After being lost for over six decades, the tombs of three celebrated 17th and 18th-century rabbis – Jacob Ben Malca, Hasday Almosino and Jacob Marrache – were rediscovered in the northern Moroccan town of Tétouan, sparking a renewed enthusiasm to excavate the over 500-year-old Jewish cemetery.
Tétouan, a United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site, is home to this historic Jewish cemetery.
Ben Malca, a scholar and revered religious judge, relocated to Tétouan from Fez in 1734 to preside over the religious court.
Almosnino, a native of Tétouan, was a respected arbiter of Jewish law with numerous published works.
The Marrache tomb discovered is that of an ancestor of Jacob Marrache, a Kabbalist known for his exceptional commentary on the Zohar, the foundational Kabbalistic text.
