Nicole Elgrissy

Nicole was born in Casablanca, in a Moroccan Sephardic Jewish family originally from Essaouira. Her family name is after the Oued El Ghriss, a Moroccan river which takes it source in the Eastern High Atlas. Her father, Robert Elgrissy, an employee of the CTM, was awarded by the King Hassan II of Morocco with the Order of Ouissam Alaouite, and her mother, Simone Cohen, was a housewife. Nicole's childhood, while schooled at the elementary school ''Le Nid'', was shaken by the Six-Day war, and the massive exodus of the Jewish community of Morocco. Her parents, unlike many of their friends and family who left for Israel, Canada or France, decided to stay. Nicole studied at the prestigious Casablanca-based French school Lycée Lyautey, where she graduated with a baccalauréat G3, before pursuing her studies in France, at the university Paris Nord, from which she will earn a degree in Management in 1978. She then came back to Morocco, and worked several year in marketing, communication and events, from 1979 to 2008.

After being bedridden in 2008 after falling sick, she decided to start writing, after being encouraged by her friend, Moroccan poetess Fatima Chahid. Nicole wrote her first book, La Renaicendre : mémoires d'une Marocaine juive et patriote (La Renaicendre : memoirs of a Moroccan Jew and patriot). ''Renaicendre'' is a portmanteau word created by Elgrissy herself, which is a mix of ''renaissance'' (rebirth) and ''cendre'' (ashes). In her own words, that she defines as a mix between sarcasm and bitterness, she explains the impact the creation of the state of Israel, the rise of Zionism and Pan-arabism, had on the Moroccan Jewish community. She analyzed the disarray, the confusion and uprooting of the Moroccan diaspora (among both Muslims and Jews), and the need to come back to one's roots. Her book was published by the Editions Afrique Orient, and distributed in Morocco in 2010.

The launching of her book coincided with a growing interest in her country towards Moroccan Jewish history, especially after the release of several documentaries and films on the exodus of Moroccan Jews in the 60's, such as Goodbye Mothers by Mohammed Ismail, the creation of the Moroccan Jewish Museum (first ever Museum of Jewish culture in the Arab world) and the creation of a student association at Al Akhawayn University, ''Mimouna'', which is dedicated to preserve Moroccan Jewish culture and memory. Nicole was invited on Moroccan television, and gave several interviews about her book, and her experience.

In 2015, she was interviewed in a documentary produced by Al Jazeera titled Return to Morocco, which discuss the fate of the Jews who never left Morocco, as well as those who left and decided to come back.[1]

She also decided to resume writting, and she wrote two novels that discuss the theme of Moroccan women, Jews and Muslims, in Dames de cœur sur le carreau (2015) and Si c'était à refaire... (2016).[2]