Throughout the first half of the 20^th century the demographic gap between Jews and non-Jews in the Moroccan city of Tetuan dramatically increased. In 1913 about 4,000 Jews lived among approximately 11,000 Muslims and 3,000 Christian Europeans. By the year 1950, a similar number of Jews lived among 30,000 European and about 47,000 Muslims. The momentous demographic shift transformed moral codes of behaviours, among many other forms of change in Jewish local lifestyle.

An unexpected indication is the demand for non-kosher foods, as appeared inside the communal periodical Or-Luz. It was an advertisement for “Bar Sevilla,” local to Tetuan, clearly stated that it specializes in prawns. The fact that the editors had agreed to publicize the restaurant, or that Bar Sevilla’s owners thought to appeal to Jewish audience through Or-Luz, implies that among local Jews in Tetuan, the custom of eating non-Kosher food outside of their homes was probably not a rare occurrence. The advertisement seems to have been met with ambiguity among Luz’s editors, as evidenced by their repeated decision to publish it upside-down. Apparently it is not a misprint, since the practice repeated itself in other issues. 1