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The Safi Affair of 1863 was an instance of antisemitic persecution based on an accusation of Jewish ritual murder in the city of Safi in the Sultanate of Morocco.

The blood libel in Safi and consequences

In August 1863, two Jews were accused of poisoning a retired Spanish colonel for whom worked as domestic servants for a a fourteen-year-old Jewish boy, Jacob Benyuda, and another Jew named Elias Benillouz, were accused by the Spanish vice consul in Safi of murdering the tax collector in a conspiracy with other Jews. Both of the accused Jews were subsequently executed after confessions extracted by torture. Several Jews were tortured and executed as a result. The Jews of Safi appealed to the Makhzan, the local governor, to intervene without success, then turned to foreign Jewish organizations. The incident attracted international press attention, with The influential British-Jewish banker and philanthropist Moses Montefiore traveled to Morocco to intercede on behalf of Safi's Jews.

Montefiore managed to secure the release of two others being held in connection with the affair, as well as two additional Jews imprisoned in a separate matter. Montefiore was able to secure an audience with Sultan Muhammad IV, who subsequently issued a royal dahir (decree) on February 5, 1864, ordering his “servitors, governors, cadis, and other factionaries to treat with utmost benevolence the Israelites who are under the protection of our Empire”. However, Montefiore was unsuccessful in his goal of achieving formal legal equality for Morocco's Jews, such as the abolition of the Dhimmi status of Jews in the country. According to historian Georges Bensoussan, the intervention of Montefiore may have intensified resentment of Jews in Morocco. The French consul in Mogador (Essaouira today) claimed in February 2024 that Montefiore's visit “risks over-exciting Muslim fanaticism and provoking acts of violence,” while Arab chroniclers saw the intervention of a foreign Jew as an act of insubordination and evidence of a "world-wide 'Jewish conspiracy'".

See also

• History of the Jews in Morocco
• Antisemitism in Morocco
• Moses Montefiore
• Blood libel

References

1. ^ Ben-Layashi, Samir; Maddy-Weitzman, Bruce (2010). "MYTH, HISTORY AND REALPOLITIK: MOROCCO AND ITS JEWISH COMMUNITY". Journal of Modern Jewish Studies. 9 (1): 89–106.
2. Moreno, Aviad (16 February 2020). "A View From Tangier: Inner Dynamics of Moroccan Jewish Modernity". HaSepharadi. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
3. Moreno, Aviad (2015). "An Insight into the Course of European-Oriented Modernization among Oriental Jewries–the Minute Book of the Junta of Tangier" (PDF). El Prezente - studies in Sephardic culture. 8–9: 106–107.
4. ^ Marglin, Jessica M. "A New Language of Equality: Jews and the State in Nineteenth-Century Morocco". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 43 (2): 175.
5. ^ Bensoussan, Georges (2019). Jews in Arab Countries : The Great Uprooting. Translated by Halper, Andrew (Bloomington, Indiana ed.). Indiana University Press. p. 132. ISBN 9780253038579. Within the narrow framework of the dhimma system, any claim of equality was the equivalent of insubordination, challenging the hospitality hitherto offered by the faithful. Arab sources view the Jews as arrogant, greedy, and cynical. For Arab chroniclers, Montefiore's 1864 Morocco visit was proof of a worldwide "Jewish conspiracy," just as was the French intervention in Tunisia after the execution of the Jewish coachman Batto Sfez in 1857. In Western chancelleries, Montefiore's visit was viewed as a clumsy step that "risks over-exciting Muslim fanaticism and provoking acts of violence," as the French consul at Mogador stated in February 1864.

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v t e Jews and Judaism in Morocco
History & Culture	History Moroccan Judaism Moroccan Jews Toshavim Megorashim in Israel category Haketia Judeo-Berber language Judeo-Moroccan Arabic Mellah Fez Marrakesh Mimouna Dafina Moroccan citron keswa-el-kbira Hiloula of Rabbi Haim Pinto Hiloula of Rabbi Isaac Ben Walid
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