Ksar el-Kebir (Alcazarquivir, Alcazar, Elksar, al-Qaṣr al-Kabīr) is a small city in northern Morocco, 85 kilometers (50 miles) south of Tangier, on the right bank of the Oued Loukkos and approximately 31 kilometers (19 miles) upriver from Larache on the Atlantic coast. The city dates at least to the eighth century. Very little is known about its Jewish community before 1492, when exiles from the Iberian Peninsula began to arrive in large numbers and populated the cities of northern Morocco. The Jews of Ksar el-Kebir retained Judeo-Spanish (Haketia) as their native language, and w…