UCLA is a global hub of North African and Moroccan Jewish Studies. UCLA’s Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies hosts a wide-range of courses, public programs, and scholarships, making our campus a destination for scholars and students invested in the histories, cultures, languages, and literatures of Maghribi Jewries.
Our affiliated scholars publish groundbreaking research on Moroccan and North African Jewries; lecture nationally and internationally on these topics; are frequently cited in the international press; collaborate with colleagues and mentor students at institutions across the world; are deeply engaged with the Moroccan Jewish community of Los Angeles; and teach thousands of students each year.
We believe that Jewish Moroccan Jewish Studies hinges upon a sincere and equal partnership with North African universities and scholars, with whom we aspire to train a new generation of scholars, share ideas, support the building of archives in the field, and co-organize international scholarly venues. We actively support the translation of English-language scholarship on North African and Moroccan Jewries into Arabic and French, working with Moroccan translators and a Moroccan University Press to make path-breaking research accessible to a global, engaged community of readers.
Moroccan Jewish Studies at UCLA is connected to and enriched by an expansive network of scholars and institutions across California who, together, are engaged in the study of North African and Middle Eastern Jewries. Our program also works closely with UCLA’s Maurice Amado Chair and Program in Sephardic Studies and Viterbi Family Chair and Program in Mediterranean Jewish Studies, as well as with institutions as varied as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Université Mohammed V, Rabat and Université Internationale de Rabat to host the highest quality, innovative scholarly programs, all free and open to the public. Our faculty and students also join experts in the field from across the state as part of the California Working Group on Jews in the Maghrib and the Middle East organized by Professors Jessica Marglin (USC) and Emily Gottreich (UCB).