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May 3, 2024

Star Wars, North African Jewry, and the Tenacity of Jewish Music

The rabbi who may have inspired Obi-Wan Kenobi.

When searching for a location to film part of his first Star Wars film, George Lucas visited areas in Morocco and Tunisia that were once home to major Jewish communities. Not only that, writes Matt Austerklein, but there is a striking physical resemblance between the bearded desert hermit Obi-Wan Kenobi and Rabbi Raphael Encaoua (1848-1935), “the great sage of the Jewish community of Salé in northwest Morocco.” Austerklein adds:

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