http://www.morocco-tours.travel/morocco-jewish-tour.php

http://goafrica.about.com/od/moroccotopattractions/tp/topplacesmoroc.htm  

Casablanca

http://www.experiencefestival.com/casablanca_-_jews_in_casablanca

Essaouira

Mellah of Essaouira

Fez

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Fez.html

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=131&letter=F

Marrakech
 

M is a city of one million and

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/04/jewish-marrakech.html 

http://www.haaretz.com/news/a-kosher-hotel-takes-root-in-marrakech-1.233422

http://www.mavensearch.com/synagogues/C3415Y41801RX

http://users.skynet.be/diab/Travel/Morocco2.htm

http://www.travelswithsheila.com/the_old_jewish_area_of_marrake_1.html

Mellah of Marrakech

Medina

http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/GeoImages/Miller/medinast.html

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=326&letter=M

http://www.pbs.org/muhammad/ma_jews.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medina

http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~peters/medina.html

http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/sina/jews.htm

Meknes
                                       

 "The old Mellah (Jewish quarter) was located on a bad terrain (a sloping gorge) The new Mellah was acquired by the Jewish community in the 1920s in part due to the efforts of the
BERDUGO family. This new larger Mellah was built next to the old Mellah. It was walled and locked at night, for in Nissan 1911 the Mellah was attacked, and was under siege for 3 months until the intervention of the French."

http://www.loebtree.com/meknes.html

http://rickgold.home.mindspring.com/page19.html

http://www.cecisibony.com/2008/09/meknes/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlz7dUOmxsw

http://www.mavensearch.com/synagogues/C3415Y41802RX

Mogador

http://www.americansephardifederation.org/sub/events/exhibition-jewish_wedding_mogador.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essaouira

http://www.cecisibony.com/2008/10/rabat/

http://www.mavensearch.com/synagogues/C3415Y41889RX

Taroudant

Mellah of Taroudant (you can find Moroccan Jews still living there ) and some of them come back from the US and Europe to help restore a their historic Mellah.  They live there like in the old Past
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g1183132-Taroudant-Vacations.html

Tazart

http://robotics.stanford.edu/~latombe/mountain/photo/taghia05/taghia.htm

Located about 250 miles south of Marrakech, Tazart was once the home to a Mellah, or Jewish quarter.  Jews began living in Mellahs, which were fortified, as early as the 1400s.  Later all Jewish residents were required to live in a Mellah.  Tazart was later abandoned when the region dried up.  After the establishment of Israel, most Moroccan Jews emigrated there.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g293730-i9195-k4911017-Mellah_of_Tazart-Morocco.html

latimes.com/travel/…7607658.photogallery 

Tetuan

This city is located about 60 km east of the Tangier and 40 km south of the Spanish enclave of Ceuta (Sebta) and the Strait of Gibraltar.  It is in the far north of the Rif Mountains.  It is situated in the middle of a belt of orchards that contain orange, almond pomegranate and cypress trees.  It means "eyes" in the Berber language and is the capital and cultural center of the region.  In 2004, the city had 320,529 inhabitants (census figure), up from about 25,000, of whom a fifth were Jews, in the early 20th century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A9touan

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=940CE3DB173AE033A25751C1A9649C94699FD7CF

http://www.kulanu.org/nigeria/spirit.php

Books      
               

Jews in South Africa: An Illustrated
Authored by Professors Richard Mendelsohn and Milton Shain
http://www.jonathanball.co.za/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1744 y book. It

will keep eager meat lovers entertained as they try out Sharon Lurie’s
http://jewishweb.co.za/pages/book_review1.htm

Historical Buildings in South Africa" 
Authored by Desiree Picton-Seymour

General South African
Geological Information

Bibliography of South African Jewry

Names along with the shtetls or towns coming from in Eastern Europe
http://www.lib.uct.ac.za/jewish/biblio.php3?srcid=1

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/South_Africa.html 

Cemeteries & Synagogues

http://chrysalis.its.uct.ac.za/CGI/cgi_RootWeb.exe?entry_point=Cemeteries&a_
z=P-T 

Braamfontein Jewish cemetery
Located in Johannesburg
http://www.jhbchev.co.za/

http://www.jhbcityparks.com/overview/cemeteries-hold-history-of-the-city.html

Brickstone cemetery
Where earlier Jews are buried
http://home.global.co.za/~mercon/lookup.htm

Johannesburg
There is a Jewish cemetery just outside known as Kempton Park.
http://www.kemptalk.com/history_of_kempton_park.htm

http://www.jewishgen.org/safrica/synagogues/index.htm

Oudtshoorn
Queen Street Synagogue.
http://www.seligman.org.il/oudtshoorn_jews.html

http://www.jewishgen.org/Safrica/synagogues/10/index.htm

Port Elizabeth
Glendinningvale Synagogue
http://www.jewishgen.org/safrica/synagogues/56/index.htm

Westpark Cemetery
A huge Jewish cemetery
http://www.cwgc.org/search/cemetery_details.aspx?cemetery=101545&mode=1

Great Park Synagogue
Houghton, Johannesburg. 
Contact Eli Goldstein
eligold@virtual-ventures.co.za

http://www.jewishweb.co.za/pages/synagogues/synagogue.htm 

http://www.jewishweb.co.za/pages/synagogues/synagogue.htm  

Chief Rabbi of South Africa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Goldstein

Highlands House

The home for Jewish elderly
http://www.seniorservice.co.za/

Jewish Affairs

The Board’s quarterly journal Jewish Affairs, provides a forum for discussion and original research on a wide variety of topics of Jewish interest. It publishes articles dealing with Jewish history, literature, art and religion as well as more specific subjects such as Zionism and the Holocaust, both in the local and international context.  To view past publications  you may have to do a cut and paste to get to the site.
http://www.jewish.org.za/php3/pubs.php3?action=affairs 

SA Expatriates
A site located by School where a large number of Jewish people have registered
http://www.sareunited.com

www.RSA-Overseas.com

Miriam Margolyes has offered to do telephone looks up in the July 1998 Phone Book for this city
E-mail 75342.3217@compuserve.com

Jewish ex-Patriate Africans

World-wide link to ex-Patriate Africans now living somewhere in the world
http://www.sareunited.com/

Jewish Genealogy of South Africa

Publishes a web site that offers a great deal of information including:
photographs, Historical Background, Historical, Jewish Genealogical Societies in South Africa, Associations and Societies, National Archives, South African Jewish Communities and more
http://www.jewishgen.org/SAfrica/ 

http://chrysalis.its.uct.ac.za/CGI/cgi_Rootweb.exe

Jews of Africa

"Today’s Rusape Jewish community is a vibrant, exciting group that comes together often in song in prayer at their recently rebuilt tabernacle, located about seven kilometers out of town. They follow the same holidays as Western Jews, are learning Hebrew, and are deeply devoted to reviving the Jewish culture of the Old Testament, which they believe is greatly in tune with their own ancient local ways. The community is several thousand strong and growing."

I found this site very interesting created by Jay Sand
http://www.mindspring.com/~jaypsand/rusape.htm

Lemba

A Bantu speaking people of northern South Africa and Zimbabwe, practice circumcision, keep one day a week holy and avoid eating pork or pig-like animals such as hippopotamus.  The confirmation of the Lemba's Jewish ancestry has come via two intertwining lines of inquiry.

Lithuanian Jews Make Big Impact in South Africa

An article written by Ed Stoddard at 
http://www.angelfire.com/ut/Luthuanian/johannesburg.html

LitvakSIG

Subscription Information
http://www.jewishgen.org/jewishgen/support.htm

 Maps

http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/map.html    

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/africa/cuvl/maps.html

http://www.hagsoc.org.au/sagraves/maps/times_map.php

National Archives of South Africa

http://www.national.archives.gov.za/

Resources in South Africa

DEPARTMENT OF HOME AFFAIRS
This government department acts as Registrar of births, marriages and deaths. Approximate commencing dates for the registration of births, marriages and deaths in the various provinces is as follows:
 

The public has no direct access to South African birth, marriage and death civil registration records. The registers are maintained by the Department of Home Affairs in Pretoria. The facilities, files and records of the Department of Home Affairs are not open to the public or researchers. There is no index for perusal by the public. The public may submit applications for copies of birth, marriage and death certificates.

Two types of certificates are available - an abridged certificate and a full certificate. For genealogical purposes, always request FULL certificates, as they contain more details. Within South Africa, application can be made at any Department of Home

Affairs office. To apply for certificates from outside South Africa one must do so through the nearest South African Embassy, Consulate or High Commission. 

There is a charge associated with obtaining copies of these certificates. Alternatively, the South African National Archives has marriage and death registers older than 20 years, although the issue of certificates can only be done by the Department of Home Affairs and the records cannot be photocopied.

This web site contains information of interest to people researching South African ancestors/descendants.
http://www.rupert.net/~lkool/

Sephardic Sites

http://www.jewishgen.org/sephardicsig/

South Africa Jewish Genealogy

www.jgbgb.org.uk

The Kaplan Centre, Cape Town, has funded the South African MEGA BASE project, Part I.  There is a database consisting of the 16,000 records contained the South African Jewish Board of Deputies Passenger List Registers, 1924-1929.  Project Manager as of 12/20/1996 is Janine Blumberg.
http://www.jewishgen.org/Safrica/sa.htm

http://www.jewishgen.org/SAfrica/SAResearch.htm

Sephardic Jewish Genealogy

Interior of Santa Maria la Blanca, Toledo, previously a synagogue built in Almohad  
http://tenthmedieval.wordpress.com/2011/06/19/iberia-your-genes-are-riding-up-on-one-side/

Paarl

The Jewish country community of Paarl, South Africa, was founded by Dutch and German settlers in the 1850s.  Later Lithuanian immigrants from Plungian/Plunge and Birzh/Birzai, formed the majority of the community. 

Books      
                

"The Light of Israel, The Story of the Paarl
Jewish Community"
Authored by Charles Press and published in 1993, lists some of the families who formed the nucleus of the community and the towns they came from. A list of families was offered by Ann Rabinowitz
pqua32a@prodigy.com on 7/4/1997 on JewishGen Digest
http://www.jewishgen.org/SAfrica/communities/2/index.htm

http://www.epinions.com/review/aarl_Western_Cape_South_Africa
_epi/content_469022510724

Ponevez

Jews from this Lithuanian shtetl emigrated to South Africa and established this Jewish Community

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/South_Africa.html

http://www.jewishgen.org/SAfrica/ponevez/index.htm

http://www.tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/jo/tpersonality/ponevezerrav.html

http://www.ponevez.co.il/HTMLs/articlen.aspx?C2056=12578&BSP=
12273&BSS110=12578

Port Elizabeth

A seaport city which has the Glendinningvale Synagogue and was established in 1841
http://www.jewishgen.org/safrica/synagogues/56/index.htm

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0016_0_
15999.html

http://www.mikvahminder.com/details/port-elizabeth-hebrew-congregation.html

Pretoria Jewish Cemetery

http://www.jewishgen.org/cemetery/africa/southafrica.html

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/South_Africa.html

 

Sudan

http://www.sudanesethinker.com/2008/01/15/my-search-for-sudanese-jews/

During the Mahdi's thirteen year rule, all infidels, including the Jews, were forcibly converted to Islam under threat of death in 1881 and most of the Sudan Jews were gone by the late 1960s.

Little is  known of the history of the intrepid Jews who in the late nineteenth century settled in the uncharted lands at the junction of the Blue and White Niles, prospered, established the only B'nai B'rith lodge in the heart of Africa, and whose members later had an significant impacts on Israel and world Jewry in present times.

Dr. Jeff Malka's grandfather, Shlomo Malka, was the Chief Rabbi of the Sudan from 1904 to 1949. Dr. Malka was born in the Sudan and lived there until he was 10 with several later visits up to 1956. 

http://www.sudanesethinker.com/2008/01/15/my-search-for-sudanese-jews/

Sudan Forum Board
http://sudanforum.net/ 

 Tunisia
 
  Mourners in the Borgel Jewish cemetery of Tunis, ca. 1900

The first Jewish settlers came to Tunisia in 70 CE, after the destruction of the second Temple, bringing with them a Torah and settling on the island of Jerba, Tunisia.  Today, there are still 2000 Jews living there with a beautiful temple and Jewish day schools for boys and one for girls.  

At one time, more than 100,000 Jews lived in Tunisia.  But the turmoil of the last half century, the Arab-Israeli wars and a rise in regional anti-Semitism have prompted most to leave.  Those still here are a remnant of what was a Diaspora within a Diaspora. 

Since 1948, when 100,000 Jews lived in Tunisia, the Jewish population has dropped to 2,000.  Many Jews emigrated to Israel after the founding of the Jewish state - or to France when Tunisia won independence in 1956.  More Jews left following anti-Jewish riots during the 1967 Six-Day War.  Following the Six Day War, Muslims burned down the Great Synagogue and anti-Jewish riots led to a steady stream of emigration.

Although few in number, Jews tenaciously thrive, retaining a lively but observant community, complete with Jewish schools, synagogues and kosher food.  Countering a downward trend, in the past several years their population has edged up by 200.

They have clung, for better or worse, to the island traditions established those thousands of years and refuse to let the modern world separate them from their traditions.  For example, marriages are still arranged.

This is a Muslim Arab nation in North Africa.  There were some 100,000 Jews before the founding of Israel, but today (2009) only 3,000 remain. 

The government of Tunisia is protective of the Jews, and they coexist in peace with their Muslim neighbors.  There is a record of Jews in ancient Carthage (Tunisia today) dating from Roman times when there was a massive expulsion of Jews from Israel.  Jewish symbols were found in the necropolis of Carthage and synagogues were discovered in Sousse and Kelibia.  The Tunisian Jews at the time, were mostly wealthy and observant.  During the High Holidays they
often prayed on the beach because the synagogues were not large enough to accommodate all of them.

Later, during the Byzantine occupation of Tunisia, the Jews were persecuted, but after the Arab invasion in the eighth century, there was a golden period of peace and prosperity. Jewish traders and businessmen came to Tunisia with the Arab armies that originated in Iraq; they furnished the troops with supplies.  Many settled in the city of Kerouan; their numbers grew so large that the city became known as the Jerusalem of Africa.

The Jews later suffered when the tribes of Bani hilal came from Egypt and conquered Tunisia. There were forced conversions - the same as happened in Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition - and the Jews went underground practiced their religion in secret.  In the 13th century, under the Hafsid dynasty, things were better for the Jews.  But they had lost many of their customs and traditions.  During the Inquisition, many more Jews came and the communities began to flourish again.  Many Jews arrived from Livorne , Italy who had originally fled Portugal during the Inquisition.  The Ottoman Beys employed Jews in the areas of diplomacy and finance.  By the French revolution in 1789, there were 50,000 Jews in Tunisia.  This split continues today as there are even separate cemeteries.

Property was confiscated from the Jews by the Germans during WWII and the Jews had to wear yellow badges.  Some four thousand Jews were shipped to concentration camps and some to extermination camps.

There is a Tunisian fig liqueur called Boukha.  The largest producer comes from a Jewish family by name of Boukhobsa.  The family has lived in Tunis since the 1830s.

A Jew, Roger Bismuth, is a senator in the Tunisian senate in 2009.  There is a hotel named La Kehenna named after an ancient heroine.  Purportedly, she was Jewish and led the  Berbers in a revolt against the early Arab occupation.  Her name meant "Cohen."
http://jewishrefugees.blogspot.com/2005/07/my-right-of-return-by-tunisian-jew.html

http://archaeology.about.com/od/romanempire/ss/paradise.htm

"Marriage Registers of the Sephardic Community of Tunis, Tunisia"
Two volumes are available at the UCLA Library. Both volumes were published by Robert Attal.  The first volume is in Hebrew, while the second volume is in French.
URL, call numbers DS 135 T7 A838 1989 and DS 135 T7 A838 1991

General Genealogical
Information of Tunisia

Brait

The history of the Jews in Tunisia goes back to Roman times. Before 1948, the Jewish population of Tunisia reached a peak of 110,000. From the 1950s, half this number left for Israel and the other half for France. In 2011, 700 Jews were living in Tunis and 1,000 on the island of Djerba.^[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Tunisia

Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP)

http://sites.huji.ac.il/cahjp/Lists%20of%20Organizations/Dal%20Harbin.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Tunisia

ETSI - Sephardi Genealogical and Historical Society

http://www.hsje.org/Genealogy.htm

http://www.oocities.com/etsi-sefarad/

Jewish Community of Tunisia

http://www.tunisusa.com/tours/tunisia/deluxe_escorted/jewish_history.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_Jews

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_exodus_from_Arab_and_Muslim_lands

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/tunisjews.html

http://www.mavensearch.com/synagogues/C3441Y41373RX

http://www.mindspring.com/~jaypsand/tunisia2.htm

http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF001970/Stern/Stern10/Stern10.html

 Maps 

http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/africa/tn.htm

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/africa/tunisia/

http://www.embassyworld.com/maps/Maps_Of_Tunisia.html

http://www.planetware.com/maps/tunisia-tun.htm

http://www.bugbog.com/maps/africa/tunisia_map.html

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/tunisia-map

Cities and Towns in Tunisia       

 
Tunisian Jews in 1900

Djerba    
    

A biblical garden and a mikve are a part of the Beth Israel Congregation in Phoenix, Arizona.  The highlight of the museum is a composite synagogue sanctuary brought from Djerba, Tunisia, with ornate floral motif tiles and wooden Torah casings.

http://lexicorient.com/tunisia/hara_sghira.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV4fmzzPnZk 

Hara Kbira, Jerba

Still quite Jewish. There are as many as 11 synagogues here, and close to 1,000 Jews make up a substantial part of the population. As this is a place where people work, there are little to see of normal tourist attractions, but while walking around the place, you can look out for the signs in blue color that have been painted on doorways to guard the families against the evil eye. These signs vary, but are fish, hands, or candelabras. Hara Kbira is the largest Jewish quarter in Djerba.
http://lexicorient.com/tunisia/hara_kbira.htm

http://www.tunisia.com/tunisia/djerba

http://womenslens.blogspot.com/2008/05/il-dcouvre-les-juifs-de-djerba.html

http://www.planetware.com/tunisia/er-riadh-hara-seghira-tun-me-dter.htm

http://www.mongabay.com/indigenous_ethnicities/languages/languages/Jerba.html

http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/34230/muslims-restoring-tunisian-synagogue/

There are approximately 600 Jews (2002) living in this African country. They were almost extinguished by the late Idi Amin when in 1971, he came to power, and banned Jewish practices and ordered Jews to convert to Christianity or Islam.  Amin took 32 synagogues for public use and shut the Israeli embassy, which never reopened.  Uganda today is served by the Israeli ambassador in Kenya.  The Jewish community has been in existence for 83 years and has converted according to Halacha, or Jewish law.  They are known as Abayuda, a local term that means 'the people of Judah'.  An American organization, Kulanu (Hebrew for 'all of us) - has come to the aid of these lost and dispersed Jewish communities and has been offering aid to these Abayuda Jews.
http://www.kulanu.org/

The Abayuda's trace their beginnings to 1917 when Semei Kakungulu, a military leader with a following of over 3,000 people, established the town of Mbale (now the third largest city in Uganda) and began to study the Bible.  He was converted to Christianity by British missionaries.  As he developed his interest in the Bible, he determined that God loved those who followed the Torah and convince his entire community to have their baby boys circumcised at the age of eight days as God commanded Abraham. There are about 500 African Jews who live in villages surrounding Mbale.
http://thejewsofuganda.org/

Today, most Abayuda are farmers.  They have no electricity or running water. In addition to the synagogue at Nabugoye, four smaller synagogues also serve the community.  The village spiritual leader is Gershom Sizomu who is the first Western trained rabbi. Another member of Zimbabwe's Lemba tribe whose DNA has been linked to Jews of antiquity is Rabson Wuriga. News & World Report, was published in the June/July 2002 issue of Hadassah Magazine.  
http://www.hadassah.org 
You can buy brightly colored crocheted kippot for $10  This site also offers talitot, a recorded CD of their songs and the Hebrew prayers set to African melodies sung at Shabbat services 
http://kulanu.org/    

Joab Jonadav "J. J." Keki recently became the sub-county Chair over 32 villages and more than 25,000 Ugandans.  This gives him control over the police and military forces - and makes him the first Jew in Uganda to win political office.

Debra Gonsher and her husband have produced a 44 minute documentary on the Jewish conversion ceremonies entitled "Moving Heaven and Earth".

http://www.kulanu.org/trip/2010_page1.php

http://www.kulanu.org/abayudaya/

http://www.mindspring.com/~jaypsand/http://www.richardsilverstein.com
/tikun_olam/2005/02/27/abayudaya-music/

Uganda Torah Project
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-3b7ls3-dI

Books     
            

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe's modern Jews with ancient roots
Proving that the world is a much smaller place than we thought, and how interconnected we all are, DNA tests have confirmed that a tribe in Zimbabwe has Jewish roots. While the Lemba tribe shares many things in common with Jews (wearing skullcap head coverings, circumcision, avoidance of eating pork), the relationship is more than skin deep.  British scientists have confirmed that members of the Lemba are genetically descended from Semitic ancestors, probably a small group of Jewish men immigrating from Syria-Palestine over a thousand years ago. Not to mention the Lemba hold a sacred artifact believed to be
part of the Ark of the Covenant.

Books