The Convergence of Judaism and Islam. Religious, Scientific, and Cultural Dimensions

320 r Jessica Marglin

49. Marcus, “Poverty and Poor Relief,” 176; Ginio, “Living on the Margins of Charity,”
    171–72, 177.


50. Amar, Taqanot, 422. See also the descriptions of the distribution of funds to the
    poor in AIU Maroc XXXII E 561, Valadji to AIU, January 14, 1902, and May 15, 1902.


51. Levi, The Jews of Meknes, 71. This was also the case in the Ottoman Empire. Ben-
    Naeh, “Poverty,” 188.


52. One taqanah mentions a treasurer who collected money from the synagogues
    every six months and distributed it to the migrant and the resident poor. See Amar,
    Taqanot, 258.


53. For instance, a soup kitchen in Jerusalem served an average of 500 people soup
    and bread twice a day. Singer, Constructing Ottoman Beneficence, 64. See also Roger Le
    Tourneau, Fès avant le protectorat: étude économique et sociale d’une ville de l’occident mu-
    sulman (Rabat: Editions La Porte, 1987), 257; Ginio, “Living on the Margins of Charity,”


54. Although some awqāf distributed money to the poor, these distributions took place
    two or more times weekly. Le Tourneau, Fès avant le protectorat, 257; Hoexter, “Charity,”


55. It is likely that the unique nature of Sabbath observance among Jews prompted the
    practice of weekly distributions on Fridays.


56. Amar, Taqanot, 6.


57. I have not included a discussion of the role of confraternities in this essay due to
    lack of sources. See, e.g., JNUL F 16107: 32–33.


58. See Yaari, Emissaries of Palestine.


59. YBZ 1822: 6–7.


60. At least four taqanot relating to the division of funds for Palestine were enacted
    between 1823 and 1826. Amar, Taqanot, 193, 196, 197, 200.


61. In Algiers, for instance, a number of pious endowments were dedicated to the holy
    cities of Mecca and Medina. Hoexter, “Charity,” 152–54.


62. Emissaries collected both individual and communal donations in all the Jewish
    communities they visited. Yaari, Emissaries of Palestine, 53.


63. Donations to Jerusalem would be made on Purim and on the seventeenth of Tam-
    muz, as well as on the occasion of a circumcision or a wedding; to Safed on Lag be-
    ̔Omer and the first of Elul; to Tiberias on Hanukkah and the intermediate days of Pesah,
    as well as on the occasions of a bar mitzvah and a wedding celebration; and finally, to
    Hebron on Hoshanah Rabbah. See Amar, Taqanot, 200–201.


64. Ibid., 254.


65. See the 1881 taqanah, which nominated a treasurer to collect taxes on kosher wine.
    Amar, Taqanot, 258.


66. Abraham ben Mordecai Ankawa, Kerem Hemer: The Book of Ordinances from the
    Rabbis of Castile (Hebrew), vol. 2 (Ashdod: Makhon Osrot Ge’one Sefarad, 1997), no. 78.
    See also Gerber, Jewish Society in Fez, 72.


67. Ben-Naeh, “Poverty,” 186.


68. Amar, Taqanot, 186, and Berdugo, Mishpatim Yesharim: She’elot u-teshuvot, v. 1:
    no. 381; v. 2: no. 172.


69. Amar, Taqanot, 179.