These areas later became small, mostly poor ghettos, with little to no connection to Jews today.

But a new project — called Rebuilding Our Homes — might change all that.

It aims to revive the prosperous Jewish life in the historic urban areas in Fez, Essaouira and Rabat, by teaching their current residents about local history, and helping to make them part of the rich heritage of the place.

Rebuilding Our Homes is a multi-year US Agency for International Development-supported New Partnership Initiative of the American Sephardi Federation and Mimouna Association.

“We make the residents of these neighbourhoods take part in preserving the place by letting them document and upload photos of old Jewish houses to our archive, and teaching them Hebrew,” said Jason Guberman, executive director of the American Sephardi Federation.

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