Editor’s note: I have a Morocco trip booked for next year, which begins in Casablanca. After reading this, I’ve decided to add a couple extra days in the city prior to my tour starting. What can I say? Sam Spector’s writing has that effect on me! For more of Sam’s awesome adventures, click here to visit his index page.

When traveling to Morocco, the most iconic cities for tourists are Fez and Marrakesh. However, a city that does not have as much to see but still has a legendary name is the largest city in the country, Casablanca. Casablanca is perhaps most famous for being the setting of the legendary 1942 Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman classic Casablanca. Despite taking place in Casablanca, the entire movie was actually filmed in Burbank, California at Warner Brothers Studios, with a few scenes at the Van Nuys Airport. However, the movie’s reputation has led to the city having a mystique about it that has drawn travelers who today love to flock to Rick’s Café, though many of them do not realize that the Rick’s Café of today was actually built in 2004 by an American to replicate the café in the film and draw tourists.

With around four million residents, Casablanca is more of the financial hub of the country as opposed to a tourist spot, as well as being the third largest port in Africa. With that said, most of what there is to see in Casablanca are the various parks and the Corniche, the seaside promenade. As I was flying into Casablanca, I had the good fortune of sitting next to an incredibly nice guy on the plane who was seeing his family for the first time in years. Once we got off the plane, he embraced his parents for the first time in three long years and then told them, “This is Sam, he is Jewish and I told him we would give him a ride to the Jewish Museum!” While I felt this was extraordinarily chutpadik (audacious), his parents were thrilled to do so. This experience and welcome I had to Morocco speaks to one of the reasons that I love traveling throughout the Arab world: the hospitality is next to none. While it is important to have your wits about you when you travel, and Morocco sadly has had incidences of Islamic extremism and terrorism, a pleasant discovery of Morocco was that in comparison to other Arab nations that I have traveled to, I found incredibly low anti-Semitism. It was explained to me that during World War II, despite being under the control of Vichy France, King Mohammed V refused to sign off on legislation to have the quarter million Moroccan Jews sent to Nazi concentration camps. To this day, students learn about comparative religion in school, and while Morocco has had strong criticisms of Israel, it is able to effectively differentiate between the Israeli government and the Jewish people. Four years ago, Morocco was one of the four Arab nations to sign onto the Abraham Accords, recognizing Israel and creating diplomatic relations. Each person to whom I told that was I was Jewish met this news with warmth, curiosity, and excitement. While the country today has only a few thousand Jews due to pressure put on the Jewish community in the 1950s, it has the largest number of Jews (approximately 4000) and active synagogues of any country in the Arab world today.

The Jewish Museum in the upscale neighborhood of Oasis is the only museum dedicated exclusively to Judaism in the Arab world. The building was once an orphanage for 160 Jewish orphans and was rededicated in the past decade with the king attending the ceremony. The neighborhood itself is worth walking around in to see the beautiful gates and landscaping of the affluent homes.  In the museum, there are many items to see from Jewish artifacts, traditional garb of Berber Jews, a recreated bima (raised platform) of a synagogue, and also an account of World War II that is written in scroll form that has been dubbed the Megillat Hitler (the Hitler Scroll), written as a Purim Shpiel (parody play) during the war. The museum gives a good taste of Judaism for those who are not familiar, and especially an introduction into the rich and vibrant history of Moroccan Jews.

In Casablanca, there once stood 30 synagogues and there are still a handful today, but the most impressive and famous one is the Beth El Synagogue located in downtown. The large, modern Orthodox Sephardic synagogue is ornate and beautiful thanks to its 1997 remodel. Most impressive in the synagogue are its stained glass windows depicting the Twelve Tribes of Israel and their symbols. Nearby is the Casablanca Cathedral, a large white structure built in 1930. Today, the cathedral is a cultural center as it ceased to be an active worship space upon Morocco’s independence in 1956.

The main attraction in Casablanca is a different center of worship, the unbelievable Hassan II Mosque. Of the many mosques that I have visited throughout the world, this one stands apart. Built in 1993, it was at the time I visited the mosque with the tallest minaret in the world at 690 feet (it was surpassed by an Algerian mosque in 2019), and at night a red laser goes from the minaret towards the direction of Mecca. The mosque is the 14th largest in the world and second largest in Africa, with the ability to hold 105,000 worshippers (25,000 inside and 80,000 outside). The mosque took seven years to construct, with 10,000 artists constructing the marble walls with their various designs, and a construction crew of 1400 workers during the day and 1100 workers throughout the night. The mosque was built on a plaza that was built on top of the ocean with the waves coming right up to the mosque, making it appear to be floating from certain vantage points. The prayer hall uses granite, marble, and cedar, which were sourced from various parts of Morocco. What is particularly unique is that the roof of the mosque is retractable. The mosque was designed in a way so that worshippers could experience the water, earth, and sky all while praying, despite being in the middle of a metropolitan city. The mosque’s architecture also features styles from many different eras dating back thousands of years to reflect the country’s history.  I highly recommend doing a guided tour of the mosque that will cover all of its thoughtful and unique designs, tilework and architectural achievements, taking you not only to the outside plaza and prayer hall, but down into the basement of the mosque with its beautiful fountains and washing basins.

While other cities in Morocco have way more tourist attractions and days worth of exploring to do, spending a day in Casablanca is still a worthwhile endeavor, especially to see one of the world’s most impressive mosques. Though other cities in Morocco were more special to me, through reading this article, hopefully we’ll always have Paris… I mean Casablanca.

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