Abstract
In recent years Israel has witnessed an astonishing revival of hagiolatric traditions. Old-time saints’ sanctuaries ar glowing with renewed popularity ; new ones are being added to the native “sacred geography”, and the list of contemporary charismatic rabbis acknowledged as tsaddikim is constantly growing. Although the cult of the saints in contemporary Israel definitely transcends narrow ethnical boundaries, the Jews from Morocco and their descendants have a central part in this revival. Our aim in this essay is threefold: situate Jewish Moroccan saint worship in the proper historical context, exploring its Maghrebi roots and its links with local maraboutism, the main feature of Islam in Morocco ; then try and draw the map of its current manifestations in contemporary Israel ; lastly, give an account for the fact that theses activities have been thriving in development towns, in the urban periphery of the country.
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