This chapter discusses the impact of Western colonialism on Jewish/Muslim relations in Morocco: by focusing on the cult of tzaddikim we can observe the adaptation of popular Jewish religion to the colonial context. My approach is historical-anthropological, based on letters sent from schoolteachers at the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Morocco to the Alliance headquarters in Paris between 1860 and 1940. The chapter shows the similarities and differences between Jewish tzaddikim and Muslim marabouts in pre-colonial Morocco, as well as the characteristics they shared with Christian saints. However, adherents of the two cults produced different responses to colonialism, although both incorporated the colonizers in their hagiographic narratives. Rather than disappearing with the arrival of Western modernity in the nineteenth century, these pre-colonial systems of beliefs and practices flourished by adapting to the new context. Colonialism brought significant changes to Moroccan society, including the breakdown of traditional relations between Jews and Muslims. Nevertheless, with regard to pilgrimages to the shrines of the tzaddikim, colonialism did not worsen relations between Jews and Muslims, but rather fostered their intensification and diversification.
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