ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the persistence of a plurality of personal status laws in Morocco, focusing on the distinct legal regime applied to the Moroccan Jewish community. While the Moroccan state officially recognizes Islam as its religion and most citizens identify as Sunni Muslims, Judaism remains the only non-Muslim confession with institutional recognition. Unlike most Middle Eastern and North African states, which abolished Jewish legal jurisdictions in the post-independence period, Morocco has maintained them, notably through rabbinical courts. Based on legal analysis and interviews with Moroccan Jewish actors, the article argues that the coexistence of Muslim and Jewish personal status regimes has not generated substantial conflicts with the constitutional principle of equality before the law. This is largely due to the small demographic size of the Jewish community and the narrowly defined jurisdiction of rabbinical courts. Today, the maintenance of this plural legal framework in the country appears less a matter of judicial necessity than of historical heritage and political symbolism. It functions as a marker of Moroccan exceptionalism, promoted by national authorities as both an illustration of coexistence and a tool of foreign policy.
