August 2009 – “Gateway to the Sahara”: Tour the Ourzazate Mellah

Rapheal Elmaleh, Morocco’s only Jewish tour guide and a research advisor to Diarna, leads viewers through the Mellah (old Jewish quarter) of Ourzazate, a city in southern Morocco known as the “gateway to the Sahara” desert. He recounts how, on his first trip to the city, he discovered the Mellah’s last Jew. Raphy also explains the Quarter’s architecture and reveals what has become of its synagogue.

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Visting Diarna
  • View our Media Gallery, including video tours of ancient cemeteries, synagogues, and communities
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Praise for Diarna

Diarna’s dynamic and factual approach gives virtual resonance to the beauty, geography, and complexity of Jews from Arab countries. Indeed, it is an important way to preserve the memories of a community that has essentially ceased to exist, falling from a pre-1948 population of approximately 1 million to less than 5,000 today. — Carole Basri, Esq., professor, award-winning filmmaker, and descendant of Iraqi Jews

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