The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-07-05
THE JEWS OF MOROCCO.

They Are Made to Suffer but They
Get Even With Their Oppressors.
The Jews of Morocco are to my mind at
once the most interesting and the most try
ing race of people ever met, says letter
to the Boston Transcript. 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 mas
ters OF their masters. 1t would take more
room than | could give to tell you the story
of the Jews in Morocco, SO | must be con-
tent with the shortest sketch possible.
No one knows Just whore the Moorish
Jews came from, but of course they have
been connected with the lost tribes and all
that The main facts are that they are in
Morocco without knowing themselves just
how they got there. Among the anomalies
connected with them is that they are hated
and despised by the Moors, subject to every
insult and degradation that can be lmag-
med; yet they are recognized as such nee
esSary members of society that there is
law. which is actively enforced, forbiddlng
Jews to leave the country under any cir
cumstances. 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 for the means which
in the first place secured them this brutal
treatment, am not competent to say, thew
in turn treat the Moors with fairly devilish
cruelty when they get than in their power,
as theyeOften do through money transac-
tions; for, as in other lands, the superior
cunning of the Jews makes them the bank
ers of the country, and with debtors law
which allows the imprisonment of a man
until his debt is discharged, 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 of killing rat. The Jews are not al
lowed to carry arms of any kind, nor to
ride upon a 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 herded together like animals, their dress
| being regulated and restricted so they may
| always be known from the believer at
| glance, and they are forbidden to build any
| places of worship or to hold religious services
| of any kind-which command is religion sly
| disregarded, services being held regularly
| in their houses, within some cities a guard
posted to inform of the approach of stran-
| gers. Ifthere is any nasty work to be DONE
as for instance the embalming of heads of
executed rebels, so they may hang the
longer at the traitors gate, the Jews are
pressed into service; if the Sultan or one of
the 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 dun
geon until he has been squeezed out of
proper sum.
If Jew meets a Moor. no matter how
low the position of the latter, he is obliged
to step barefooted into the middle of the
street, so as not to touch the garments of
follower of the prophet, and he is rot al
lowed under any circumstance to enter the
street upon which a mosque is situated.
The puni shment for the disregarding OF any
of these laws is simply terrific, ranging
from burning to death to bastinadoing. OF
the peculiar marriage arrangements of the
Jews small have more to say later, as well
as of their household arrangements, and in
changing the subject Imay add that the use
of the bath, either for the face or the body,
if totally unknown among the, Jews except
the hand bath before eating; at other times
the face being simply rubbed with dry
cloth when it becomes unpresentable. The
Jews Of Morocco look upon themselves as a
persecuted race, but from my own obServa-
tions think | had rather be Jew than a
Moor, so 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 oppression for oppression, and to my
certain knowledge the dungeons of No
rocco are filed with Moors rotting to death
in payment of debts owed to this same
prosecuted race.