Casablanca Jewish Heritage Tour —
Beth El Synagogue, Mellah & Oasis Museum

Built in 1913 at the heart of what was then the prosperous Jewish quarter, Beth El is a masterpiece of Moorish-influenced Jewish architecture — horseshoe arches, geometric tilework, and carved wooden screens that echo the great mosques and palaces of Morocco. It remains an active congregation, holding Friday evening and Shabbat services attended by the city's small but dedicated Jewish community. Idrissi explains the history of the synagogue, the families who funded its construction, and the resilience of the community that has kept it alive through a century of upheaval.

The Habous is a peculiarly Moroccan paradox: a new neighbourhood built in the 1930s by the French colonial administration to deliberately evoke the feel of a traditional Moroccan medina — and it works beautifully. Designed partly as a residential and commercial quarter for Jewish families displaced by rapid urbanisation, it became the heart of Casablanca's Jewish commercial life. Idrissi walks you through its arcaded streets, pointing out the Jewish bakeries that still operate, the buildings that bear the names of Jewish families in their ironwork, and the human scale of a neighbourhood built for community life rather than motor traffic.

The only Jewish museum in the Arab world — and one of the most moving heritage institutions anywhere in North Africa. Founded in 1997 and housed in a restored building in the Oasis neighbourhood, the museum holds an extraordinary collection: ancient Torah scrolls, hand-illustrated marriage contracts (ketubot), ceremonial objects in silver and brass, photographs from early 20th-century Jewish life, and personal testimonies from community members across the diaspora. Idrissi moves through the collection with the fluency of someone who has spent years studying its context — bringing each object to life with its story rather than just its label.

One of the largest Jewish cemeteries in North Africa, this remarkable site covers several hectares and holds the graves of some of the most significant figures in Moroccan Jewish history — rabbis, merchants, artists, and community leaders. The white-marble tombs extend in serried rows, many bearing Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic inscriptions and small photographs of the deceased. For visiting families, Idrissi can help identify graves with advance notice. The cemetery is maintained with care and is a profound testament to the depth of Jewish roots in Moroccan soil.

Casablanca's grandest avenue was designed in the 1930s as a showcase of French Art Deco urbanism — and along it, Jewish merchants built some of the city's most impressive commercial premises. Department stores, import-export houses, jewellers, and banks bearing Jewish family names lined both sides of the boulevard at its peak. Idrissi traces this architectural and commercial legacy, discussing the role of Jewish entrepreneurs in building modern Casablanca and the gradual transformation of the street after the emigrations of the 1950s and 1960s.