Conversation with unidentified Jewish man

Title: Conversation with unidentified Jewish man
Date recorded: September 1, 1967 to September 30, 1967
Contributor(s): Performer: Unidentified man; Performer: Unidentified interpreter; Performer: Lomax, Alan; Recordist: Lomax, Alan

Subject(s):

Genre: joke, spoken

Culture: Moroccan Jew, Moroccan

Instruments: voice

Setting: Souq

Location: Errachidia, Meknès-Tafilalet, Morocco

Physical form: Reel to Reel

Tape number: T2091

Track Number: 28

Archive ID: T2091R28

Note: A rough translation of the Arabic part of the conversation: Interpreter –"Your beard…he (Alan Lomax) said to you that it’s very nice."
Jewish man – "What about it?"
Interpreter –"He (Lomax) said ‘give me your beard’."
Jewish man –"If you give me yours!"
[Lomax asks to hear something from the Talmud:]
Interpreter: "He (Lomax) said to you give him one – a little something from the Qur’an (Scripture) that you study from that belongs to you.”"

Belongs to: Errachidia 9/67

About the session: Recordings of ambience and speech from the market of Errachidia, known at the time of the recordings as Ksar Es-Souq. Alan Lomax visits the souq (marketplace) at Ksar es-Souq, a town in the Saharan region of southeastern Morocco. This town is now known as Errachidia. Lomax records ambient sounds of the bustling souq and interviews an elderly Jewish man. Morocco once had a large and vibrant Jewish community, though most left for Israel or France during the middle of the 20th Century. Morocco’s Jewish community spoke their own distinct variety of Arabic, Judeo-Moroccan, which is currently considered by many to be an endangered language.

Rights: The rights to the audio, photographic, and video materials contained within the Lomax Digital Archive are administered by various publishers, record labels, collectors, estates, and other rights holders. Any uses, commercial or not, must be cleared by the specific rights holders. For questions regarding the use of any material on the LDA, please contact Permissions.

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