the journey to Israel

Yaffa Pisso was born in Morocco, in the city of Midelt, which sits in the center of Morocco in the High Atlas Mountains.

Midlat is a small town with sweet springs, snow in the winters and lots of greenery. The summer was relatively cool and pleasant. A lot of Frenchmen came to vacation in our house this summer. In Yaffa Piso's home there was a full Jewish life, a kashrut, a synagogue, no one bothered the Jews in Morocco to do so. During this period the French ruled Morocco and everything was calm. Yaffa Piso studied at the Alliance School. In the school they learned all the subjects in French, but there were Hebrew lessons and Arabic lessons.




In 1955 Morocco received independence, the French were forced to leave and the king returned. Then all sorts of pogroms began and the Jews of Morocco feared for their lives. Whenever Jewish Agency officials came to the city to register who wanted to immigrate to Israel, Yaffa Piso's family registered but did not receive a permit. Finally, when the message was received that the family could start preparing, they collected all their property and simply left without selling the apartment, so no one knew they were leaving town. When they asked why they were carrying suitcases, they said they were on vacation.



A member of the Jewish Agency said that it was forbidden to leave at the moment because they were dangerous, so they stayed with another family in Morocco for three months until one day they received permission to leave. The family was smuggled into the first city in Spain bordering Morocco - the city of Malila. Everywhere an agency man was waiting for us to see where to go. After twenty-fifteen hours in the city of Malilia, the family boarded a night-sailing boat to a Spanish scholarship town, and from there the family continued to a immigrants' camp in Gibraltar.



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