Jewish high school in Casablanca is now 90% Muslim - but still teaches Hebrew and Jewish subjects

From MAP Casablanca:

While some considered the inclusion of Hebrew culture in school curricula during the 2020-2021 season as an unprecedented measure, at Musa Ibn Maimon [Maimonides] High School, this been in place for a long time. At the study desks at the educational institution in Casablanca, Jewish and Muslim students have been studying side by side for more than 60 years.

Within this institution, which was established in 1950, students learn Hebrew and Arabic, and celebrate Jewish and Islamic religious holidays. What makes this institution unique in Morocco is that about 90 percent of the students, today, are Moroccan Muslims.

Perhaps this atmosphere of harmony is not alien to Morocco, which has always been in the forefront of preserving Jewish memory.

The director of Musa Ibn Maimon High School, Shimon Cohen, said in a statement to MAP that the institution is affiliated with the International Israeli Union Network, which carried the name “The Union” after the independence of Morocco, and  used to run  dozens of schools in Morocco, the first of which was opened in Tetouan in 1862. 

He said that the number Muslim pupils when they opened this  high school did not exceed between 5 and 10 percent.

Mr. Shimon Cohen considered that the influx of Moroccan Muslim students to high school is due to the common values ​​and strong relations that bind them to the adherents of the Jewish religion. He added that the dealings with Moroccan Muslims "reveal a set of virtues such as humility and human warmth, which are priceless feelings that our Muslim brothers express whenever we see them or talk to them."

He stressed that "these virtues must be taught and preserved, and I seek to make this institution a model for the rest of the educational institutions, here and anywhere else."

Besides the rigor, quality of teaching and the standard of teachers, which is the key to the success of the institution, a family atmosphere prevails among the approximately 400 pupils.

It is a model for coexistence and education between Jewish children and their Muslim peers who share the classroom and the recreation area and play. Rather, these links extend outside the walls of the institution to the point of friendship between families.

And Mr. Cohen considered that "these efforts may be just a drop in the ocean, but each one of them must do what he can and contribute, albeit a little, in order to consolidate the mutual respect between Muslims and Jews."

Here's video of the school.

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