The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-06-05
LIFE A BURDEN.
The Terrible Prosecutions Of the
Jews of Morocco.
Letter to the Boston Transcript. !

Letter to the Boston Transcript
The Jews of Morocco are to my mind at
once the most interesting and the most try
ing race of people ever met. Subject to re-
strictions In their life and business which
would exterminate an ordinary race of peo-
pie in two generations, they have grown,
prospered, and in many places are masters
of their masters. 1t would take more room
than 1 can give to tell you the story of the
Jews in Morocco, so must be content with
the shortest sketch possible
No one knows just where the Moorish
Jews came from, but of course they have
been connected with the lost tribes and all
that. The main facts are, they are in Mo-
rocco without knowing themselves just how
they got there. Among the anomalies con-
nected with them is that they are hated and
despised by the Moors, subject to every in
suit and degradation that can be imagined !;
yet they are recognized as such necessary
members of society that there is law, which
is actively enforced, forbidding Jews to
leave the country under any circumstances
The Jews, outside of one or two coast towns,
are treated worse than the meanest and
lowest animals; and, whether in the way of
retaliation or the means which In the first
place secured them this brutal treatment /
am not competent to say, they in return
treat the Moors with fairly devilish cruelty
when they get them in their power, as they
often do through money transactions for as
In other lands, the superior cunning of the
Jews makes them the bankers of the country,
| and. with debtors law which allows the
imprisonment of man until his debt is dis
charged, there are ample. opportunities for
| the Jews to act as fiends incarnate.
| In return for this a Moor thinks no more
Of killing Jew, if he can do it quietly, than
| Oh killing rat. The Jews are not allowed
| to carry arms OF any kind, nor to ride
| upon horse, mule, donkey or bullock,
but must make all Journeys on foot; neither
| are they allowed to wear any foot covering
| outside of their own quarter, where they are
hcrded together like animals, their dress be-
| ing regulated and restricted so they may
always be known from the believers at a
| glance, and they are forbidden to build any
places Of worship or to hold religious SER
| vices OF any kind, which command is re-
| ligl0usly diSregarded, services being held
| regularly in their houses, with, in some cit
| les, guard posted to inform of the approach
| of strangers. If there is any nasty work to
| be done, as for instance the embalming of
| the heads of executed rebels so that they
may hang the longer at the traitors gate,
| the Jews are pressed into the service; If the
sultan or one OF his officers wishes few
| thousand dollars to meet sudden demand,
some wealthy jew who has paid the least for
| protection, is seized without notice and
thrown into dungeon until he has been
squeezed out OF proper sum.
Ii jew meets a Moor, no matter how low
the position of the latter, he is obliged to
step barefooted into the filth of the middle
Of the street so as not to touch the garments
Of follower of the prophet, and he is not
allowed under any circumstances to enter
the street upon which mosque is situated.
The punishment for the disregard of any of
these laws is simply terrific, ranging from
burning to death to bastinadoing.
OF the peculiar marriage arrangements of
the Jews / shall have more 20 say later, as
well as of their household arrangements
and in changing the subject may add thai
the use OF the bath either for the face or the
body Is totally unknown among the Jews,
except the hand bath before eating, at Other
times the face being simply rubbed with a
dry cloth when it becomes unpresentable
The Jews of Morocco look upon themselves
as a prosecuted race. but from my own OBJ
seryations think had rather be a Jew than
Moor as far as persecution is concerned,
for his deadly hatred of the Moor, coupled
with his own superior cunning, gives him in
the course of his lifetime a chance to return
oppr essiOn for oppression, and to my certain
kno Wedge the dungeons of Morocco are
filled with Moors rotting to death In pay
m ent of debts owed to this same prosecuted
race