As a result, there has been a continuous Jewish presence here for more than 500 years. Chaim Morelli Levi, a multi-lingual accountant whose grandmother lived among the Berbers, speaks the Berber language Chelka fluently. There are about 1000 Jews in Melilla today, he tells us in equally fluent English. We all know each other. We have twelve functioning synagogues.
Some extended families have their own synagogues.
The synagogue that serves the Benarroch family, one of the oldest and most distinguished in Melilla, is housed in a small apartment building across from the Parque de Melilla, a vertical swath of greenery and porticos, shaded by towering palms and criss-crossed with paths of intricately designed stonework. The sanctuary, up on the second floor, is a high ceilinged room with walls of pale pink, ceramic tiled floors of gold and green, and wooden benches that face a central abimah. A little alcove behind a latticed wall forms the women s section. Its walls are filled with photographs of venerable Sephardic rabbis and, somewhat incongruously, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Despite its modest size, the Benarroch synagogue has six Torahs.