(RNS) — Rising up in Fez, Morocco, Yona Elfassi used to be continually conscious of the history of the city, which has been a center of culture, learning and spirituality for the reason that ninth century. Dwelling to huge minds such because the 12th-century truth seeker and jurist Ibn Rushd and his original, the doctor and codifier of Jewish legislation Maimonides, the city used to be fashioned by Jewish, Arab, Amazigh, Spanish and French cultures.
These influences left a deep attach on Elfassi, 37. “In my family there contain been (many) different languages — Moroccan Arabic, French, Hebrew at the synagogue, and my dad also speaks Amazigh, Berber,” acknowledged Elfassi.
Music, too, used to be a relentless presence — from Andalusian to Flamenco, to Moroccan classic, to Moroccan chaabi stylish, to Berber music,” he acknowledged. “We weren’t a family of expert musicians, but we contain been a family that lived with music.”
As a Jewish resident of Morocco, Elfassi belongs to a minute demographic, as Ninety 9% of Jews of Moroccan heritage this day stay in other locations. After major emigrations within the 20th century, very most attention-grabbing round 2,500 Jews stay in a nation where they as soon as made up 5% of the inhabitants. This day an estimated 50,000 stay in France, 25,000 in Canada and 25,000 within the United States; and some 1 million Moroccan Jews produce up one of Israel’s largest ethnic groups.
Yona Elfassi in Fez, Morocco. (Photograph courtesy of Elfassi)
His passions for music and language took Elfassi on a hurry to Bordeaux, France, and Be’er Sheva, Israel, writing a dissertation on Jewish identity amongst Moroccan Jews. (He has two doctorates, one in sociology and political science from Sciences Po Bordeaux and one in anthropology and history from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.)
His overview into Morocco’s history finally grew proper into a vocation to educate Darija, the Moroccan Arabic dialect, to enable diaspora Moroccan Jews to connect with their ancestors thru language, culture and tales.
“As a sociologist, I was fueled by the conviction that academic overview must forge connections and deepen understanding” beyond the academy, Elfassi acknowledged. “These tales and human histories are at the core of why I distinct to educate, and my identity has impressed me to work with Jews of Moroccan background to reconcile with their ancestral language.”
As the COVID-19 pandemic ended, he launched Limud Darija, an tutorial shuffle and multimedia language platform. The hybrid courses combine Zoom classes with in-person gatherings, which seize order in Israel. Elfassi also holds music workshops, drawing from Sephardic piyyutim — Jewish liturgical poems with Judeo-Arabic pronunciation and melodies — and the music of twentieth-century Moroccan pop icons reminiscent of Haja El Hamdaouia, Sliman Elmaghribi, Zohra El Fassiya and Abdelhadi Belkhayat.
Limud Darija’s affect has grown hasty. “This day our neighborhood involves over 500 energetic members with the mission of connecting participants all thru generations, serving to members reclaim misplaced voices and fostering resilience and a approach of belonging thru cultural practices,” Elfassi acknowledged.
Thru his Instagram feed and TikTok presence, many Moroccan Muslims contain discovered Elfassi’s work and are impressed to survey Moroccan Jews keeping the language of their shared home. Muslims, Elfassi acknowledged, in turn contain expressed hobby in learning Hebrew. “I opened an brisk WhatsApp community where we’re instructing Hebrew to Muslim speakers of Darija,” he acknowledged.
“Thru this shared connection, divisions launch to disappear,” Elfassi acknowledged. “The Israelis the Muslim Moroccans meet are considered as Moroccans treasure themselves, as family. They’re talking a usual language, talking about what unites them, participants are begun to be considered as participants.” The Muslims and Jews, he acknowledged, get the chance “to bond over music and heritage and language, no longer political or struggle-related subjects, and they finish no longer further the counterfeit ‘pro-Palestine’ vs ‘pro-Israel’ dichotomy, and as an different humanize all people as participants, as human beings.”
Limud Darija hosted a hafla, Arabic for a festive occasion or celebratory gathering, sharing Moroccan music and former foods in Be’er Sheva, Israel, in 2025. Some company traveled to Israel from Morocco. (Photograph courtesy of Yona Elfassi)
Limud Darija students picture how this system has related them extra deeply with participants of their very fetch lives as neatly. “My other folks talked between them in Moroccan language, but by the time I was an adult, I forgot,” acknowledged Yehudit Levy, a retired schoolteacher in Ganei Tikvah, Israel, who has studied with Elfassi for three years. “Since I began to be taught with Yona, every little thing comes up — songs, music, food, poetry, the total former issues approach up. I smell Morocco after I’m within the class.”
Noam Sibony, a Limud Darija alumnus, is a neuroscience researcher and musician residing in Toronto. The 28-300 and sixty five days-previous spent 9 months volunteering in Lod, an Israeli city whose inhabitants is Arab and Jewish, at a neighborhood center, working with native kids and childhood. Limud Darija, he acknowledged, confirmed him how learning the language of one more culture can assist produce relationships that transcend regional politics and conflicts.
Habiba Boumlik, a professor of French, literature and girls’s and gender overview at LaGuardia University in Queens, Unique York, and co-founder of the Unique York Forum of Amazigh Movie, an annual film festival celebrating the Indigenous Berber participants of North Africa, sees parallels between Elfassi’s work and her efforts to preserve the Tamazight language.
“I give credit to participants that invest in learning language, and it is huge with the contemporary technology and number of sources on the salvage. Despite the indisputable reality that participants aren’t fluent, they are going to finish a lot with the language, and they are going to pass to Morocco and connect extra deeply,” Boumlik acknowledged.
Darija is closely related to the Judeo-Arabic dialect, Boumlik explained, and so has the probably to make a contribution to the Moroccan vernacular, neutral as Judeo-Arabic slang and idioms contain fashioned In model Hebrew.
“The alternate amongst the Moroccans and Israelis will very most attention-grabbing enrich Darija as in addition they enrich their households and themselves,” Boumlik acknowledged. “And it is so notable that they are going to connect with Moroccans on the salvage and contain a dialogue. It is no longer neutral the culture and language of their grandparents — it is the residing language and culture of the contemporary era.”
Bringing participants together on this level, Elfassi acknowledged, is peacebuilding on a human scale, prioritizing personal tales, shared culture and mutual admire. “For me, peace will launch with participants, no longer with the decision-makers,” he acknowledged. “Peace is neutral two participants talking to at least one one more, having admire for each and every other and having a dialog where they are going to disagree, but where they continually imprint admire for the humanity of the opposite.”
Noam Sibony’s title used to be misspelled and has been corrected. We be apologetic in regards to the error.
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