«A Girl in a Blue Shirt» by Professor Gabriel Bensimhon, is the first Israeli novel to be translated into Arabic in Morocco. Accoridng to Jerusalem Post, the novel will also be sold soon in Moroccan bookstores. The novel, published by Yediot Books in 2013, tells the story of an immigrant from Morocco who fell in love with an Israeli-born girl who is in love with a Holocaust survivor. «I grew up in the town of Sefrou in Morocco until I immigrated to Israel at the age of 10. As an academic, I have studied Moroccan culture extensively. There was always a warm corner in my heart for the rich and multi-faceted aspects that characterize the Moroccan culture», Gabriel Bensimhon told Jerusalem Post. «As a Moroccan Jew, I feel that I have come to realize a dream: The fact that my works are read in my hometown is a source of great personal pride», he added. The novelist and scholar also announces that his play «A Moroccan King», produced at the Habima National Theater in Tel Aviv and which won the Lieber Prize for the Jewish classical play at Tel Aviv University, will also «be produced by the Mohammed V National Theater in Rabat». «I hope that in the wake of the peace accords, novels and works by additional Israeli authors will be translated into Moroccan», he said. The book, chosen for translation by Professor Mohamed Elmedlaoui of the Mohammed V University in Rabat, who has followed and researched Bensimhon's works in the fields of literature and theater, has been translated by his student, Dr Ayachi Eladraoui, concludes Jerusalem Post.
