A Yahrzeit in Morocco

By COLlive reporter

A memorial ceremony took place two weeks ago in Rabbi Leibel Raskin‘s Shul in Casablanca, remembering its namesake, the Rebbe’s Shliach to Morocco for over 40 years.

200 men and women, members of the local Jewish community, gathered on Sunday, Iyar 11, in the shul which is located on the Bais Rivkah school campus.

Rabbi Yitzchok Raskin – Director of Chabad of Vermont, and Rabbi Mendel Raskin – Director of Beth Chabad in Cote St. Luc, Montreal, spoke about their father’s legacy.

Born in Russia in 1933, Yehuda Leib Raskin escaped with his family during World War II to Kazakhstan, where he helped Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, father of the Rebbe who had just been released from prison and exile.

In 1960, the Rebbe asked Rabbi Raskin, who had been working in Paris, to be his emissary to Morocco, where Chabad had more than 70 educational institutions.

He had a well-known good relationship with the late King Hassan II, and after anti-Semitic bombings in 2002, King Mohammed VI sent assurances to the Jewish community via Rabbi Raskin.

Even as Moroccan Jewry shrunk from 250,000 to less than 5,000, Rabbi Raskin stayed in Casablanca almost until his passing in 5764.

“When he got sick,” guest speaker Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Vice Chairman of Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch, told the crowd at the yahrzeit event, “he said he wanted to go back to Morocco.”

Prior to the event, Rabbi Kotlarsky headed a Chabad delegation to meet with Serge Berdugo, president of the Jewish Communities Council of Morocco.

During the meeting, the Chabad representatives warmly thanked him for his leadership and for supporting Chabad’s educational work in Morocco.