Ner Yisrael congregants breathe life back into two historic Morocco synagogues

On the final day, the Ner Yisrael members arrived at Fez. Once the residency of Maimonides, the city is now home to a few dozen Jewish inhabitants and two historic synagogues no longer in regular use – Ibn Danan, associated with Sephardic communities expelled from Spain in the fifteenth century, and Roben Ben Sadoun.

One of the trip's participants, Michelle Sint, felt that davening Shacharit in the Roben Ben Sadoun Synagogue was “incredibly moving”.

“The shul is normally only opened on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, so we felt we were reviving this ancient space. As we prayed it felt like the walls themselves carried the history of the generations who once filled it,” she said.

Dayan Zobin at Ibn Danan Synagogue in Fez, Morocco (Credit: Ner Yisrael)[Missing Credit]

The group was stunned by the contrast between the “nondescript, even dirty street below” and the ornate, “dazzling” interior to the synagogue.

“What struck me most was the feeling of bringing life back into these old synagogues. For a short time, with our prayers and voices, these historic places felt alive again,” Michelle went on. “Walking around the old quarter afterwards…where Maimonides once walked and studied, and where he wrote texts we still learn today, was remarkable.”

Dayan Zobin said the country “preserves a remarkable record of Jewish life stretching back centuries. Today, when the Jewish world once again faces the pressures of geopolitics and war, it is striking to encounter a community that endured many changing and often difficult circumstances yet always remained deeply engaged with its faith.

“It was a pleasure for my wife and I to travel and learn together with members and friends of Ner Yisrael. Jewish learning happens not just through textual study, but also by encountering the places and communities that produced them. Viewing that history in its original setting, and sharing it with our north-west London community, was a rare privilege.”