A Moroccan 'marrano' comes 'home'

Bataween
Point of No Return
17 May '10

Ten days ago, slipping a prayer between the ancient stones of the Western wall in Jerusalem, Said Sayagh felt he had come home.

In his head Sayagh, 54, had long rehearsed his journey to Jerusalem - but the path had not been an easy one. A Moroccan writer and professor of Arabic from Meknes living in France, Sayagh put out his first timid feelers, inquiring into the origins of his surname on the Moroccan Jewish website Dafina in 2004. Yes, he was told, sayagh meant metalsmith in Arabic, an overwhelmingly Jewish profession. In some parts of Morocco it was considered demeaning for Muslims to deal in metalwork.

His grandmother Fatima on his father's side had been a Cohen. She had been converted to Islam, but how and why, Said could only speculate.

We will never know how many Jews converted to Islam over the centuries in Morocco, although this book may provide a few clues. Said Sayagh is one of the few 'Moroccan Marranos' to have 'come out'. He feels his Jewish identity has been forcibly torn asunder, just as the Jews in general have been torn from Morocco. How many more descendants of forced converts are there out there, frightened to reveal the lost component of their Jewish identity?

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