In the week after a devastating 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Morocco, killing more than 2,900 people over a wide area near Marrakesh, Rabbi Levi Banon and teams of rabbinical students and volunteers have been visiting the devastated Old City of Marrakesh daily, helping out locals with food, water and words of comfort.
The Old City’s buildings and infrastructure, already deteriorating from age, suffered significant damage from the quake. Particularly ravaged was the Mellah, the city’s historic 2,000-year-old Jewish Quarter.
Joined by Chen Schimmel, a photographer based in Tel Aviv, Banon met with residents who were still living outdoors because their homes were too badly damaged to return to, and visited the historic Slat al-Azama Synagogue, said to have been built in 1492 by Jews who had been expelled from Spain. Although the synagogue was severely damaged by the quake, plans were underway to ensure that there would be Rosh Hashanah services there or at another historic synagogue in the Jewish Quarter.
The rabbi, who directs Chabad-Lubavitch of Morocco with his wife, Chana, met with Chaim, a Jewish resident of Old City who makes dental prosthetics, whose home workshop was badly damaged. The rabbi also visited beloved Jewish community member Titi Haliwa, who, until now, had a constant stream of guests in her home, which was destroyed. “Every Shabbat, she had tables full of guests,” Banon told Chabad.org. “She would host 20 to 30 people at a time, often on weekdays, too, serving up generous kosher meals in the heart of the Mellah. Anyone who needed kosher food knew that they could go to Titi. Her home was one of the ideal examples of hachnasat orchim, but now the earthquake left it in complete ruins.”
Chabad of Morocco has launched a drive to collect essential supplies to help people who have lost everything. Those wishing to support the relief effort in Morocco can donate online here.
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