I had the honor of wearing traditional Moroccan Jewish garments that are nearly 180 years old, working with Naomi who does restoration work 🇮🇱🇲🇦
These are not modern costumes inspired by Moroccan or Jewish history. They are distinctly Jewish, museum-level pieces that survived from the ancient Jewish communities of Morocco and were carefully preserved and restored using antique garments, museum sketches, lithographs, old photographs, and family records.
That survival matters. When many Moroccan Jews left the country where their families had lived for generations, some departed in haste and could carry only a small part of their material heritage. I don’t have my from my family so it was such an honour to bring light to these pieces, in addition to my passion of reviving Hebrew culture 🇮🇱
Clothing, photographs, jewelry, and other pieces of everyday Jewish life were left behind or lost. What survived carries the memory of the Jewish women who made these garments, wore them, and passed them down.
There is something especially meaningful about the woman @naomi_kogan who preserved these pieces: a Jew of Russian Diaspora who returned to Judea and brought her collection home to Israel. Through her work, the heritage of Moroccan Jewry and other dispersed Jewish communities is being gathered, restored, and given life again in the Jewish homeland. Is that not the Jewish story ?
I also wanted to shed light on the fact that this is Jewish clothing! Distinctly Jewish. When we think of traditional we think
It was a privilege to wear these Moroccan Jewish pieces and to work with such a devoted restorer and just as passionate photographer @natali.sakovsky
Thank you to the collector @vintstoryco