'We no longer wear kippahs in the streets'

The residents of Melilla renounce the city's popular status as an "enclave" and stress at every opportunity that it is "sovereign Spanish territory in North Africa that has been around for much longer than Morocco." They often tell stories of the local history and see themselves as a community of survivors of the Spanish Inquisition and descendants of Moroccan Jews who sought to move to Israel but became stuck along the way.

One way or another, Melilla boasts healthy coexistence among its residents. Proof of this: As early as 1995, the local tourism office branded the city a melting pot, writing the "M" in its name on all tourist documents and on tiles around the city in Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic and Hindi. Four streets in the city are named after Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv Street. Some 85,000 people live in Melilla -- more than 50,000 Muslims, about 30,000 Christians, 600 Jews and several dozen Indians. They all live together in the coastal town of 12.4 square kilometers (about 4.8 square miles).

The Jewish community in Melilla, just like the tolerant Muslims, is trying to broadcast a business-as-usual attitude, though some among them are looking to warn of the problems. Salomon Cohen, 54, a customs trader and the president of the city's Keren Hayesod United Israel Appeal organization, lives between Melilla and Jerusalem. He is a dominant character and impressive, influential man both inside and outside the community. His wife, Reina-Malka, and their daughter Sharon, 16, are now both in Israel learning Hebrew. The couple has two more children, Shmuel, 26, and David, 23. David joined his father at our meeting.

"There was a large Jewish community here in the past," Cohen says. "Over the last 15 years, the wealthier people left, most of them for Madrid and Malaga in Spain. The poorer people went to Israel, and others to South America, especially to Venezuela. The community is shrinking every year. The economic situation here and in Spain has deteriorated. Middle-class families have fallen."

He says the community is dealing with a situation in which the younger generation is becoming increasingly ultra-Orthodox, leading some to move to Israel to study Torah at yeshivas and to establish households, and others to remain and become more and more religious.

The Cohens are proud of their town. Melilla has tax-free trade status, and most of the Jews, as well as the other locals, deal in trade with Morocco, only a few steps a way from the city's beautiful marina. This directly influences the communal fortunes. According to Cohen, "The decline in trade, which employs most of the Jews, has led to high costs for the community because any aid [for community members] comes from the communal purse. So, in recent years, I have been suggesting to people to move to Israel. The situation in the Jewish community nowadays isn't bright. Ninety-five percent of students at the high school are Muslim. How can you send a child who has been [exclusively] with Jews until he was 12 years old to a school like that? The reality is sad and it is hard to sweep it [under the rug]."

In the center of Duquesa de la Victoria Avenue, 60 children attend a Jewish school up until age 12. Since the cost of tuition is around 300 euros ($327) per month, only about a fifth of the community can keep up with the payments. The others receive assistance from the donations of wealthy community members who have left the city.

"I'm talking about 40 families in the community who lived with dignity and managed small businesses and went bankrupt," Cohen says of those who require assistance. "For some of them, the community pays their rent. Some of them receive assistance for specific things. During the holidays, they give to everyone -- and it is all done anonymously. The state provides 400 euros [$435], which only covers rent, but if you are indebted to the state you don't even get that. The community has paid these debts more than once to allow its members to receive the allowance from the state."

Both father and son emphasize the importance of the school's existence and of the need for donations from within the community and from abroad to keep it from closing.

"The day that the school closes, the Jewish community in Melilla will no longer exist," Cohen states emphatically.

Growing anti-Semitism

In addition to the issues of education and livelihood, the Jewish community of Melilla shares a problem with many other Jewish communities around the world. Cohen speaks openly and boldly about anti-Semitism.

"Lately, there has been a new phenomenon in which parents are afraid to send their children to the mixed high school, and we are seeing more and more children who are home-schooled after elementary school because of how they are treated as Jews," he says.

David adds: "There is serious violence in the schools. They yell 'Heil Hitler' in class and they hit the Jewish kids just because they're Jewish. This was true in my day too, only it has become more violent and aggressive. "

When David Cohen visits Israel, he wears a kippah, but in Melilla, he wears a hat instead.

"Tzitzit [ritual tassels] is not even an option," he says. "As a Jew, there are places where I won't go now. People in the community are closing their eyes -- some because they are afraid and some because they have an interest in doing so. Why would Jews who are municipal workers or who are in the government, where the salaries and conditions are good, speak about anti-Semitism? When Dad started working at the UIA, many people from the community came to him and asked him why he would do that. They didn't like it that Dad convinced people to move to Israel, and some bothered him."

In recent years, there have been a number of incidents that the small Jewish community would prefer to forget, including the stabbing murder of a Jewish man and his nine-month pregnant wife. Though it happened about a decade ago, there is still a wall of silence surrounding the incident. A close associate of the murdered couple, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that "although the murder did not have an anti-Semitic motive, but was due to a business debt between the murderer and the husband, the judge was anti-Semitic and he let the murderer go free. This is something that would never happen in a civilized country. This must be publicized."

There are also the anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrations who take over the streets after every IDF operation.

"After Operation Protective Edge, at least 10,000 people went to protest in the city center -- they burned the Israeli flag and called out 'Death to Jews,' and [held slogans] supporting the boycott of Israel," David Cohen says. "It was on a Friday afternoon. I remember because we changed the time for prayers at the synagogue, but it was still impossible to avoid seeing the protesters. Since then, Jews stopped wearing kippahs in the streets. Every time there is a war, there is a mess here. And when it happens, Jews don't leave their homes. It also affects businesses. After every operation or war or when the IDF enters the [Palestinian] territories, they boycott the Jews and I lose another client or two. And still, what's maddening is that people are closing their eyes to it."

Q: What about the issue of assimilation-

Cohen says: "Not long ago, one Shabbat, I saw a Muslim woman with a veil at the synagogue. She told me that about 50 years ago, she married a Muslim. At least two other women who have assimilated and married Christians come to our synagogue and we accept them nicely."

During our conversation, David warns that he has noticed someone eavesdropping and lowers his voice. The conversation is in Hebrew, but words such as "Israel," "anti-Semitism" and "Muslims" are universal.

"There are crazy people everywhere, we should be careful," says the man who has accompanied them to the interview. "And to think that 40 years ago, there were 300 Muslims in Melilla, and now there are 80,000 -- and unofficial data points to many more."

Cohen's brown eyes shine with longing when he speaks about his father: "I won't be like my father. In another two years, our youngest will finish her studies and we will move to Israel. Dad cried out of his desire to move to Israel, and he didn't move. He would sit in his room every day at 6 p.m. and listen to Israel Radio quietly, so that our neighbors wouldn't hear. He died without realizing his dream to move to Israel."

Q: If Melilla is transferred to Moroccan authority, what do you think will happen to the Jews there-

David Cohen says: "The situation today is that, according to the existing arrangement, Spain is only losing money while Morocco is always asking for responsibility over the territory of Melilla. From our point of view, if it becomes part of Morocco, there will no longer be a Jewish community. If 40 to 50 years ago, in an argument with a Muslim, a Jew would be told, 'Go to Palestine,' now they are told, 'Get out of Palestine.' As far as they're concerned, Jews and Israel are one and the same."

Fertile ground for the Islamic State group

The day before I met with the Cohen family, I went with local translator Moshe Marciano Sultan to the neighborhood of Canada (loosely translated as "ravine"), to which locals have added the suffix "de la muerte," ("of death") as it is one of the radical Muslim strongholds. It looks like a slum. There is fear in the air and the rules are clear: no stopping, no speaking to anyone, no photographing people.

"Otherwise, things will end very badly," Sultan says. "Word travels immediately through the neighborhood." I am warned that a police car that entered this neighborhood a few days earlier had been stoned, and the police officers had fled after their weapons were taken from them.

I tell the Cohens about this and David says: "It is a place where the law and the police cannot enter, unless there is a massive force of at least 100 police officers. People have already learned to escape to there to avoid law enforcement agents. All the Islamic State operatives who come from Spain were born in Melilla, in Ceuta [another Spanish enclave in Morocco], or in Morocco.

"The police arrested many Islamic State operatives in Melilla and also searched for recruits. It's not a secret. The ground here is fertile for Islamic State because the authorities in Morocco are searching for operatives -- so they wandered here, where it is easier for them to operate. It is easy to recruit people who live here, especially unemployed young people with no future, those from the low socio-economic strata who have nothing to lose. The democracy and freedom in Melilla give them a wide basis for operations. They don't do anything to stop radical Muslim activities."

Cohen has been the gabbai (caretaker) at two synagogues that merged into one, called "Ben Harush Turgeman." In the past, he served as vice-president of the Jewish community. Speaking of the current atmosphere, he says, "We have already received warnings from police in the past -- intelligence information that reached them -- that there would be a big mess [at the synagogue] on Shabbat. There are many warnings for us, and massive police protection been sent to us more than once. Starting this year, there is video camera reinforcement. It's a new era."

David: "During the last campaign [Operation Protective Edge], the Muslims accidently sent us a WhatsApp message in which was clearly written 'Do not shop at stores with Jewish owners,' and attached was a long list of Jewish stores and businesses." A few days later at the airport, a local resident would tell me, "It's only a matter of time before one of us pays the price. Even in Nazi Germany, it took the Jews time to wake up, and for some of them, it was too late."

Cohen says the city of Ceuta also had about 600 Jews a decade ago.

"Now there are about 30 left, and most of them are municipal workers holding out for retirement," he says. "I give the Jewish community in Melilla a maximum of 10 years to survive before it will be intolerable to live here. I call on the government of Israel and the Jewish Agency to help the Jews here. In my opinion, more than 80% will move to Israel. We are in an emergency situation, and the Jews here [live with] a sense of constant danger -- and it will only get worse. We must wake up. I fear the next war. Although it is on in your country [Israel], we are at the front. The administration in Spain offers us protection, but how protected can you be when there are high-ranking Muslims in the military and the police-"

The conversation turns to the difficulties of making aliyah (immigrating to Israel), particularly the financial difficulties. According to Cohen, "In Melilla, a house is a significant thing. A nice apartment on the beach costs a million shekels [$259,000]. A 100-square-meter [1,076-square-foot] apartment in the center costs about 400,000 to 450,000 shekels [$104,000 to $117,000]. Where will you find that in Israel? Suppose a family with three or four children leaves everything they have here for a better life, and rebuilds itself from the foundation -- they will receive benefits of 4,000 shekels [about $1036] for 10 months, and then what-"

Speaking about the option of moving to Venezuela, he says: "That is one of the easiest places to become wealthy. A gold mine. There were days when under every stone, there was money. Even today, the average family with four kids can live well on $600 per month, and even with maids at home. And that is hard to give up."

On Saturday morning at the synagogue, a young, impressive-looking young man, charismatic but troubled, spoke before the worshippers about "the duty of every Jew to prepare himself before Yom Kippur the same way the Olympic athletes in Rio prepared themselves." He is Moshe Waknish, a student at Yeshiva Binyan Olam in Jerusalem, who had returned home on holiday. We spoke about the local trend toward ultra-Orthodoxy, about Judaism and Islam, the real estate market and even about his matchmaking experience that led to heartbreak. He did not mention that his brother was the husband in the couple murdered a decade ago in Melilla.

Sultan, the translator, is a foreign trade agent and an international trade mediator -- and he also conducts tours in Melilla "for the soul." His tours pass through the city's historic Jewish sites.

"Now I want to conquer the Israelis too," he says. We stopped for what he calls "a gastronomic sampling." In fluent Hebrew, peppered with slang that gives away his eight years spent in Israel (including army service), he says: "If it were up to me, and not also my wife, Mary, and our little 4-year-old daughter, Miriam, I think I would get up and go [to Israel] now, even without a suitcase. I still have clothes at my aunt's house in Netanya. There are even clothes for the reserves in a bag under the bed there." We laughed together, and that was the moment that we decided that he would be my official translator and driver. Together, we went to see Jaime Eizenkot, the president of the city's Jewish community.

When I entered his office, his first question was a bit surprising.

"Can you arrange a meeting for me with [IDF Chief of Staff] Lt. Gen. [Gadi] Eizenkot-" he asks, smiling. "We are distant relatives. We were both born in Tangier, in Morocco." His request was passed along, but the chief of staff's office has yet to respond. Eizenkot is a warm, friendly man, and when I tell him that I felt the Jewish community in Melilla was one of the warmest and most welcoming I had encountered, he responds: "We are quite famous for our hospitality. Tell everyone so more and more Jews will come visit us."

I ask him about the trend toward ultra-Orthodoxy and the young people leaving the city, and he says carefully, "There is no connection between the deeper relationship with religion, which makes someone a better person, and the aliyah to Israel." But the community is becoming extinct, I insist, and he responds: "Today, we are about 1,000 people. It's true, the young people are becoming ultra-Orthodox, but the birth rate has increased so that it makes up for those immigrating to Israel. And we still have six synagogues, four kosher stores and a Jewish school."

What is the situation of Jews in Melilla-

Eizenkot: "I prefer someone else speak about such sensitive matters. The relationship between the community and the municipal authorities, the police and the military are excellent and exceptional. It is hard to be a Jewish minority in the Diaspora.

"You cannot ignore the jihadist escalation around the world, and we are part of it. Muslims who come from Morocco with radical ideas primarily influence young people. This certainly leads to a situation where a Jew wearing a kippah can meet a young radical in the street who will call to him 'Jew' or 'Heil Hitler,' which is unpleasant but is still not a serious attack."

Sultan joins the conversation: "Burning the [Israeli] flag has become a trend here. Around the time of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, during which the Muslim custom is to slaughter sheep, the Spanish government banned the import or transfer of sheep from Morocco, including to Melilla, for fear of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. I told the president of the Arab party here that I hope they won't burn the Israeli flag because the sheep [situation] has nothing to do with us. But, as is often the case, somehow this time too, the Muslims set out to protest and the State of Israel and the flag got mixed in."

Eizenkot seeks to send a message to the country's decision-makers: "Here in Melilla, there is a traditional Sephardi religious school that puts an emphasis on Zionism -- it is not subsidized by the government or the municipality. And we need help from the State of Israel and from bodies like the Jewish Agency, the World Zionist Organization and any group that is prepared to help with the important mission of keeping the gates of the Jewish school open."

On the possibility of aliyah, he says: "When I retire in about a decade. And in the meantime, I want to take advantage of the opportunity to send regards to all the people of Melilla living in Israel. Dear brothers, our homes are open to you -- do not forget us."

The interview with the community president is about to come to an end and we haven't said a word about his sister, the pregnant woman who was murdered. And yet, I cannot leave without hearing his side of the story.

"There is no connection between what happened there and anti-Semitism," Eizenkot stresses. "Unequivocally, it was an argument between my brother-in-law and the murderer that developed into murder, and in an effort not to leave a witness behind, my sister was also murdered. The issue of anti-Semitism was only raised when the matter reached the high court in Spain. There, the case fell into the hands of an anti-Semitic judge, who released him [the murderer] on something procedural. This happened even though the judicial authorities in Melilla, like the police investigators who studied the case, had concrete proof that he did indeed murder them."

All of a sudden, the young man from the synagogue appears out of nowhere. I then realized that he had been listening the whole time and sought to clarify: "The judge is pro-Palestinian, a big Jew-hater. It's important that everyone know." On the way out, I realized that he is the brother of the man who was murdered.

A misleading pastoral setting

Mordechai Gachnish, 50, prides himself on being the first Jew in the Spanish Military Academy to reach the rank of general. He is the president of an organization dedicated to the memory of the Egoz ship, which sank on Jan. 10, 1961, after leaving the port of Al Hoceima in Morocco, bound for Israel. Forty-four new immigrants died, half of them children, along with an Israeli radio operator and one of the crew members. Only three Spanish crew members survived.

Gachnish says that Jews, Muslims and Christians head the organization. "From my point of view, this is Kiddush Hashem [sanctification of God's name] in a big way. We feel safe here. The Muslims are not extremists. Look at me, how I walk around," he says, pointing to his black knitted kippah (his tzitzit are hidden). "In 1930, there were 7,300 Jews in Melilla, who had arrived on their way from Morocco to Israel -- some of them stayed here and most of them made aliyah. The rest went on to Venezuela, Panama, Argentina, Barcelona and Madrid. Jews are important there in Melilla and they hold key positions. There are professors, doctors in all fields; the rector of the military university is Jewish, there is an organ transplant expert and more."

Gachnish, his wife, Hanna Simcha, and their two teenage daughters do not have any immediate plans to move to Israel.

"Someone needs to do the important work here," he explains, offering a grim forecast. "It saddens me that in another 30 years, there will no longer be a Jewish community. It is comforting to know that our young people who leave here will have more opportunities in Israel. Sultan warns him: "You're optimistic, Mordechai."

We are sitting for a traditional breakfast at a local cafe: Moroccan pastries dripping with honey alongside weak green tea with a lot of mint and sugar. With Arabic music playing in the background, Gachnish stresses that we must alert Jews everywhere and Israelis to contribute to preserve the historical culture of the Jews of Melilla.

What is the Christian stance in light of the situation-

Sultan: "The Christians do not understand the situation at all. European weakness is its democratic perception of the Arabs and its democratic thinking. The Arabs see this approach as weakness. Israel's approach -- the carrot and the stick -- works best."

He draws my attention to Hebrew letters that spell out "pharmacy" alongside lettering in Spanish, Arabic and Hindi.

"The pastoral signs and the lettering in the streets in all languages paints a picture of coexistence," he says. "They sell you one big brotherhood and when it comes along with the Spanish word mañana ["tomorrow"], they are putting you to sleep. As if nothing is urgent. That is how Melilla is. A bit different than Israel, and who even remembers that about two years ago a Muslim kid cruelly beat a Jewish kid? They will always give the excuse that it's an unusual incident."

But, having lived on both sides of the tracks, Sultan adds: "The difficult life in Israel is discouraging. Here, you can breathe. Who from Melilla can survive in Israel without a livelihood and with life paced at 110 kilometers per hour when here, life goes at 10 kilometers per hour? Jews here have means -- most of them work in trade, some have other professions. It is hard to leave everything for nothing. For them to immigrate, they must do preparatory work, have an organized plan. You can't move like in the movie 'Casablanca.'"

Separation fence-

One point of connection between us, the Israelis, and the locals is the separation fence -- here, it marks the border between Melilla and Morocco. The city is desirable only because of its status as European land, attracting immigrants and refugees from Arab countries and Africa, and even from Gaza, who seek to step onto Melilla's ground at any cost.

"Europe definitely understands Israel and identifies with it," Sultan says on our long drive to the fence. "They understand it so well it's eating them up inside. The wall is proving itself [useful], because in the area where it stands, there is less of a mess. In the past, the Spanish would visit Israel and return shocked just because of the security checks and the airport and at shopping centers. Now, they have started doing the same thing. Nowadays, no one is safe from anything. Our only fear is that this fence will be breached by Islamic State."

The fence, which is actually made of three fences beside one another, is 6 meters (about 20 feet) tall and is topped with barbed wire. It stretches for 12 kilometers (about 7.5 miles) and it has a camera surveillance system, patrol helicopters in the air and Spanish border guards stationed at posts on the ground.

"The assumption is that if a refugee manages to pass the first fence, a warning system will be activated and he will be caught," a guard says. "But there are some who manage to infiltrate." And indeed, in the archive footage of a local network, thousands of refugees are seen shaking the fence from the Moroccan side until it falls. Despite the security, refugees who have managed to cross are caught every week and taken to refugee camps.

In addition to the infiltrators, there are also those who try to use forged passports to get in.

"The police officers at the border are already trained," Sultan says, "and anyone who doesn't speak our language is sent back." He adds that the previous night, there were reports on television saying that 120 refugees had tried to cross the fence.

"They are mostly from North Africa, equipped with sticks with spikes that they use to climb the fence, allowing them to climb faster and more easily," he says.

We pass a secured refugee camp. At the entrance, there is a large gate, and across from it, under the shade of a tree, a group of African refugees, who managed to step foot into their Garden of Eden, stand around a small bonfire. Not far away, standing alone, is Ismail, a refugee from Syria in his late twenties. He fled Damascus via Morocco with his two young children. In fluent English, peppered with Arabic slang, he says, "We ran away from the hell in Syria. It was impossible to breathe there due to all the cruelty. Here, I feel like I am in paradise. We didn't want our children to live like us; we wanted them to have a future. At least they will have the opportunity to live like human beings and not like animals. Europe is our only chance. Here, we finally have hope and a dream to dream. " Asked about scaling the border fence, responds, "It was dangerous, but with the life we had, what did we have to lose-"

An older man comes closer to him and speaks to him in Arabic. When he realizes that we are from the Israeli press, he says, "Life in Syria is over. Everything there is destroyed. Here, it is like a party. We met other people like us from Damascus and from Aleppo who are fleeing the past and looking for a future. I plan to get to Holland. It won't be bad for us there."

Back to town. Not far from the memorial for Rabbi Ben Harush, at the coffee shop "Captain," over strong Arab coffee and churros with melted chocolate, the older Muslims share their dreams: They have plans to turn Melilla from an "unused city" to "a paradise where the king of Morocco will visit."

Another day at the border crossing. At the nearby trade center, a variety of merchants are at the stands and small stores. The large white cloth packages carried by women on their heads or backs draw my attention.

"That is how merchandise is transferred from Melilla to Morocco and back," Sultan says. "Why women? Because they are not checked at security, so they can put whatever they want underneath their clothes. You might see a skinny face and the body of a refrigerator," he says, laughing,

טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו