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Hello friends of CVJHP,
Wishing a sweet, peaceful and prosperous new year to all who celebrate Rosh Hashanah. In the Moroccan Jewish tradition, vegetables, carmelized onions and pomegranates take center stage!
Gisala de Morais gave us a beautiful gift to commemorate 5787: She located the grave of her great great grandfather, David Jacob Cohen, in the Hoop Lane Jewish cemetery in London.
The Mogador (Essaouira) native died in 1938 in a car accident during one of his frequent business trips to London. David Jacob was the patriarch of the large Cohen clan, whose businesses contributed significantly to the economic development of Santo Antão and São Viciente. Gisela is lovingly preserving documents and photos pertaining to her Cohen lineage. The Hebrew on Cohen's tombstone reads:
Here lies
The honorable, G-d fearing, upright, and righteous
David ben Yaakov HaKohen
His soul is in Eden,
having ascended to heaven
on the first of Tamuz, 5698
May his soul be bound in the bond of eternal life.
*Thanks to Ariel Segal & Joshua Marrache for their help with the Hebrew to English translation.
CVJHP Morocco/Cabo Verde Trip July/Aug. 2026
My trip to Rabat helped seal a contract with the Ministry of Culture (photo w/Mme Kenza Amara) to translate and publish our book Os Judeus Marroquinos de Cabo Verde: Século XIX, into Arabic. The translator is historian and Portuguese expert Prof. Otman Mansouri. He and his wife, Fatima, pictured on their veranda, invited me to their beautiful home in Mohammedia, a town near Casablanca known for its flowers. In Casablanca, Rav Salomon Ouanounou, a "shamash" and pillar of the Casablanca Jewish community, showed me many synagogues that dot the city, one of which, Synagogue Benarroch is where Judge and Rabbi Joseph Israel, a native of Tétouan, officiates. Since a majority of the Jews who settled in Santo Antão came from Tétouan and Tangier, CVJHP will invite him to Cabo Verde to visit their restored burial grounds and other places of memory. In Cabo Verde, we 1) Catalyzed our local CVJHP-CV branch. 2) Added signage to the Praia Jewish burial ground to facilitate tours, which we are promoting with local travel agencies. 3) Met with key government officials and diplomatic representatives from Morocco, the US and Luxembourg and much more!
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