After Lisbon, the work “Moroccan Jews in Cape Verde in the 19th century” was presented on Friday evening at the Institute of the National Archive of Cabo Verde (IANCV), during a ceremony organized in the capital Praia and during which the contribution of King Mohammed VI to the project to rehabilitate the cemeteries of Jews from Morocco in the archipelago was highly praised.
The ceremony took place in the presence of several diplomats, descendants of Moroccan Jews, and the Head of Morocco’s Diplomatic Office in Cape Verde, Hassan Zarafa.
Published in 13 medium-format pages, the book by Jose Alberto Rodríguez Silva Tavim and ngela Sofia Benoliel Coutinho, highlights the wave of immigration of Moroccan Jews in the middle of the 19th century towards the Cape Verde archipelago at the seeks new perspectives and economic opportunities.
Presenting this work, during this meeting organized by the Association “Cap Verde Jewish Heritage Project”, the president of this NGO, Carol Castiel, expressed her deep gratitude to King Mohammed VI, for his generous contribution to the realization of the project of restoration of cemeteries that house the graves of Jews from Morocco who emigrated to Cape Verde in the 19th century.
Carol Castiel, in this regard, underlined the leadership of the Sovereign as well as his action to preserve and enhance the Moroccan Jewish heritage.
After recalling that Jews lived in Morocco for more than 2,000 years in peace and found refuge there against the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions, the initiator of the “Project for the preservation of Jewish heritage in Cape Verde” noted that the The links between the Jews of Cape Verde and Morocco are “direct and inseparable” as evidenced by the epitaphs and inscriptions on the tombstones and shrines of the Jewish cemeteries of the archipelago.
This book has two parts. In the first part, which deals with the theme “the Jews of Portugal and the Diaspora.. Morocco and Cape Verde”, the author Jose Alberto Rodríguez Silva Tavim sheds light on the history of the Jews of Portugal and the hidden aspects of some Moroccan Jewish families who immigrated to the Cape Verde Islands and settled there.
The second part, devoted to the theme “the Jews of Morocco and Gibraltar in Cape Verde in the 19th century”, is written by the historian Angela Sofia Benoliel Coutinho.
Remember that this book was presented last Tuesday in the Portuguese capital Lisbon in the presence of several diplomats and members of the Portuguese Jewish community.