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In this volume are gathered articles published by Yolande Cohen and her team, offering for the first time a global perspective on Moroccan Jews' post-colonial migrations to France and Canada. Having herself migrated from Morocco to Montreal, Cohen is uniquely attuned to the difficulties of living through such a massive exile. Why did members of the Jewish community leave Morocco? When did this migration happen? And how can we analyze their journey?
Cohen explores the many vivid memories of departures that she encountered when collecting oral histories of migrants both in France and in Quebec. She notes the deep attachment some of them have to their King and to Morocco, making this an exception in the Arab Muslim world. The main disruptive forces in the displacement of these populations were French colonialism and its emancipatory promises and Zionism, both messianic and modern.
After the establishment of the State of Israel and the subsequent Israel-Arab wars, most of them joined in the mass exodus of Jews from Arab lands, leaving their countries for Israel. With the demise of the French colonial empire and the decolonization process, a minority of westernized Jews went to France and to Canada, with the help of transnational Jewish organizations.
In Montreal, a city with a strong multi-ethnic Jewish community, those migrants understood the crucial aspect of French language as an essential factor of integration. Yet, analyzing their trajectories and the words they used to represent their exile, allows us to understand the underlying traumas. Why did they leave Morocco? When did this migration happen? And how can we analyze their journey? The period and context of their departure are fraught with complex issues. As colonial subjects of the French Empire, they were treated as "indigenes" in need of "regeneration." Yet if some of them believed in French emancipation, it came to a brutal end with the implementation of the Vichy regime's antisemitic laws in Morocco in 1942. With the ending of the French colonial empire and the decolonization process, Moroccan Jews' rupture with France was (almost) complete. After the establishment of the State of Israel and the subsequent Israel-Arab wars, they joined in the mass exodus of Jews from Arab lands, leaving their countries to join refugee camps in the post-Shoah resettlement of survivors in Europe. In this context, the fate of the large Moroccan-Jewish community became an object of interest for the French, Moroccan, and Israeli states, as well as international Jewish organizations (Cohen and Tortel, 2025). Canada had not yet begun to become an active player, reacting only when the federal government came under mounting pressure from the Canadian Jewish Congress to open its doors to North African Jewish refugees. Yolande Cohen (Author)
Yolande Cohen is Full Professor of Contemporary History at the Université du Québec à Montréal and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Knight of Quebec's Ordre national and of France's Légion d'honneur, she received an honorary doctorate from Université de Montréal and the 2024 ACFAS André-Laurendeau prize for humanities, arts and letters.
In this book, the post-colonial migration of thousands of Moroccan Jews is analyzed. Based on oral histories and historical archives, these essays show the importance of colonialism and Zionism as disruptive forces that precipitated their massive exile and their settlement in France and Canada during the post-Shoah period. In a brilliant retrospective, Canadian historian Yolande Cohen revisits her life-long fascination with the mid-century resettlement of Moroccan Jews in Montreal, where they not only found refuge, but also novel expressions for their own rich heritage. Elaborated with scientific data as well as highly personal recollections, her story of the integration of African-born Jews into an unfamiliar multicultural environment is a tale of amazing adaptability on one
Cohen explores the many vivid memories of departures that she encountered when collecting oral histories of migrants both in France and in Quebec. She notes the deep attachment some of them have to their King and to Morocco, making this an exception in the Arab Muslim world. The main disruptive forces in the displacement of these populations were French colonialism and its emancipatory promises and Zionism, both messianic and modern.
After the establishment of the State of Israel and the subsequent Israel-Arab wars, most of them joined in the mass exodus of Jews from Arab lands, leaving their countries for Israel. With the demise of the French colonial empire and the decolonization process, a minority of westernized Jews went to France and to Canada, with the help of transnational Jewish organizations.
In Montreal, a city with a strong multi-ethnic Jewish community, those migrants understood the crucial aspect of French language as an essential factor of integration. Yet, analyzing their trajectories and the words they used to represent their exile, allows us to understand the underlying traumas. Why did they leave Morocco? When did this migration happen? And how can we analyze their journey? The period and context of their departure are fraught with complex issues. As colonial subjects of the French Empire, they were treated as "indigenes" in need of "regeneration." Yet if some of them believed in French emancipation, it came to a brutal end with the implementation of the Vichy regime's antisemitic laws in Morocco in 1942. With the ending of the French colonial empire and the decolonization process, Moroccan Jews' rupture with France was (almost) complete. After the establishment of the State of Israel and the subsequent Israel-Arab wars, they joined in the mass exodus of Jews from Arab lands, leaving their countries to join refugee camps in the post-Shoah resettlement of survivors in Europe. In this context, the fate of the large Moroccan-Jewish community became an object of interest for the French, Moroccan, and Israeli states, as well as international Jewish organizations (Cohen and Tortel, 2025). Canada had not yet begun to become an active player, reacting only when the federal government came under mounting pressure from the Canadian Jewish Congress to open its doors to North African Jewish refugees. Yolande Cohen (Author)
Yolande Cohen is Full Professor of Contemporary History at the Université du Québec à Montréal and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Knight of Quebec's Ordre national and of France's Légion d'honneur, she received an honorary doctorate from Université de Montréal and the 2024 ACFAS André-Laurendeau prize for humanities, arts and letters.
In this book, the post-colonial migration of thousands of Moroccan Jews is analyzed. Based on oral histories and historical archives, these essays show the importance of colonialism and Zionism as disruptive forces that precipitated their massive exile and their settlement in France and Canada during the post-Shoah period. In a brilliant retrospective, Canadian historian Yolande Cohen revisits her life-long fascination with the mid-century resettlement of Moroccan Jews in Montreal, where they not only found refuge, but also novel expressions for their own rich heritage. Elaborated with scientific data as well as highly personal recollections, her story of the integration of African-born Jews into an unfamiliar multicultural environment is a tale of amazing adaptability on one
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- SeriesCanadian Studies