One of the most intellectually stimulating weeks of my life was the one I recently spent in Morocco. More than the architecture or the food, the thing that stimulated me most — and that made me think of Ashkenormativity yet again — was the way many Moroccans spoke of the country’s Jewish community.
I’m always discreet about being Jewish when I travel — whether to Muslim or non-Muslim countries — so here, I tried to be just another traveler who happened to speak fairly proficient French. French is the prestige language in Morocco, and my ability to speak it opened many doors for me to chat with the Moroccans I encountered, be they AirBNB hosts in Rabat and Casablanca, the driver of a “grand-taxi” in Rabat, or the charming family I met at a tea house in Rabat’s Kasbah.
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