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**Paul Bunyan** · 01-22-2010, 06:51 PM

I know all about racism. I was raised in the Jim Crow era in the South. There is not one single facet of persecution in Morocco that surpasses what blacks endurred at that time. The difference is that there was no place for them to go. If they had been told that they would be killed if they stayed and that the alternative was to get on a plane and head to Africa where citizenship, a job and housing would be awaiting them as well as eternal paradise, there wouldn't be but a few thousand African Americans living in the south today.

If the nature of this ethnic cleansing is what you say it is, there would not be even a single homesick Moroccan Jew in the world today. Why would anyone want to go back to a place with nothing but bad memories?

That's the key thing. The Jews in Morocco and elsewhere endured a lot over the centuries, but after 1948 they had options.

I do not mean to belittle the hardships they had to endure, but we also need to keep in mind the draw of living in the Holy Land. Israel had just come back into existence, and I have no doubt that was a factor as well. Personally, I would rather live in a Ma'abarah (resettlement camp) in Israel, than a palace in Casablanca and that has nothing to do with any fear of anti-Semitism.

01-22-2010, 06:51 PM	#7
Paul Bunyan Join Date Jul 2007 Age 59 Posts 4,495 Senior Member	I know all about racism. I was raised in the Jim Crow era in the South. There is not one single facet of persecution in Morocco that surpasses what blacks endurred at that time. The difference is that there was no place for them to go. If they had been told that they would be killed if they stayed and that the alternative was to get on a plane and head to Africa where citizenship, a job and housing would be awaiting them as well as eternal paradise, there wouldn't be but a few thousand African Americans living in the south today. If the nature of this ethnic cleansing is what you say it is, there would not be even a single homesick Moroccan Jew in the world today. Why would anyone want to go back to a place with nothing but bad memories? That's the key thing. The Jews in Morocco and elsewhere endured a lot over the centuries, but after 1948 they had options. I do not mean to belittle the hardships they had to endure, but we also need to keep in mind the draw of living in the Holy Land. Israel had just come back into existence, and I have no doubt that was a factor as well. Personally, I would rather live in a Ma'abarah (resettlement camp) in Israel, than a palace in Casablanca and that has nothing to do with any fear of anti-Semitism.
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