Preserving the House of the Saint: Religious and Secular Practices of Heritage in the Medina of Casablanca

The Dar Rabbi Haim Pinto is a small place of Saint veneration located in the medina of Casablanca. It is situated near a recently renovated area known as the “Triangle of Tolerance”, which comprises a synagogue, a mosque, and a church. This portion of the Old City has been heavily patrimonialized in the last decade and now encloses two museums which host Jewish objects. The Dar Rabbi Haim Pinto, located in the same area, has not attracted institutional attention. It remains a shared space of veneration and preserves religious objects in a form of insider-led practice of conservation. This article interrogates the different trajectories of religious heritage in the medina of Casablanca, highlighting how State-led projects of patrimonialization have resulted in a form of secularization of Jewish heritage. The study of Dar Rabbi Haim Pinto illustrates how rituality and faith can constitute different forms of motivation for the preservation of Jewish heritage in Casablanca and foster community resilience and transmission. The contribution is based on ethnographic and museological fieldwork within the Dar Rabbi Haim Pinto and in the surrounding urban area, coupled with semi-structured interviews with the guardian of the Dar and other members of the Jewish community of Casablanca.