Morocco’s Jewish saints topic of Oct. 16 genealogy meeting

By Polina Olsen

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“Jewish Saints of Morocco sometimes trace back not only to Kohanim,” said Dr. Oren Kosansky, an anthropologist at Lewis and Clark College.

Fascinated by that phenomenon during his fieldwork in Morocco, Kosansky now specializes in this area. His Oct. 16 talk for the Oregon Jewish Genealogical Society includes Moroccan saints and pilgrimages and their relationship to genealogy.

“The saint known as David Ben Barukh Ha-Cohen, for example, represents a lineage that traces to First Temple high priests,” Kosansky said. 

Especially holy to Talmudic and Kabbalistic scholars, saints’ graves are considered powerful places for prayer. Reported gravesite miracles often involve barren women or healing.

“The folklorist  Issachar Ben-Ami  documented hundreds of stories,” said Kosansky referring to “Saint Veneration in Jewish Morocco,” a landmark publication on the topic. 

In one story, a Moroccan official brought his dying son to Saint Amram Ben Diwan’s remote grave. With the child’s life spared, he thanked the saint by building a road to the shrine.

According to Kosansky, pilgrimages to saints’ graves are most auspicious on the anniversary of their death. He remembers eight busloads of Israelis at Diwan’s 2004 commemoration.  Auctioning candles the prior evening is customary, and hundreds burned by the grave that night.

“Moroccan sainthood finds precedent in the Talmud, and in the 20th century it intersected with Hassidic saint veneration,” Kosansky explained. “The saints are living embodiments of Torah.”

Kosansky will speak on “Lineages, Priests and Saints: Genealogy and Anthropology in Jewish Morocco,” at 7 p.m., Oct 16 at Congregation Ahavath Achim, 3225 SW Barbur Blvd. The event is free for Oregon Jewish Genealogical Society members and $2 at the door for non-members.

For more information, visit www.rootsweb.com/~orjgs or email  Barbara.Hershey@Comcast.net.