Yaakov Bentolila
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
In the Jewish community of Tetuan,1 as in other Jewish communities in Morocco,
official registration of the population was not practiced. We can, however, obtain
demographic and lifestyle details from private or semi-official documents, such as
records of circumcisions and deaths. The Circumcisions‘ Book left by the mohel
(―circumciser‖) R. Isaac Haserfaty, who was active in Tetuan between 1881 through
1940, is a good example of this kind of document; it is the basis of thorough research
by Ana María López Álvarez,2 who succeeded in extracting from a considerable
number of sociological details, as not only names and dates of birth of the
circumcised babies were registered, but also their parents‘ names and other facts
about the families, such as the fathers‘ occupations. Such information shed light on
the families living at that time in Tetuan, mainly regarding onomastics.
I will present some interesting data found in the Register of the Deceased,
1
2
Tetouan was founded in the northern part of Morocco, near the Mediterranean coast, at the
beginning of the sixteenth century. ―Jews from Spain arrived at the same time, making the city‘s
Jewish population overwhelmingly Sephardic. Judeo-Spanish (Haketia) remained the community‘s
mother tongue into the twentieth century. Following Spain‘s declaration of war against Morocco in
1859, and the subsequent defeat of the sultan‘s forces, the Spanish army occupied Tetouan on
February 6, 1860, remaining until May 1862. The Spaniards set about modernizing the city. Many of
the city‘s Jews eagerly supported Spain‘s attempts at modernization, and the occupation proved an
important milestone in the transformation of the Jewish community. In 1912, the Treaty of Fez
established the Spanish protectorate of Morocco in the northern part of the country with Tetouan as
its capital. The Jewish community grew, reaching its height around World War II. In 1940, the
Jewish population reached its height of 8,058,‖ Jessica Marglin, ―Tetouan,‖ Encyclopedia of Jews in
the Islamic World (exec. ed. Norman A. Stillman; Brill, 2010. See also Juan Bautista Vilar, Tetuán
en el Resurgimiento judío contemporáneo (1850–1870): Aproximación a la Historia del Judaísmo
Norteafricano (Caracas: Biblioteca Popular Sefaradí, 1985); Jacobo Israel Garzón, Los judíos de
Tetuán (Madrid: Hebraica Ediciones, 2005).
Ana María López Álvarez, La comunidad judía de Tetuán 1881-1940: Onomástica y sociología en
el libro de registro de circuncisiones del rabino Yishaq Bar Vidal Haserfaty (Madrid: (?), Ministerio
de educación, cultura y deporte, 2003)..
1
compiled by the Jewish Burial Society of Tetuan, called Ħevrat Ħuppat Eliyahu
veĦesed veEmet. It covers the period from 1896 to 1987, when Moshe Bar-Asher,
Yosef Shitrit and myself visited Tetuan and photographed the manuscript. The first
part of the manuscript is written in ħasi-qulmos or solitreo, a Rashi-like cursive
Hebrew script, in an accounting notebook. I shall call it Book A (Figure 1); it registers
3,128 individuals, who passed away over the course of about ninety years. The last
entry is from 5 Tishrei 5731, corresponding to October 5, 1970. Only Jewish dates are
used, not the Gregorian calendar equivalents. The details specified include the given
name of the deceased (though not always, as we shall see), family name and, in a
somewhat inconsistent manner, other information, such as the father‘s name. In the
case of women, the relationship to the most pertinent male in the family is specified,
usually the husband or father. I have reason to believe that the number of the deceased
was higher than the number registered, since the mortality rate was actually much
higher in the early period, considering plagues and generally lower life expectancy.
Possibly, infants and children were not registered,3 although I cannot estimate at what
age registration began.4
Figure 1: Book A––written in an accounting notebook
3
4
I did not find any record of three infants from my own family, one born dead and two who died
before their third year.
In one record from 1960, a female is described as mocita (―little girl‖), without specifying her age.
2
The second part of the manuscript, let us call it Book B, opens with the protocols
of twenty-seven executive meetings of the society, starting from April 1935 up to July
- Book B is written in Spanish, in Latin script, and both the Jewish and the
Gregorian calendar dates are designated. The protocols deal with various issues such
as role distribution among the society members, fund raising and maintenance of the
cemetery. These protocols are followed by 207 entries, each containing the details of
a deceased individual (Figure 2). The first dates from July 5, 1968. The latest item in
the manuscript we photographed is March 25, 1987, just five months prior to our visit.
Each entry includes the name of the deceased, the date, burial expenses and the actual
payment made. In some cases, the age and address of the deceased are supplied, as
well as the time of death. The first fifty-nine of these entries are the same as the last
fifty-nine records of Book A, From entry no. 60, there are no equivalents in Book A.
Registration becomes progressively less detailed, so that by July 1978 we find just
given and family names with dates of death (Figure 3).
Figure 2: Book B–-Records of two deceased
3
Figure 3: Last records in Book B
Since I have not yet copied all the names, I base my analysis so far on the full
registration of two chronological groups in Book A:
a) First fourteen years: 1897–1910
b) Last nineteen years: 1953–1971.
I will refer to these two periods as ―the early period‖ and ―the later period‖
respectively.
In the early period, we find 660 deceased: 49% male and 51% female. In the later
period, we find 564 deceased: 45% male and 55% female. The annual average in the
early period is forty-seven and in the later period thirty-three. These findings (Table
1) reveal both a decrease in the population due to increased emigration in the later
period, and an improvement in the conditions of health and medical care. The rise in
emigration is also reflected in the higher ratio of women to men in the later period.
4
Table 1: Number of deceased
Early period
N
%
Later period
N
Male
322
49
%
253
Female
338
51
45
311
Total
660
100
55
564
Average
47
100
33
What I will present, then, is a comparative analysis of the early and later periods. I
will begin with general comments, with data pertaining to names and orthography,
and will then proceed to some sociological issues.
General comments
Given Names
The given names are in Hebrew, Arabic, or Spanish, the proportionate number of
names in each language changing according to gender and period. Men from both
periods have mainly traditional Hebrew names; women‘s names are equally
distributed among the three languages, with a shift of approximately 5% from Arabic
to Spanish in the later period. One innovation in the later period is the use of
hypocoristic names for the women: alongside with Mas‛uda (eight instances) we also
find Mesody (eleven instances); we also find Freħi (for Freħa), Kota and Koti (for
Yaqot), Lucy, Miri (for Miriam), Raħeli (for Raħel), and Simi (for Simħa). Arabic
5
names may be converted into Spanish equivalents, for example Mas‛uda to Mercedes,
Freħa to Alegria, and Johar to Perla. This is prominent in the double registration of
the years 1968–1970. The same person is named Mas‛ud in the Hebrew entry in Book
A, and Fortunato in the Spanish parallel in Book B; similarly Simħa alongside
Alegria.
Orthography
In both periods, the spelling of men‘s given names is basically traditional ,יעקב, יצחק occasionally in the names Eliyahu and Yehuda the he ;)Ya‛aqov, Yisħaq, Moshe( משה
is replaced by alef אליאו →אליהו and יאודה→יהודה, probably to avoid the sequence yod
he-waw, used in the Name of God.
Some family names are inconsistently spelt. For example: Abecasis shows twice as Azerrad ;בוקאסיס and twice as ,אביקציץ four times as ,אביקאציץ fourteen times as ,אביקאסי
ס
is spelt five times אזיראד, twice אזירד, and three times 5;אזירראד Waknin is spelt וואעאקנין
twice, וואקנין twice, וועקנין once, ועאקנין once, בואקנין once, and 3 בואק’נין times. The
spelling of Ajuelos is twice אג’ואלוס, once אג’וואילוס, once אוג’ואילוס, once אז’וואילוס, and
once אכ’וואילוס, in a record from 1900, where the shift ž → χ reveals a recently adopted
Hispanic pronunciation.6
Cases of plene spelling in the early period include סעדייא, עיזיר, עאזאר (Sa‛adya,
‘Azar, ‘Ezer), and in the later period הם, שלומה, הליל, תאמאר, חאנאנייא
אבר
א
(Abraham,
Šelomo, Hillel, Tamar and Ħananya). Writing becomes increasingly sloppy with time,
both in terms of calligraphy and orthographic consistency. For example, the name
5
6
Double resh (רר) is a common spelling in Judeo-Spanish documents from North Africa, either to
render the Spanish /rr/, or to represent a geminated [r] in words of Arabic origin.
This shift is evidenced as early as the beginning of the nineteenth century, possibly earlier. Our
records show it frequently in words like מוכ’יר and היכ’ה (―wife‖ and ―daughter‖). However, finding
it in a personal name reflects the progress of the Hispanization that took place in the community.
6
Jimol [Žimol]7 is inconsistently spelled: גימול, ג’ימול, גמול, ג’מול, גמל, ג’מל →ג’ימול; likewise
Miriam: מיריאם, מירייאם, מיריין, מירים→מרים. It seems that the scribes of the later period
were no longer bound by the traditional orthography of Hebrew and Ladino. They
alternate between Yehuda with he (five times) and Ye‘uda with alef (four times), and
they are not consistent with the use of the diacritic apostrophe for pe [f], kaf [χ] and
gimel [ž , tš].
Onomastics
Among the aspects of onomastics that deserve attention, I would like to point to the
family names used in the community. The comparison between the ranking of the
twenty most frequent names in the works of López Álvarez8 and in ours, shows a
remarkable resemblance, as can be seen in table 2. Fourteen names appear in both
lists. The six names that appear in one column only are displayed in bold italics.
7
8
In Judeo-Spanish documents from North Africa, the letter ‘ג, gimel with an apostrophe, renders the
sounds [ž] or [tš]. The phone [dž] is not used, as opposed to the Ottoman Judeo-Spanish, where ‘ג
stands for [dž] or [tš], and ‘ז, zayin with an apostrophe, for [ž]. See David M. Bunis, Judezmo, An
Introduction to the Language of the Sephardic Jews of the Ottoman Empire (Jerusalem: Magnes
Press, The Hebrew University 1999 [Hebrew]), 53.
Supra, ftn. 2, 322. In Table 2, I changed the spelling used by López Álvarez to the commonly used
system.
7
8
Table 2: the most frequent family names
N of deceased (both periods) N of circumcised (1881–1940)
Name N Name N
Hacohen 61 Chocron 159
Chocron 50 Benzaquen 130
Halevy 46 Hacohen 119
Benzaquen 42 Bentolila 118
Nahon 41 Halevy 77
Bentolila 35 Nahon 73
Benchimol 28 Serfaty 66
Garzon 27 Abitbol 54
Benarroch 25 Benarroch 52
Abecasis 22 Garzon 52
Serfaty 22 Israel 51
Israel 20 Acrich 47
Sananes 19 Benatar 44
Serruya 19 Sananes 40
Azulay 18 Serruya 40
Benhamu 18 Benassayag 38
Bensadon 18 Wahnich 38
Gabay 16 Abecassis 36
Hachuel 16 Azulay 35
Jalfon 15 Wahnon 35
Titles, appellatives and nicknames
Rabbis are named with the ‘ר (רבי= Rebbi) title, some with the distinguishing מוה»ר = וחשוב כבוד הרב הנכבד ( «ח כה»ר הנו ;)‖morenu harav ―Our guide the Rabbi = הרב מורנו
(
9
hanniχbad veħašuv, kevod harav ―The distinguished and notable, his honor the
Rabbi‖); הדיין רבי (haddayyan rebbi ―the judge Rabbi‖); החכם רבי (heħaχam rebbi = ―the erudite Rabbi‖). Other honorific appellatives are הזקן (hazzaqen ―the ancient‖),
once הזקנה (hazzeqena ―the ancient‖ [fem.]), אירמאנה (Hermana, ―sister‖ in Spanish),
used to honor (mostly old) women with special religious or social qualifications; the
masculine counterpart אירמאנו (Hermano) is also, used, but rarely. The acronyms ז»ל alav‘ = ) עליו השלום ע»ה ziχrono livraχa ―of blessed memory‖) and = ) לברכה זכרונו
haššalom ―may peace be upon him‖) are used only with rabbis‘ names; נוחו עדן( נ»ע =
nuħo ‘eden ―May he rest in Paradise‖) is used for the name of a deceased husband in
female records. A small number of individuals are designated according to their roles
in the community: two as חברי (ħevri ―member of the Burial Society‖), one as שמש
(šammaš ―maintenance man of a synagogue‖), and one as ‘ש’יך (šeχ [Arabic] ―person
in charge of public affairs in the Jewish quarter‖).
Some occupations are specified––with the Arabic term: ניג’אר (nidţar ―carpenter‖), זאיילאג’י (zailaţi ―tile-setter‖), כ’אדדאר (χaddar ―vegetable
merchant‖), כ’ודרה (χudra ―vegetable [merchant]‖), כ’ודרירו (χudrero [Spanish
morphology] idem); or with the Spanish term: מידיקו (médico, ―physician‖), סאסטרי
(sastre ―tailor‖), פלאטירו (platero ―silversmith‖), פירירו (Judeo-Spanish ferrero for
Spanish herrero ―blacksmith‖), צירירו (J-Sp cerrero for Sp cerrajero ―locksmith‖), מולינו (molino ―mill‖ for ―miller‖), לאטה (lata ―tin‖ for ―tinsmith‖), קאפ’י
(café for ―a dealer in coffee or the like‖), לוטירייה (lotería ―[who sells] lottery
tickets‖), קארבון (carbon ―[who sells] coal‖).9 Most professions are inscribed in the
records of the earlier period; the sellers of lottery tickets and coal, as well as the
tinsmith, are the only ones recorded in the later period.
Outsiders are designated by their origin: אירבאטי (erbati, ―from Rabat‖), טאנג’אוואי
and טאנכ’ירינו (tanţawi [Arabic] and tangerino [Sp.] ―from Tangier‖), עאראייש’י (‘araiši
[Ar.] ―from Larache‖), עאראייש’יטו (‘araišito, idem with a Spanish diminutive suffix), די šešawnia, idem( שישאוניאה ,)‖de šešwan or šešawni ―from Chauen( שישאווני or ש’יש’וואן
fem.), ריפ’יאה (rifea ―from the Rif mountains‖ fem.), פ’וראסטירו (forastero ―outsider,‖ as
Judeo-Arabic speakers were called in Tetuan), אוראן די (de Oran ―from Oran‖).
9 Notice the way of naming things to signify occupations.
A few records include nicknames:10 ג’וחה (Ţoħa [mas.]11 ―a well known schemer
from popular tales‖),12 מידיי
א
sock‖?),13 ויסטוז
הל
הלה
(la media, ambiguous – ―the half [fem.]‖?/―the
(la vistoza ―the exhibitionist‖ [fem.]).
Sociological comments
Omission of women’s given names in the early period
A prominent phenomenon in the early period is the high percentage (33%) of
omission of women‘s given names—the deceased woman is only referred to in
relation to the most significant male relative: husband, son, father, brother, or even
nephew. The syntactic pattern is מוכ’יר די/אשת/מאדרי די/היכ’ה די/בתו של פלוני―wife/mother/daughter of X (male‘s name).‖ In the later period, female given names
are no longer omitted, but the relationship to the significant male relative is still
specified in most cases: 81%.14 Significantly, for the majority, this relationship is
designated with the Hebrew term אשת, אשתו של, בתו של, אלמנת (―wife, daughter,
widow‖): 78% as against 54% in the early period (Table 2). This, alongside a
10 Nina Pinto-Abecasis has done research on nicknames in the Community of Tetuan. Among her most
important findings is the relevance of humor and gender. See: Nina Pinto-Abecasis, Humor in
Nicknames among the Jews in Tetuan Doctoral Thesis, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Jerusalem 2008 [Hebrew]; idem, ―Nicknaming Patterns Among the Haketia Speaking Jews of
Tetuan,‖Ladinar V (2009 [Hebrew]), 89–137; idem, ―‗Ja Ja Ja‘ and ‗The European‘ – Gender in
Nicknaming Among the Jews of Tetuan‖, Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Folklore XXVI (2009
[Hebrew]) 87–110.
11 This (from 1960–61) is the only nickname recorded in the later period. In the early period we find a
woman (from 1906–07) related to Žoħa: Reina la de Ţoħa (‗Žoħa‘s Reina‘); there must have been
another person with the same nickname, which means that every generation had its own Žoħa; see
next footnote.
12 On the personage of Žoħa among Judeo-Spanish speakers in Morocco, see Gladys Pimienta, ―Djoha
en haketia,‖ Aki Yerushalayim 76 (2004), 34–38; on Žoħa in oriental Judeo-Spanish tales, see Tamar
Alexander-Frizer, The Beloved Friend-and-a-Half (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem and the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press, 1999 [Hebrew]), 357
13 In the present day, a century later, it is impossible to understand the motivation for these nicknames.
Were they based on the bearer‘s body, her appearance, her personality? See Pinto-Abecasis, Humor
in Nicknames, ch. 3, sect. 4.
14 In this case the syntactic pattern is: ―Y (female‘s given name), wife/mother/daughter of… X (male‘s
name)‖
11
consistent use of the full word בן ben instead of its traditional Moroccan abbreviation ‘ן
nun (Table 3), seems to reflect an emergent acquaintance with Modern Hebrew and a
growing interest in the recently established State of Israel.
Table 3: Linguistic terms for the naming of women
in relation to a male relative
Early period
Later period
Language of
terms
Spanish
N
%
151
46
N
%
56
Hebrew
178
54
22
196
Total
329
100
78
252
100
Table 4: Use of the full word ben instead of its traditional abbreviation
Early period
Late period
Abbreviation/full ן
‘ ב
ן
Example ן’ מירג
י בן מירג
י
Transcription
N‘ Mergui
Ben Mergui
Double family names in the later period
The non-Jewish Spanish pattern of two family names—the father‘s followed by the
mother‘s—was widely used by men and women in the Jewish community of Tetuan,
especially in later years, in direct proportion to the consolidation of the Spanish
11
influence.15 This practice appears in the records of the later period only, occasionally
(in 9% of the cases) with respect to the names of men.16 According to the Hispanic
custom, almost half of the married women are registered with two family names, their
maiden name and their husband‘s name.17
Bachelors and spinsters
Individuals who had never married were consistently described as bahur ―young
man‖ or betula ―virgin.‖ In the later period, twenty-nine individuals were registered in
each of these categories (including two betulot aged eighty and ninety). In the early
period, however, the ratio of bachelors to spinsters shows thirty-eight ―young men‖ as
against fifteen ―virgins‖ (Table 4); these are always designated as ―daughters of,‖
following the custom we have already seen—relating the deceased female individuals
to a male kin. We may probably attribute the rather low ratio of betula designations to
the fact that girls were married at a young age: when deceased at a very young age
they were not registered at all,18 and by the time a girl was old enough to be
registered, she was already old enough to be married.
15 On Spanish influence, see supra ftn. 1.
16 For example: Shelomo Nahon Marrache.
17 For example: Freħa Cohen, widow of Rebbi Shemuel Bentolila.
18 See supra ftns. 3 and 4.
12
Table 5: Widows, bachelors and spinsters
Early period
Later period
N
%
N
Widows
7
2
%
159 51
Wives
201
59
59 19
Bachelors ―bahur‖
38
12
29
11
Spinsters ―betula‖
15
4
29 9
Widows
In the early period only seven women were described as ―widows,‖ as opposed to 159
in the later period. We may assume that in the early period, the number of widows
was actually higher, but they were described as mothers, daughters, etc. ―Widow‖
connotes an independent status, whereas a woman in the early period was
predominantly defined in relation to her male kin.
The difference between the early and later periods also reflects a demographic
change: many of the young people emigrated from Tetuan to Israel, the Americas and
Europe, leaving the elderly behind. This process is reflected in the drop in the number
of women described as ―wives of‖: 19% in the later period, as against 59% in the
early period. In the entries of Book B, where the age of the deceased is mentioned in
ninety cases, a relatively old society emerges (Figure 3).
13
25
20
15
N
10
5
0
15-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90-99 100+
Age
Figure 4: Number of deceased by age in Book B
To summarize
A close look at the lists of deceased persons sheds some light on the evolving lifestyle
of the community of Tetuan during the last century. A comparison of the early and
later periods shows a developmental path characterized by the following elements: an
improvement in sanitation and medical care; a weakening of the ties to the linguistic
tradition of the community along with an accelerated process of Hispanization; an
emerging attraction to Modern Hebrew; an improvement in women‘s status, and an
increase in emigration, leaving the older generation behind. This process has left
almost no Jews in Tetuan.