Cultural exchange
The Moroccan-Jewish Food Exchange
For roughly two thousand years, Jewish and Muslim communities lived side by side in Morocco — not always easily, but continuously, and with a degree of culinary exchange that is written into the food of both. The mellah (Jewish quarter) and the medina shared markets, ingredients and often neighbours, and the influence flowed in both directions. Understanding this exchange is essential to understanding Moroccan food as a whole.
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- 7 min
- Topic
- Cultural exchange
- Updated
- 20 July 2026
At a glance
- Jewish communities in Morocco date back roughly two millennia, predating the Arab conquests.
- Jewish and Muslim Moroccan cuisines share many ingredients and techniques, with adaptations for kashrut (dietary law).
- Dishes like dafina/skhina and certain preserving traditions crossed communal boundaries.
A long coexistence
Jewish presence in Morocco is ancient — communities existed before the Roman period, and the population grew with waves of migration, most notably the arrival of Sephardi Jews expelled from Iberia in the 15th century. Jewish and Muslim Moroccans shared cities, markets and, to a significant degree, food culture. The mellahs — distinct Jewish quarters in cities like Fes, Marrakech and Essaouira — were not sealed off; trade, commerce and daily contact ensured a constant exchange.
Dietary law (kashrut) imposed certain constraints on Jewish cooking — no mixing of meat and dairy, no pork, specific slaughter requirements — but within those constraints, Jewish Moroccan cooks used the same spices, the same olive oil, the same preserved lemons and the same seasonal produce as their Muslim neighbours.
Shared dishes, adapted traditions
The most famous example of cross-communal adaptation is the Sabbath stew. Jewish cooks developed dafina (also called skhina) — a slow-cooked stew of meat, eggs, chickpeas, potatoes and wheat, sealed and left to cook overnight so that no active cooking was required on the Sabbath. Muslim cooks had their own slow-cooked overnight preparations, and the influence likely ran in both directions.
Preserving techniques — preserved lemons, olives, pickled vegetables — were shared across communities. Festive pastries, almond confections, and the use of saffron and cinnamon in both sweet and savoury dishes appear in Jewish and Muslim Moroccan cooking alike, with variations dictated by dietary law and family tradition.
- Dafina / skhina: the Jewish Sabbath stew, with parallels in Muslim slow-cooked dishes.
- Preserved lemons and olives: shared ingredients central to both cuisines.
- Festive pastries: almond-based sweets prepared for both Jewish and Muslim holidays.
Departure and memory
The mass emigration of Moroccan Jews to Israel, France and elsewhere from the 1950s onward dramatically reduced the community, though a small population remains. The culinary legacy, however, endures — both in the food that Moroccan Jews carried to their new countries and in the dishes that remain part of the wider Moroccan repertoire. Many Moroccans today eat foods shaped by Jewish-Muslim exchange without knowing or needing to know the origin.
For more on the Jewish culinary history of Morocco, see Jewish Moroccan cuisine.
Frequently asked questions
What is dafina?
Dafina (also called skhina) is the traditional Jewish Moroccan Sabbath stew — a slow-cooked dish of meat, eggs, chickpeas, potatoes and wheat, sealed and left to cook overnight so that no active cooking is needed on the Sabbath. It has parallels in Muslim slow-cooked preparations.
Did Jewish and Muslim Moroccans eat the same food?
To a large extent, yes. They shared markets, ingredients, spices and many techniques. Jewish cooking adapted for kashrut (dietary law), but the flavour palette — cumin, saffron, preserved lemons, olive oil — was shared across communities.
Are there still Jewish communities in Morocco?
A small Jewish community remains, concentrated mainly in Casablanca, though it is a fraction of the pre-1950s population. Most Moroccan Jews emigrated to Israel, France and elsewhere, carrying their culinary traditions with them.