36-Hour Excursion to Oujda!

This weekend I joined my cousin Jeremy on his trip to Oujda. He is doing an independent study research project on Jewish migration from Morocco, and Oujda used to have a huge Jewish population so we went their to do some research. We left Rabat on Friday night at 10:25 p.m. and took an overnight train to Oujda (the eastern most city in Morocco, on the Algerian border). The cabins were really cool, they were small but somehow managed to have a little bench, sink, trash, mirror and on either side there was lofted beds. The bed’s were pretty comfy and had sheets, blankets and pillows already on them. They even gave us a little kit of toiletries. There was a personal attendant that woke us up in the morning when we arrived in Oujda (all of 7:00 a.m.) and brought us coffee and croissants. It was a really interesting experience, but smooth, and easy nonetheless! We arrived in Oujda early in the morning and walked around for a while exploring the city while we attempted to find out hotel without a cab. We ended up walking way too far since our hotel turned out to be practically next to the train station, but we got a nice tour of the city in the meantime. We were allowed to check in right when we got there which was nice so we were able to put our bags down and relax for a while before some more exploring. An hour or so later we were out exploring the medina. I have noticed that the medina’s in all of the cities I have been to so far have all had similarities and differences about them. This medina was pretty and reminded me more of a flea market than the others. It was not too big but it was lively and exciting nonetheless.

Jeremy had gotten the name of a Jewish woman named Sara in the city who he was told we should
contact with questions. As we were walking, he realized he forgot her phone number back at the hotel; we only had her address. After much debate, we finally decided to just knock on her door. Two women (who we later found out were not even Sara) let us in after Jeremy explained how we got Sara’s name. They spoke not a word of English, so luckily Jeremy is pretty great at Arabic and got us by. We sat and talked to these two women for over an hour before they brought out tea (accompanied with cookies, crackers and bread) and invited us to stay for lunch. We were stuffed from our huge breakfast, but we kindly accepted the invitation. Jeremy asked them a number of questions about the Jews in Oujda and we learned some amazing things. First of all, there used to be thousands of Jews in Oujda and today there are eight. We met four of them during our visit to this house. After a little while a boy came home with a woman, whom we later found out was actually Sara; and she brought along some friends. One thing that I found amazing was that Sara came home with a women and her son (both Muslims) and they joined us for Shabbat lunch and participated in the conversation about Oujda/Moroccan Jews.

Everyone was SO nice and welcoming and even though I spoke barely any Arabic (and Jeremy spoke a good amount) we some how managed to get by and have some amazing conversations. Afterwards Sara showed us a Muslim school that is currently under renovation but used to be a Jewish school (where they studied Torah, Tanach, Hebrew, etc). She then took us into the Synagogue (which has not been used in years). Jeremy and I were amazed by what we saw. In the midst of this very Muslim-dominated town, was this enormous synagogue.  It was obviously a bit decrepit and run-down but it was beautiful on the inside. There were gorgeous stain-glass windows, beautiful tiled
floors, a beautiful bimma, and tons of different rooms used for different ceremonies (marriage, circumcision, etc.). The chapel itself was huge and there were multiple floors. Since it was one of the largest synagogues in the area, people would travel from all over for services and there were chambers upstairs for guests to stay overnight! We also got to see three torah’s that had not been touched in years but were still there in the arks. Overall, it was an amazing experience. Although there are only eight Jews left in Oujda, they still have their roots. Sara’s family even keeps kosher and gets their meat delivered from Fez every week! Sara, her sister, her mother and her son were all so welcoming and gracious that we came over. They asked for our phone numbers and emails and want us to send them the pictures we took/keep in touch. It was such a lovely day and we felt right at home!


We decided that we had seen enough of Oujda (it was not a very touristy place so there was not much to do besides walk around the medina) and took the train home that night. We arrived back in Rabat this morning (Sunday 10/10/10) by 9:00 a.m. and went home to our families to spend a nice relaxing Sunday.