Morocco Jewish Heritage Tours, The Best 12 Days Itinerary

Name: Morocco Jewish Heritage Tours
Brand: Touring In Morocco
SKU: 1328763
Rating: 5 (1406 reviews)

Customize Your Morocco Jewish Heritage Tour

Touring In Morocco made these tours of Morocco’s Jewish Heritage so that people could learn about the rich Jewish history and culture that can be found in different parts of this North African country. As their home country, Morocco is important to many Jews. About a million of them now live in Israel. See all of Morocco on this tour of Jewish history. Go from the Atlas Mountains to the Sahara Desert and from the city of Medinas to the Jewish towns in the country.

It gives you the chance to see important parts of Jewish culture, like the graves of great Jews, beautiful buildings, and the old Mellah areas. Besides visits to the fascinating Museum of Moroccan Judaism in Casablanca and the stunning Adobe Synagogue of Arazan in Taroudant. These things are all part of your 12-day trip to Morocco as a Jew. On this trip, we will go to the following places:

Casablanca, the start of our Morocco Jewish Heritage tours

The beautiful Mosque of Hassan II in Casablanca will be the first place you visit on your Morocco Jewish heritage tours. The beautiful work that can be seen in Morocco is perfectly shown by this mosque.

You will also go to the synagogues of Beth-El, Temple Em Habanim, and Temple Neve Shalom while you are in Casablanca. This part of your trip is very important. Then you’ll visit the Museum of Moroccan Judaism, which is the only place in the Arab world of its kind.

Rabat, the gem of our jewish heritage tours in Morocco

When you arrive in Rabat, your first stop will be the Jewish Mellah, an area of the city where a few Jewish families still live. This will give you a sense of both modern and traditional Jewish life in the capital city. After, you will have the chance to be shown around the Chellah Kasbah and learn about its Jewish history.

Meknes, an essential stop of our Morocco Jewish heritage tours

While you are in Meknes, you can visit the grave of Rabbi David ben Imdan and show your gratitude. The city was run by Rabbi David ben Imdan. The old Jewish neighborhood in Meknes has a lot of different names that come from long ago. The new Mellah also has eleven temples, but only eight are currently open for business.

Fes, the cultural city of Morocco

Rabbi Isaac Elfasi, one of the most famous Talmud teachers, lived in Fes in the Middle Ages. Because of this, Fes is a great example of Jewish life in that time. On your Jewish history tour of Fes, your expert guide will show you some of the most beautiful churches in the city, as well as the Jewish Mellah of Fes and graves.

Seffrou, the next stop of our Morocco Jewish Heritage Tours

On the way south to the Sahara Desert, stop at the village of Seffrou to see the Jewish community that used to live there. They used to make up most of the town’s residents. This is a direct cause of the Jewish culture that is still very strong in the Mellah of the town. Along the way, you will pass by Berber villages and the beautiful Ziz valley, which is full of date palm trees and protected Kasbahs. You will also go over the Middle Atlas Mountains.

Merzouga Desert, the highlight of our Morocco Jewish Heritage tours

Camel rides through the Erg Chebbi dunes will take you to the top of the dunes, where you can see the sun going down in a beautiful way. Around a campfire, Berber music and dancing will be played after dinner. Moroccan food will be served to start the evening. If that happens, a nice tent in a Merzouga luxury desert camp next to the tall dunes might help you get a good night’s sleep.

Dades gorges, the grand canyons of Morocco

There are many places to walk along the riverbank and even into some very deep valleys when you visit the Dades Gorges. You should definitely go to Kel’aa M’gouna, which is in the Valley of a Thousand Kasbahs, and see the unions that make sweet Damascene rose goods. In the Skoura oasis, you can see the beautifully renovated Kasbah Amredhil to learn more about how the Berber family lives with many generations.

Ait Benhaddou, the marvel of our Morocco Jewish heritage tours

Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou is a UNESCO World Heritage Site just outside of Ouarzazate. It is also a famous film set in Morocco that Hollywood companies use. It is waiting for you to explore its new and old houses. If you’re still going west, stop in Taznakht to see the Berber rug companies and learn how this very old art is still done today. While you’re in Taliouine, take a quick trip to the Saffron Museum, which is run by the city government. This plant is very valuable—almost as valuable as gold.

Taroudant, the little Marrakech

You are welcome to visit Taroudant’s famous walled medina, which still has its walls up. The Jewish people in the town have been very important to its growth. An Mellah and a graveyard for Jews can be found in Taroudant. The holy David Ben Baruk Cohen Azog is buried in the Jewish graveyard. An clay temple from 700 years ago can be found in the nearby town of Arazan. It is the only building of its kind in the whole world.

Essaouira, the costal gem of our Jewish heritage tours

In Essaouira, we will have one of our best tours of Jewish history in Morocco. First, we’ll take a trip into the Mellah, which is the name for the Jewish neighborhood. They were an important part of Moroccan society and helped the city’s economy grow. Essaouira’s active Jewish population was equally important. Visit the Jewish graveyard and the newly opened Synagogues Bet Ha-Knesset Simon Attias. You can also take a tour of the museum there. As the town grows into a place where religious tourists go, the once-dilapidated Jewish buildings that have become a sign of understanding between cultures are being carefully fixed up.

Essaouira has lots of twisting streets that are great for exploration. The defenses of Skala and the harbor with its famous blue boats are also great places to do this.

Marrakech, the red city of Morocco

Our last stop on our Jewish Heritage tour will be Marrakech. There, you will be able to see the Lazama Synagogue and the beautifully restored souks in the Jewish Area. Some interesting places in Marrakech are the Djemaa El Fna square, El Bahia Palace, the Saadian Tombs, El Badi Palace, and the beautiful Majorelle Gardens.

Yesterday was the last day of your Jewish trip of Morocco. Your driver will take you to the airport in plenty of time to catch your flight, which will end your holiday.

Morocco Jewish Heritage Tours Itinerary

Day 1: Pick up service from the airport

As part of our Jewish heritage tours of the cities in Morocco, we will pick you up at the airport and take you to your hotel. We could take you to see the mosque of Hassan II if you get here early.

Day 2: Casablanca to Rabat

In Casablanca, there are more than 20 synagogues and area for Jews. Some of the most important old synagogues in Casablanca are on these Jewish historical heritage tours. You will visit Temple Beth-El, Temple Em Habanim, and Temple Neve Shalom. You will also visit the Museum of Moroccan Judaism and the Jewish Mellah and Cemetery in Casablanca.

The most well-known synagogue in Morocco is Temple Beth-El, which should be the first stop on your Jewish tour of the country. The synagogues are easy to spot because they have stained glass windows and Bible verses carved into the walls. From the roofs of the synagogues hang huge crystal chandeliers. There are Hebrew texts in the box. The beautiful Temple Beth-El in Casablanca, Morocco, is the center of the city’s growing Jewish community and is seen as the pinnacle of Jewish building. It is the main synagogue for the more than 5,000 Jews who live in Casablanca. Most of them live in the city’s newer areas.

After that, you should check out the Mellah of Casablanca, which was built not long ago. There are no longer any Jews living in the Mellah, but there are still kosher butcher shops all over the streets that look like a maze. People can visit the Jewish cemetery in the Mellah, and it is well worth a stop to see the well-kept white stone gravestones with Hebrew, French, and Spanish writing on them. A religious event called a hiloula is held once a year by the Jewish Community of Casablanca at the tomb of Eliahou, a Jewish saint. The Temple Em Habanim and the Temple Neve Chalom are two ancient synagogues in the Mellah neighborhood. The Temple Neve Chalom has been beautifully restored and now has a gallery of photos and temple lights.

After lunch, you should go to spend some time at the Museum of Moroccan Judaism. The museum is in Casablanca’s Oasis area. It opened in 1997 and is the only museum in the Arab world of its kind. The museum is all about Judaism. In 2013, repairs were made to the building that now houses the museum. It used to be a Jewish home that could have held up to 160 Jewish children and teens.

At the end of the day, we will go to Rabat for the overnight.

Day 3: From Rabat to Fes

After breakfast at your riad, we will go outside to see the Jewish Mellah of Rabat and its winding streets, where some Jewish families still live. From this spot, you can visit the Necropolis at Chellah and learn about its Jewish ties.

After lunch, we’ll leave for Meknes, where we’ll take a short tour of the Imperial City’s Jewish Heritage. You will be able to walk around the Jewish neighborhood, which is known for its narrow streets and colorful gardens. The Jewish past is clear from the Hebrew epitaphs that were written during the Christian era and can be seen on the Meknes Zaouia along with Greek writing. What you see here is writing on the wall of the Meknes Zaouia. People make pilgrimages to this holy spot because it is still where Rabbi David Benmidan’s body is buried.

Day 4: Jewish heritage discovery tour of Fes

Fes is one of Morocco’s four imperial cities and a notable site in the history of Jews in the Middle Ages. A well-known Talmudic teacher named Rabbi Isaac Alfasi lived there. Fes is an important place for Jewish tourists to see because it has a history of having a Jewish community that lived a free Jewish life.

When you go on a Morocco Jewish heritage discovery tour of Fes, you will see Jewish Heritage places like synagogues, the Mellah, parks, and the Royal Palaces. You will also see old universities and graves.

First, see the Mellah, which is almost 650 years old. It used to be home to more than 40 synagogues. Near the Royal Palace, in this interesting area, Jews ran away during the riots of 1912 to find safety. Another place you could go is the nearby cemetery, which has the most graves of Jewish saints of any cemetery in Morocco. One well-known saint buried here is Silica.

After that, go to the Danan synagogue. It used to be one of many temples inside the Imperial city walls. The Thel Ibn Danan Synagogue is one of the oldest and well-kept synagogues in Morocco. It’s also a rare reminder of how important the Jews were in Moroccan history.

After lunch, you should check out Fes’s old medina, which has brightly colored streets lined with shops selling leather goods, metal items, and knitted fabrics. In the Guinness Book of Records, the University of Al-Kairaouine is listed as the world’s first school. You can visit it.

Day 5: Fes to Merzouga desert

After you have breakfast at your riad, we will drive to Merzouga in the Sahara desert through Jewish Seffrou. You can travel through Ifrane, which is known as “Switzerland” in Morocco because of its European-style buildings, cedar forests, and yearly snowfall. Jewish visitors have been coming to Ifrane for a long time to see the synagogues and graveyard.

A graveyard in Bhalil should be seen on the way to Seffrou. Morocco’s Jews used to live in big numbers in Seffrou and built half of the town’s Mellah buildings, which you can look into. Jews still live in the white-walled medina of Seffrou, which can be told apart from other buildings by their wooden staircases. In this area, Muslims and Jews lived together. They did their religious activities together, showing how people of different faiths can work together in Morocco.

Barbary apes can be seen in the oak and cedar forests of the Middle Atlas, which are close to Azrou. The next stop is Midelt, which is 1508 meters above sea level and known as Morocco’s “apple capital.” It’s right at the base of the Ayachi Mountain.

We keep going south on the Tizi-n-Talghemt pass, which is also called the “she-camel” pass. Then we go down through the Ziz Valley, which is known for its long meadow and palm trees. There are a number of “Ksars,” which are small towns with single homes. Many of them have a wall that goes all the way around them and surrounds the road.

After that, we’ll go to Errachidia, which is a mining town, and then to Erfoud, which is famous for its date festival and fossils. You should go to the stores because it’s amazing to see how these millions of skeletons have been turned into fossils.

After that, you go to Rissani and finally reach Merzouga’s famous red Erg Chebbi dunes. You ride a camel for an hour and a half, either going out or coming back to camp. You could also drive the 4WD to your camp in the desert.At the camp, food is given, and then there is a party with Berber music.

Day 6: Merzouga desert to Ouarzazate

You can see the sunrise if you get up early enough. The dunes and shadows will be a beautiful sea of color. After breakfast, we leave the camp and head toward Tinghir. Along the way, you’ll pass water tunnels called Khettarat. You can go down into them to enjoy the engineering and creativity behind this method of watering plants, which keeps the water from drying out in the summer.

Next, after lunch, the trip goes to the Dades Valley, where the Dades canyons and a short walk are planned. In the Valley of the Roses, which is famous for its Damascene Rose Festival in May, the unions of Klaat Mgouna make organic cosmetics that smell great. Kasbah Amredhil in Skoura and the nearby oasis are worth a visit to see how a Berber family has lived for many generations.

The Kasbah has been carefully restored to show how people really lived in these kinds of homes. It is made entirely of clay, which is a good building material. The thick walls keep it warm in the winter and cool in the summer. You get to Ouarzazate after a while and spend the night there.

Day 7: Ouarzazate to Taroudant

After breakfast, you can take a 30-minute trip to get to Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou. This Kasbah is the oldest and most famous in Morocco. It is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Someone from the area will show you around the Kasbah and tell you interesting stories about its past.

Then we head west to Taznakht, which is famous for its Berber carpets and where you can see how these rugs and carpets were made in the old way. This is also where we’ll stop for lunch. Before we get to Taliouine, we go west and go through the Tizi-n-Ikhsane and Tizi-n-Tighatine passes. This is where most of the saffron in Morocco is grown, and there is a great little museum run by the government that is all about saffron farming. We will spend the night in Taroudant after the drive.

Day 8: Taroudant to Essaouira

In the morning, a trip is planned to a town that is known as “the tiny Marrakech” because of its huge walls and bright markets. People also love making jewelry and Berber rugs there, which are well-known crafts. The beautiful walls of Taroudant have not been ruined like those in Marrakech.

The Jews of Taroudant have been an important part of the town’s past and health. There is a Jewish Mellah and a Jewish cemetery there. Saint David Ben Baruk Cohen Azog is buried there. You will be able to see one of the few clay synagogues in the world. Adobe was used to build Azran’s synagogue 700 years ago. The walls are covered with Hebrew texts, and the ark has Berber writing on it. You can go past Taroudant and find the Souss river valley. There are hundreds of argan trees in the mountains, as well as banana and orange farms.

After lunch in Agadir, the path goes north along the coast, going by Taghazout, which is a great place for surfers, and the Anti-Atlas Mountains, from which there are many views of the Atlantic Ocean. When you get to Essaouira, your driver will take you to your riad so you can unwind and get comfortable.

Day 9: Essaouira/ Morocco Jewish heritage disovery tours

Essaouira is a fishing town on the coast that has both Portuguese and Jewish roots. It’s also known for its blue boats, buildings that are painted white, tasty fish, and the Gnawa music festival. After breakfast in your riad, walk through the medina’s busy, winding streets and take pictures of its huge walls. Go to a leather and metal goods store in your area and take pictures of the artists at work. After that, go to the busy beach to take pictures of the famous blue boats and choose some fresh fish to grill right there for lunch.

In the afternoon, go on a tour of Essaouira’s Jewish history. In the 18th century, when Jews made up about 40% of the town’s population, the Jewish area was created. There used to be about 25 Jewish synagogues in the city, but now there are only a few left. Check out the Bet Ha-Knesset Simon Attias Synagogue in Essaouira, which just opened. In order to keep Moroccan Jewish traditions alive and help Essaouira find its own identity, the Simon Attias Synagogue has a Jewish museum and a possible culture center that could be named after researcher Haim Zafrani.

Take the time to see the Jewish graveyard in Essaouira too. The older one shows Rabi Haim Pinto’s grave, which is the subject of a fall hilloul. As the number of Jews in the town grew in the 1800s, the second Jewish cemetery was built to accommodate them. Today, many rabbis, thinkers, artists, and other Jewish people from the beach town are buried here. Stay the night at a beautiful riad in the middle of Essaouira.

Day 10: Essaouira to Marrakech

After breakfast, we continue our Jewish history trips of the towns of Morocco by going to Marrakech. Along the way, we’ll pass through a lot of Berber villages, and we might stop at an argan cooperative that sells better quality argan goods than you can find outside of Morocco. So, right now is a great time to buy things with argan oil in them! Goats may even climb up on argan trees to eat the nuts and leaves, which you can see and picture. When you get back to Marrakech, spend the rest of the day walking around the old medina and going to the brightly colored souks. You could also make yourself a cup of Morocco’s famous mint tea and relax at your hotel.

Day 11: Marrakech/ Morocco Jewish heritage discovery tours

Another one of Morocco’s four Imperial Cities is Marrakech, which is also one of the most famous and well-reviewed vacation spots in the world. This Jewish Heritage tour of Marrakech takes you to see the Jewish Mellah, the Lazama Synagogue, and other interesting places in the city. Start your trip in the Jewish Mellah, which was built in 1558. The Jewish group had freedom, even though they weren’t allowed to own land outside the Mellah. Today, there are only about 250 Jews living in the city.

Beautiful new buildings have been put up in the Mellah area, and all of these Jewish souks are worth seeing. After that, you can go to the Synagogue Bet-El, which is one of the main places where Jews in Marrakech get together. You may go to the Yves St. Laurent Museum, the El Bahia Palace (which means “the palace of the beautiful”), the Majorelle Gardens (which belonged to Yves St. Laurent and are famous for their unique shade of blue), or all of them, depending on your time and interests. The Quranic School, the Ben Youssef Medersa (which used to hold about 80 Quranic students), and the Saadian Tombs are also places you can visit. Stay the night at your lovely riad.

Day 12: Transfer to the airport

Our driver will take you to the airport on the last day so that you can catch your flight. This will be the end of your Jewish heritage tours.

Highlights

Visiting the Hassan II Mosque and shooting its wonderful workmanship.
Visiting the Mellah and the Museum of Moroccan Judaism in Casablanca.
Visiting synagogues Beth-El, Temple Em Habanim, and Temple Neve Shalom.
Exploring Rabat’s Jewish Mellah, where a few Jewish households remain, and meandering around the Chellah.
Visiting Meknes’ historic and modern Jewish districts, with their small lanes and colorful courtyards.
Exploring the Mellah and seeing Fes Synagogues and Jewish cemetery.
Visiting Ifrane and finding Seffrou, where the Mellah makes up half of the population.
Traveling through lovely Berber settlements, palm palms, and fortified kasbahs along the Ziz valley.
Camel riding and sleeping in private comfy tents at a Merzouga desert camp.
Walking through the Dades Valley and stopping at the rose-based cosmetics cooperatives of Kel’aa M’gouna.
Exploring Ouarzazate and seeing Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou, a UNESCO World Heritag site.
Visit to Taroudant’s walled medina and a 700-year-old adobe-built synagogue.
Discovering the freshly opened Bet Ha-Knesset Simon Attias Synagogue in Essaouira, as well as exploring its museum and Jewish cemetery.
Discovering the highlights of Marrakech, such as Djemaa El Fna, El Bahia Palace, Saadian Tombs, and the stunning Majorelle Gardens.
Visiting the newly renovated Jewish souks, Marrakech’s Mellah, and the Lazama Synagogue.

Includes

Transport and gasoline in a private air-conditioned 4WD or mini van.
Pick-up and drop-off at your hotel or riad, as well as airport transfers.
English speaking driver/guide.
Air-conditioned accommodation with private bathrooms.
Dinners and breakfasts.
One night in an Erg Chebbi Berber camp with private toilet and shower, lighting, lots of space, and handmade furniture.
Camel rides lasting approximately an hour to an hour and a half with a guide, as well as free sandboarding if requested – just ask the camp staff.
Option to go to and from the camp by camels or car.
Luggage transport to the camp and all accommodation.
Berber music and drumming at night at the camp.
Free time to visit sights like Mellah and Ait Ben Haddou for hikes, photographs, and tea/coffee breaks.
The ability to request that the driver stop when and where you want.