Beth-El Temple
Nineteen forty-nine sanctuary of gilded stucco and stained glass, seating five hundred beneath windows depicting the twelve tribes of Israel.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Beth-El Temple in Casablanca follows the Algerian Jewish families who fled French rule and pooled money in nineteen forty-nine to build a sanctuary meant to hold five hundred worshippers, at a time when the city's Jewish community numbered in the tens of thousands across more than thirty synagogues. It traces the stained-glass panels of the twelve tribes that visitors keep comparing to Chagall, and the gilded stucco walls that nearly went unrestored before a late-nineties rescue kept the original surfaces. Stand under the glass and count the panels before you move toward the guarded door.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Ettedgui Synagogue
Rebuilt house of worship with horseshoe arches, carved plaster, and a Sephardic-style central bimah.
Museum of Moroccan Judaism
Former Jewish orphanage turned museum of Sephardic and Berber Jewish heritage, ritual objects and Judaica.
Church of Notre Dame of Lourdes
Modernist concrete church with over eight hundred square meters of hammered slab-glass windows by Gabriel Loire.
בית קברות יהודי
Old Jewish burial ground of pale headstones inscribed in French, Hebrew and Spanish, once the resting place of a venerated saint.
Sacred Heart Cathedral
Deconsecrated Gothic-Art Deco church of poured concrete, now a cultural center hosting exhibitions and performances.
San Buenaventura Church
Deconsecrated nineteenth-century mission church reborn as a youth center hosting sports and craft workshops.