Droit de grève : les Conseillers adoptent à la majorité le projet de loi en commission    Rabat: La jeunesse, acteur clé du développement dans la zone euro-méditerranéenne (réunion de la jeunesse du PPE)    Après sa visite en Algérie, la Rapporteuse spéciale de l'ONU exprime son mécontentement face à la persistance du régime algérien à arrêter et criminaliser les défenseurs des droits de l'Homme    El Ktiri : "Le soulèvement du 31 janvier 1944, symbole de la mobilisation nationale pour la dignité"    Marché des changes : le dirham quasi stable face à l'euro et au dollar    MRE : les transferts grimpent à plus de 117,7 MMDH en 2024    Marché des capitaux : près de 106,7 MMDH de levées en 2024    Mezzour : "Le recours au financement boursier stimule l'émergence de nouvelles industries"    Ziyech : Ma première participation avec Al-Duhail est une étape importante et une expérience idéale au Qatar    Le Maroc relève le défi et impressionne le monde... Des stades de classe mondiale réalisés en un temps record par des mains marocaines    Médecine de sport et antidopage: Dr Abouali Fatima citée en exemple sur le Continent    PL. J24: Les Reds en déplacement pour assurer et rassurer !    Tanger: trois individus arrêtés pour piratage d'appels téléphoniques    Chutes de neige et fortes pluies localement orageuses dans plusieurs provinces    Un fonctionnaire de la prison locale El Arjat 2 se suicide avec son arme de service (DGAPR)    Akhannouch : "Le gouvernement poursuit la réforme de l'enseignement dans le cadre des Hautes Directives Royales"    Un homme poignarde son père en pleine rue à Agadir : Sévérité de la peine et cadre juridique du parricide    Dans l'intimité d'un collectionneur : Yves Saint Laurent vu par Hamish Bowles    Essaouira : Inscriptions ouvertes pour la 2e édition de « Berklee at Gnaoua and World Music Festival »    CAN 2025 au Maroc : Le calendrier complet des matchs    Washington confirme l'entrée en vigueur samedi de droits de douanes contre la Chine, le Canada et le Mexique    Missing Moroccan students in London found, police confirm    USA: Plusieurs blessés dans le crash d'un petit avion près d'un centre commercial à Philadelphie    Nasser Bourita réitère la position constante du Maroc soutenant le Conseil de direction présidentiel en tant qu'autorité légitime au Yémen    Diaspo #374 : Mohamed Bouzia, une migration au Pays-Bas à travers le journalisme    81 % des Français favorables à des sanctions économiques contre l'Algérie si elle ne reprend pas ses ressortissants    Le PI déterminé à conquérir la présidence du prochain gouvernement    Au Pakistan, vaste purge au sein de l'Agence fédérale d'investigation après le naufrage meurtrier de migrants au Maroc    Mort de Horst Köhler, ancien envoyé personnel des Nations unies pour le Sahara marocain (2017-2019)    Maroc-Bavière : Mezzour et Gotthardt explorent les possibilités d'une coopération stratégique    Marrakech-Safi : des initiatives pour renforcer l'entrepreneuriat féminin    Un homme interpellé à Mechra Bel Ksiri en possession de 922 comprimés psychotropes    L'Oriental fait le point du projet de développement régional doté de 250 M$    Recettes voyages : un record de 112,5 MMDH en 2024    Liga : L'Athletic Bilbao recrute l'attaquant marocain Maroan Sannadi    Le Cinéma marocain à l'honneur au Festival International du Film de Dublin    Le Musée du Football Marocain ouvre ses portes : un voyage au cœur de la passion nationale    Lekjaa : La CAN 2025, une étape clé vers le Mondial 2030, avec un Maroc-Argentine en ligne de mire    Le journaliste Ayoub Errimi n'est plus, le monde médiatique en deuil    Les défis des PME au centre de la 166e session ordinaire de l'assemblée générale du CESE    Omar Hilale élu à l'unanimité vice-président de la Commission de consolidation de la paix des Nations Unies pour l'année 2025 : Le Maroc continue de renforcer son rôle dans l'instauration de la paix mondiale    SM le Roi adresse un message de condoléances à Donad Trump suite à l'accident aérien à Washington    Le Turc Baykar implantera «uniquement» une infrastructure de maintenance pour ses aéronefs vendus au Maroc    Ouverture des inscriptions pour la 2e édition du programme « Berklee at Gnaoua and World Music Festival »    Cinéma : Brady Corbet impose son talent avec "The Brutalist"    Exposition : "Reconversion" à la galerie Dar D'art de Tanger    La cellule de Had Soualem liée à Daech illustre le danger de l'enrôlement en ligne    Le Président de la Transition en Syrie : Nous travaillons pour l'unité du pays et la paix civile    







Merci d'avoir signalé!
Cette image sera automatiquement bloquée après qu'elle soit signalée par plusieurs personnes.



Diaspo #130 : The miraculous story of 90 year-old Yamna Maxwell, from Morocco to America
Publié dans Yabiladi le 08 - 02 - 2020

Born near Marrakech to a Moroccan Jewish family, Yamna Maxwell is a 90-year-old real survivor. In Morocco, she led a warrior's life fighting against poverty. Now, she is an American citizen who reflects upon her own journey and wishes to visit her homeland.
Yamna Maxwell was born in a village near Marrakech in 1929, according to her birth certificate, although she never knew when she was really born. In December 2019, the Colorado-based Moroccan lady celebrated her 90th birthday, reflecting on a long journey that took her overseas decades ago.
«I am amazed at how I survived», Yamna told Yabiladi, starting her story that was marked by struggles, patience and good faith. In Tizguine, a small town in Al Haouz Province from the Marrakech-Safi region, Yamna was born to a Jewish family, to a stay-at-home mother and a father who left for a nearby village to work.
«I never forget the home where I lived in Tizguine», she reminisced. «There was nothing but Jews and Muslims, who were wonderful to us», she recalled. With her father away for work, Yamna never saw him and struggled with her family to survive. «I remember when I was a kid, the Muslims told us to come and pick up their harvest and take everything we want, olives and potatoes … I remember everything from my childhood», Yamna recalled.
A tough childhood
But Yamna's childhood, was indeed, a unique one that is worth remembering. The first turning event in her childhood was when her father decided to finally come back home. «On a Sunday, I was sitting outside and I saw this man walking from afar, he was not riding a horse nor a donkey, he was just walking», Yamna remembered.
The man was her father that she could not recognize as he had left for so long. Her mother, however, knew who he was. «She told me to go inside, but I stayed behind the door and heard her saying to him that he couldn't come into the house», she said.
Yamna's father had to spend the night at his Muslim neighbors' house, who came later that night to inform the family of his passing. The neighbors, however, had a story to tell Yamna and her mother. «Before my father died he told his story to this Muslim family», Yamna said, adding that he came to Tizguine to die near his family after he had a vision that he would die.
«He walked from Friday night all the way to Tizguine until Sunday night», the 90-year-old said.
Yamna stayed in the village for a while, she did not go to school nor knew how to read or write but she knew that she had to work to survive. «My family were good but they were poor and I was mostly hungry», she explained.
The man who saved the Pasha
Yamna moved to Marrakech and went from house to house to work and live with Jewish families. In the city's Jewish quarter, she worked for a very religious family and witnessed there one of Marrakech's biggest history events.
«I worked for this rich family in the Mellah who did not have water, so I had to go to the fountain to bring water and carry it. I would wait until they finish to eat and would walk with no shoes, my heels were cracked from the cold and dry weather».
Yamna Maxwell
One day, when she was coming back to the house where she worked she heard the woman talk to her very religious father. The old man insisted to meet the Pasha, who was Thami Glaoui at the time. «He told his daughter that he had a dream that somebody inside the Pasha's house was trying to kill him and he told his daughter that he had to save him», Yamna recalled.
Indeed, the man, who turned out to be Jewish saint Pinhas Ha-Cohen, went to the Pasha's place, met him and saved his life.
«He met the Pasha and the maids brought him tea and milk. He told him not to touch anything and brought a cat and made it drink the milk : the cat died right away».
Yamna Maxwell
In Marrakech, Yamna met her first husband and had her first son. It was a short marriage, she said, as her husband left for Israel. «He asked me to go with him and I refused because I wanted to stay in Morocco with my family», Yamna said.
To support her son, Yamna left for Casablanca. There, a French woman offered to hire her at a restaurant but Yamna did not have papers. The woman helped her with the paperwork and set 1929 as her probable date of birth.
While in Casablanca, Yamna was approached by her stepbrother who came from Rabat to look for her. She accompanied him and lived with him for a while but soon he decided to leave for Israel. «I stayed with him for two years and then he went to Israel, I did not want to go with him. I stayed in Morocco because of family and friends», Yamna explained.
Heaven on earth
The young woman settled down in Rabat, she found a new job and a babysitter for her son. Yamna worked in a factory, where she sewed buttons for military attires. In the country's capital, she met her husband, an American citizen who worked for the US Air Force. In 1956, Yamna, her husband and her children left for the United States, to start a new life in this place she considered heaven on earth.
In America, Yamna who did not speak English at the time had to adapt and learn new things. She worked in a restaurant and raised her children alongside her loving husband.
Yamna, born as Mina, is now a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother who still keeps a fond memory of her country Morocco. «America is good but Morocco is beautiful, I used to say if only America was literally attached to Morocco where everything is good, the food, the weather everything».
Yamna visits her local temple where she meets friends and recalls her stories from Morocco. She hopes that one day she will be able to afford a visit to the country and go back to Tizguine.


Cliquez ici pour lire l'article depuis sa source.