Morocco's Jewish leader dies in Jerusalem

Morocco's chief rabbi passed away at a hospital in Jerusalem early on Tuesday, Israeli media has reported.

Rabbi Aharon Monsonego, 90, was admitted to the Shaare Zedek hospital in west Jerusalem on Monday after falling ill.

According to media reports, Monsonego had been living in Israel with his family for the past four years due to poor health.

Born in 1929, Monsonego pursued his religious education in France in 1945, where he studied and taught until urged back to Morocco by Itshak Chalom, president of the Jewish community of Casablanca in 1952.

He is set to be buried on Wednesday at the Har Hamenouhot cemetery in Jerusalem.

Prior to the founding of Israel in 1948, Morocco was home to around 250,000 Jews who traced their heritage in the country further back than the dawn of Christianity.

According to the US State Department, around 3,000 to 4,000 Jews remain in the country today, more than half of whom reside in the central-western city of Casablanca.

Aside from Islam, Judaism is the only other religion recognised as native by Morocco's constitution.