After Lisbon, the work “Moorish Jews in Cape Verde in the Nineteenth Century” was presented on Friday evening at the Institute of the National Archives of Cabo Verde (IANCV), during a gala organized in the capital Praia and during which the king’s contribution took place. Mohammed VI praised the project to rehabilitate the cemeteries of Moroccan Jews in the archipelago.
The ceremony was held in the presence of a number of diplomats, descendants of Moroccan Jews, and the head of the Moroccan diplomatic office in Cape Verde, Hassan Zarafa.
José Alberto Rodriguez Silva Tavem and Nigila Sofia Benoleel Coutinho’s book was published in 13 medium-sized pages, and sheds light on the wave of immigration of Moroccan Jews in the mid-nineteenth century towards the Cape Verde archipelago in search of new economic horizons and opportunities.
The President of this NGO, Carol Castille, expressed during this meeting organized by the Association “Project Jewish Heritage in Cape Verde”, her deep gratitude to King Mohammed VI, for his generous contribution to the realization of a project to restore cemeteries that house the graves of the Moroccan Jews who immigrated to Cape Verde in the century nineteenth.
In this regard, Carole Castille emphasized His Majesty’s leadership and work to preserve and enhance the Moroccan Jewish heritage.
After recalling that the Jews lived in Morocco for more than 2,000 years in peace and took refuge there against the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition, the initiator of the “Project to Preserve the Jewish Heritage in Cape Verde” indicated that the links between the Jews of Cape Verde and Morocco are “direct and inseparable” as evidenced by Epitaphs and inscriptions on tombstones and mausoleums in Jewish cemeteries in the archipelago.
This book is in two parts. In the first part, which deals with the topic of “Portugal Jews and the Diaspora… Morocco and Cape Verde,” author José Alberto Rodriguez Silva Tavem sheds light on the history of Portuguese Jews and the hidden aspects of some Moroccans. Jewish families who immigrated to the Cape Verde Islands and settled there.
The second part, devoted to the topic “The Jews of Morocco and Gibraltar in Cape Verde in the Nineteenth Century”, was written by historian Angela Sofia Benoleel Coutinho.
Remember that this book was presented last Tuesday in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, in the presence of a number of diplomats and members of the Portuguese Jewish community.
