Page 96 - VH Magazine N°186 - Septembre & Octobre 2020

dOLCE VITA I I Close Up

“Juifs du Maroc, 1934-1937”:

How i found My fatHer’s pHoto

BY PATRICK FERRITY

60 black-and-white photos of the now-departed Jews It had taken 50 years for him to see the picture. Besan-
of Morocco by photographer and painter, Jean Besan- cenot had photographed Assouline’s father as a child in
cenot (1902-1992). the oasis of Erfoud in Morocco, the center of Moroccan
The exhibition at the Museum of Art and History of Jewish life.
Judaism in Paris is an intimate, documentary-style Besancenot was mandated by the French Ministry of
portrait of Morocco’s Jewish population in the 1930s. Foreign Affairs and the Musée de l'Homme in Paris to
Morocco had the largest Jewish population that has ever carry out ethnographic work, made up of detailed notes,
existed in the Arab World, more than 250,000 people. films, and colorful drawings of Moroccan clothing as
The co-curator of the exhibition, Hannah Assouline, has an part of the 1930s exhibition.
incredible story that connects her to Besancenot’s photos. The photos are natural and striking, with an inti-
She met Besancenot in 1984 and it was within his collec- mate bond formed between the photographer and the
tion that she found a 1935 snapshot of a young married photographed. Each photo transports you through a
couple. The young boy in the photo, timid and barefoot, portal, to a time that has been lost and the world will
looked like her nephew, so she bought the photograph never know again. This creates a certain sadness and
as well as six others, gifts for her siblings. nostalgia in Besancenot’s pieces, that such wonderful
After showing her father, Rabbi Messaoud Assouline, the customs and traditions no longer exist in the now-de-
photograph of the young boy, he exclaimed, “it’s me!”. parted Jews of rural Morocco.

96 VH magazine Septembre & Octobre 2020