovitz, who chaired the official delegation. It will enable the two institutions to enrich their documentary holdings and to promote collaborative experiences in all fields relating to archival studies.
“Cooperation between Morocco and Israel will make it possible to fill certain gaps in the archives relating to Moroccan Judaism, which are currently scattered all over the world,” said director of the Moroccan Archives Jamaã Baida.
According to Baida, “The Moroccan Archives have shown great efforts to reappropriate this part of Morocco’s history, which at one time was damaged by geopolitical factors, or–in some cases–by simple negligence.”
The documentary holdings relating to Jewish-Moroccan heritage originate from the Diplomatic Archives Center of the French Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Paris-based Mémorial de la Shoah, and the Alliance Israélite Universelle, which holds millions of archives–largely in digital format–in addition to private collections donated to the institution by Jewish personalities or by their heirs.