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The Jewish Cemeteries Giving Life to Morocco’s Muslim Communities
Something special is taking place in Akrich, a typical rural village in Morocco backed by a breathtaking view of the snow-capped Atlas Mountains. Here is a compelling showcase of interfaith harmony, reinvigorated in recent years but dating back centuries.
Today, the village’s sacred 700-year-old Jewish cemetery is home to a plant nursery run by local Muslims that provides fruit and nut tree saplings to the community here and to many others across the region. As well as nourishing the land, this space is nourishing religious co-existence.
“Before, there were no plants or water — it was abandoned,” says 36-year-old Abderahim Baddah, one of two full-time staff tending to the cemetery grounds and nursery within.
But in 2012, Baddah, with the blessing of the Moroccan Jewish community, began to use the land adjacent to the Jewish cemetery to cultivate crops while restoring the religious site.
It’s an initiative that is spreading across Morocco, which was once home to a quarter of a million Jews, who arrived in the 15th century following their expulsion from Spain by Catholic leaders.
The post The Jewish Cemeteries Giving Life to Morocco’s Muslim Communities appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.
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