Nationalism and Jewish Identity in Morocco

A History of a Minority Community

Kristin Hissong

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781838607401
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Jewish History
• Index: History

Moroccan Jews can trace their heritage in Morocco back 2000 years. In French Protectorate Morocco (1912-56) there was a community of over 200, 000 Jews, but today only a small minority remains.
This book writes Morocco's rich Jewish heritage back into the protectorate period. The book explains why, in the years leading to independence, the country came to construct a national identity that centered on the Arab-Islamic notions of its past and present at the expense of its Jewish history and community. The book provides analysis of the competing nationalist narratives that played such a large part in the making of Morocco's identity at this time: French cultural-linguistic assimilation, Political Zionism, and Moroccan nationalism. It then explains why the small Jewish community now living in Morocco has become a source of national pride.
At the heart of the book are the interviews with Moroccan Jews who lived during the French Protectorate, remain in Morocco, and who can reflect personally on everyday Jewish life during this era. Combing the analysis of the interviews, archived periodicals, colonial documents and the existing literature on Jews in Morocco, Kristin Hissong's book illuminates the reality of this multi-ethnic nation-state and the vital role memory plays in its identity.

Part I

Nationalism Foundations and Theory

1

What, When, and Who Is the Nation?

In working toward defining the nation, objective and subjective criteria that form the basis of individual identities and collective identities may include “religion, language, or race . . . self-awareness, solidarity, self-defined, or other-defined, etc.”¹ To this list, the concepts of state, nation, and ethnic group are equally important and their distinctions often subtle. While some ethnic groups transformed into nations in the modern era, others, due to “territorial dispersion, lack of political ambition or low level of self-consciousness did not.”² Furthermore, where many ethnic groups achieved nationhood, not all achieved modern nation-statehood, one timely mention being the Scottish people. In the last several decades, scholarly literature in the field of identity, ethnicity, and nationalism has continued to expand.³ As a result, various theories of the nation and nationalism exist, to be discussed in detail in Chapter 2, and much work has been focused on developing normative approaches toward these entities of state, nation, and ethnic group. To fully understand these concepts and their demographic, cultural, political, and economic consequences, it is first necessary to explore the discourse regarding individual and collective identity.

Though identity as an academic metric has been debated and challenged by some,⁴ identity and the social norms which inform it continue to pervade the arts and humanities and social sciences. For instance, the disciplines of economy, sociology, anthropology, and history study the way in which social norms inform behavior, motivate action, shape culture, and connect previous and future generations. When approaching a study of the nation and nationalism, one cannot overlook its component parts: the institutions and actors of which it is comprised. Therefore, to deconstruct the nation into its many collectives, one must address the individuals that make up those collectives. Many scholars approach their study of identity in its societal setting where identity is formed, influenced, shaped, and acted out in social mediation.⁵ Extending upon this notion, Avishai Margalit and Josheph Raz introduced the idea of encompassing groups of belonging in which Charles Taylor, and later David Brown, would build with work on the importance of recognition.⁶ In acknowledging the powerful presence that society has in shaping both individual and collective identities, these scholars and many of their contemporaries continue to work on the plurality of identity.⁷ National identity is one of the characteristics that construct plural identity. Leading works on the nation and nationalism debate whether or not the national connection is a modern phenomenon, though most acknowledge that the present world organization of nation-state borders is a modern construction.⁸ Drawing upon the existing literature and applying it to the case of French Protectorate Morocco, the work herein tests and bridges theories of identity, nationhood, and nationalism.

Illustrating its relevance and significance, scholarly interest in the study of identity spans across not only the arts and humanities and social science disciplines but also studies of genetic and ancestry biological studies and psychology. The relationship between deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and culture, for instance, raises multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary questions about how societies are connected and why humans behave the way they behave and think the way they think. A recent account attempting to explore these questions is Kenneally’s Invisible History of the Human Race ⁹ which examines the connections of individual and collective identity between and across generations, reviewing events of the past with the aid of DNA evidence and the sequencing of the human genome. The scientific precision with which these genetic indicators may be forecasted is fashionable of late; perhaps this is due to the new certainty it can confer on ancestral heritage and health risks when linking past, present, and future or perhaps because modern technology has created a society wherein one desires to track each detail of human existence in a mobile application. Nevertheless, a linguist and journalist herself, Kenneally acknowledges that genetic material takes on meaning only in the story of the people who embody it. The suggestion that one’s identity is shaped by one’s genetic inheritance overlooks the complex plurality and context-dependent fluidity of identity.

Indeed, beyond genetic inheritance, identity is constructed and maintained in one’s social context: “It is not the attribute that makes the group, but the group and group-differences that make the attribute significant.”¹⁰ Economist and philosopher Amartya Sen, whose capability approach will be drawn upon in detail in Chapter 6, furthers the socially shaped plurality of identity adding the factor of an individual’s ability and freedom for reasoning and choice in one’s identity. The focus on genetic makeup overlooks the many intangibles that are passed down between generations and among encompassing groups of belonging such as memory and narrative. What is passed down is not only economic and political infrastructure or roads, railways, and utilities but also types of intangible infrastructure “brought about by human resources” such as cultural values and education.¹¹ In heterogeneous societies where various influences and people coexist, such as nearly all nation-states, studies of identity cannot be complete without deep understanding of the memories, narratives, and human capabilities¹² present from those who live the identities in question.

Further escalating interest in nationalist identity and narrative is the notion of the right to self-determination and universal human rights that has spread in its discourse and application since the conclusion of each world war, respectively, and continued to grow in the civil rights and anti-colonial struggles in the decades following. In this rhetoric, nations are “encouraged to look to their future” rather than the past, to “treasure cultural diversity (past and present) rather than homogeneity, to recognize the autonomy claims of minorities,” and be open to foreign influences.¹³ In an increasingly globalized world, these issues remain relevant with new studies appearing in citizenship, border, and migration studies. The universality of self-determination, human rights, and future-oriented solidarity undermines the glue of indigenous legitimacy and emotive power that nationalism theorists claim ethnic groups bring to the narrative. States where a dominant ethnic group holds the demographic or politico-economic power provide exciting case studies for how dominant ethnic groups can negotiate or circumvent “new global structures and values.”¹⁴

Self-assigned or state-applied identity labels and language do not help to account for the diversity of nations or members of nation-states. If one refers to the ‘Arab people,’ this term does not reflect the varying “ethnicity, religion, nationalism, and race that produces the entire range of human passions”¹⁵ among this label. The Israeli-Arab conflict since the creation of the modern State of Israel has led to an opposing dichotomy of Jewish and Arab identities that ignores those among the ‘Arab people’ who would identify as Jews. Though scholarly literature addresses his history, “Many who have studied the modern history of the Middle East and North Africa have been caught in the western European mode of interpretation, which focuses on the familiar trajectory of modern Jewish history: from emancipation to assimilation, from anti-Semitism to Zionism.”¹⁶ As a result, non-Western or non-Ashkenazi Jews become grouped under the term ‘Mizrahi’ (oriental), and their history is then shaped by the influence of the West and the State of Israel. The Maghreb (generally considered to encompass Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, though frequently used interchangeably with the term ‘North Africa’), and Morocco in particular, highlights the coming together of multiple identities and narratives. Located geographically and demographically between Africa and the Middle East and, equally, the Arab world and Europe, Morocco’s internal diversity is no less significant. Though the Morocco of 1956, and the years leading to independence in this year, came to construct and develop a nationalist narrative that centered on Arab-Islamic notions of its past and present, Morocco is a suitable case for comparative religious studies with its heterogeneous Berber, Jewish, Muslim, and colonial influences.

In order to explore the complexities of nation and other kindred concepts like ethnicity, culture, and national identity in Protectorate Morocco, it is necessary to first understand the foundation of the terms and ideologies at play. While the ideas of nation-state and nationalism have come to be viewed by many in the West as an omnipresent, inherent attribute of humanity, it is only in hindsight that these labels can be applied to pre-eighteenth-century and non-Western societies with their modern meaning. The purpose of this chapter is to address the foundations of the concepts of identity, nationhood, memory, and ethnicity in order to begin to understand how these concepts affect the development of the nation-state and the contrasting narratives its citizens share with the state.

Inherent in the conceptualization of various forms of collective identity (national, ethnic, etc.) is the individual identities that comprise these collectives. With that in mind, it is necessary to remember identity, narrative, and the role of memory throughout the discussion of nation, ethnicity, and national identity; in doing so, attempts toward a normative approach for nations and nationalism will include a transparent path regarding the application of terms and meanings. This understanding of the historical and ideological roots of these terms will be crucial in the discussion and analysis of Jewish and Arab ethnicity in the development of nationalist narratives during the French Protectorate and will provide unique and thorough perspective upon which to reflect when meeting interview participants in Chapter 6.

Individual identity does not develop in a vacuum but is rather linked to society and social relations producing socially shaped identity. Indeed, identity is a “complex, evolving, multilayered, and situational relationship between an individual and the group, or groups, to which he or she relates.”¹⁷ Identity formation comes from both self-perception and societal influence that may arise frequently through the negation of other. This highlights the role of society in the development of an individual identity in the way that each individual is shaped by, and for, the society: “Society expects from each of its members a certain kind of behavior, imposing innumerable and various rules, all of which tend to ‘normalize’ its members, to make them behave, to exclude spontaneous action or outstanding achievement.”¹⁸ This includes forms of discontent that are recognized as important motivators for ethnic, collective action alongside, or in combination with, other facilitating factors such as mobilizing resources.¹⁹

If identity is understood as the outcome of exclusionary practices in which the ‘inside’ is threatened by the ‘outside,’ the role of the outsider is equally influential and important in the shaping of the insider’s identity. This is a daily process of operating within a society; through a matter of symbols and appearances we see “people with names that sound like mine, with the same colour skin, with the same affinities, even the same infirmities, it is possible for me to feel that that gathering represents me” and a continual process of identifying, or not, is taking place.²⁰ Tajfel defines social identity as “that part of an individual’s self-concept which derives from his knowledge of his membership of a social group (or groups) together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership.”²¹ This social view of individual identity stresses that it is one’s belonging to collectives that informs self-perception and, further, action. This outward identity theory, in which individual identities are socially influenced, allows for both personal and social self-perceptions but argues that personal self-perception is highly informed by social norms and belonging where one perceives herself in terms of relevant group memberships. Honneth’s work on identity formation explains this personal to social connection in terms of self-confidence, self-respect, and self-esteem.²² These modes of self-perception and recognition are acquired and maintained in relation to the other so that personal identity recognition is dependent on the establishment of relationships.

This theory of recognition,²³ situated in greater discussion of critical theory and social justice, fits in outward identity and, for the purpose of exploring identity as a metric of analysis and practice, aids in examining the relationship between identity and belonging. These social relationships are referred to by Margalit and Raz as “encompassing groups.”²⁴ Encompassing groups share many characteristics: common culture, mutual recognition, membership based on belonging rather than achievement, and group-related symbols to enable mutual recognition;²⁵ these characteristics will resonate in the discussion of nationhood to follow. The group characteristics are not fixed but “in flux in relation to other socio-economic and political processes and situations, rather than a distinct unit with an essential identity.”²⁶

Taylor questions the link between recognition and identity to the extent that recognition, and the possibility of misrecognition or lacking recognition, can be destructive to identity. Challenging the view of individualized identity where one’s unique selfhood is authentic, an ideal that will emerge again when examining Rousseau and Herder, he labels this a modern phenomenon that came with the late eighteenth century.²⁷ To the extent that identity is dialogical, it is socially molded; however, the ideal of authenticity undermines socially derived identity in that it calls on the individual to discover her own way of being and this necessitates inward identity. Discovering one’s identity does not imply that it happens in isolation, rather that the individual negotiates identity dialogically both internally and with others. Taylor offers an example: “If so...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I Nationalism Foundations and Theory
• Part II Jewish Morocco Historical Background
• Part III Jewish Moroccan Voices
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright