Around 2,000 to 2,600 years ago Judea and its capital Jerusalem were conquered — first by the Babylonians and later by the Romans — and many Jews were dispersed and settled all over the world.
Jews arrived in Morocco soon after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, and the population grew substantially after the Spanish Inquisition, when many Sephardim (Jews of Spanish and Portuguese descent) moved to North Africa and elsewhere. After the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, many Moroccan Jews immigrated there.
Only a handful of Jews live in Morocco today, but the rich culture of the Moroccan Jewish community still thrives in places like Israel, the United States, Canada, and France.