Each time I visit the High Atlas Foundation (HAF), I get a new experience. On 1 July 2025, I was pleased to travel from Rabat to Marrakech to the High Atlas Foundation. The purpose of my visit was to give a presentation to a group of students from the University of Virginia (UVA). Once arrived to HAF, I was warmly welcomed by HAF’s president, Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir, who presented me to the UVA students recalling our first encounter in a precious cultural and environmental event in 2017 and how our first encounter, which was for good objectives, has led to our continuous successful encounters.

This year’s topic is totally different from previous ones. This year’s topic has taken me more than one year of research and I am still working on it. I was excited to present at least one part of it to the UVA students before they went back to the USA. The presentation was about a Moroccan religious and economic figure: Mardochée Aby Serour. My presentation’s objective was to revive his memory as one of the most important Moroccan Rabbis who helped to preserve Moroccan Jewish religious and cultural traditions to Timbuktu through his knowledge and courage as a nineteenth century trader and caravanner.

My presentation raised a valuable and provoking debate concerning this Moroccan sage among UVA students as well as Dr Ben-Meir himself. The debate was rich to the extent it opened my mind to how it is important to relate old memories and stories to our present day issues and how the youth should learn and use them for developing their own skills for a better future. The debate results in the exchange of rich thoughts that I hope that UVA students have appreciated and learned through the memory of Mardochée Aby Serour.

All in all, I express my deep gratitude to Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir for hosting me at the High Atlas Foundation and for giving the chance to present the Moroccan Rabbi Mardochée Aby Serour and talk about him and his story’s importance to UVA students. Also, I would like to vividly thank the UVA students for being passionate and attending my presentation. Also, I would like to congratulate them for choosing Morocco, as a multicultural country, and the High Atlas Foundation through which I believe it is going to deepen their lives’ experiences.