Coronavirus has taken a heavy toll on Morocco's Jewish community, which numbers approximately 2,000 members, compared to the country's 35 million citizens.
Over the past months, Morocco has seen approximately 250 confirmed coronavirus deaths, 13 of them from the Jewish community.
"The strikes hit us one after the other," a member of the local Jewish community said this week. "There were days where almost every day there was a funeral for one of the members of the community, who died of coronavirus. It happened despite the fact that our community is very small."
The Jewish community estimates that the mass infection occurred at a large Purim party attended by hundreds, including many people who a few days prior had attended a wedding at which a coronavirus patient was also present.
Serge Berdugo, president of Morocco's Jewish community, said that "the King and his people helped us a lot by providing appropriate medical treatment and with everything we needed. We thank the King very much, and we pray that the coronavirus plague will end completely."
Among the Moroccan Jews who died of coronavirus was Rabbi Shalom Eidelman, a Chabad emissary to Casablanca who served as one of Moroccan Jewry's spiritual leaders. For decades, Rabbi Eidelman worked to help Moroccan Jews, and he was a great Torah scholar who worked actively to spread Torah, Judaism, and hasidut.
Rabbi Eidelman contracted coronavirus, and on the last days of Passover, he passed away.