Ettedgui Synagogue

This guide to the Ettedgui Synagogue in Casablanca's old medina opens behind a plain wooden door, asking what actually survives inside after decades of silence. It traces the building back to 1920, when the Ettedgui family raised it as a mark of how settled Casablanca's Jewish bourgeoisie once felt in the city, and forward to November 1942, when Allied shelling during Operation Torch tore through its roof and walls. You'll hear how the congregation kept praying elsewhere while the building sat wounded for the better part of half a century, and what finally set its repair in motion decades later. Look for the raised bimah at the center of the room, set exactly as Sephardic tradition asks.