The peace agreements that Israel signed with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and most recently Morocco are exposing Israelis to the rich Arab cultures of these diverse states. They now have a chance to appreciate their foods, music and architecture, which is obviously not entirely new to Israelis. After all, they live in the Middle East and many are immigrants from the Arab world. This special bond is particularly apparent between Israel and Morocco. Ron Peretz, a 27-year-old performer from Tel Aviv, embodies these ties in her music and unique voice.

Some 400,000 Jews have immigrated to Israel from the Maghreb region of North Africa, well over half of them from Morocco. Most came in the first years of statehood, from 1948 to 1953, with additional waves of immigration in the 1950s and 1960s. Only a handful of immigrants from these lands passed their language onto the next generation.

Morocco has been accessible to Israelis ever since the 1990s, excluding brief periods of tension between the two countries. Many Israelis took advantage of the chance to fly to Morocco in search of their roots and spend time touring the country. Local Israeli bands and orchestras perpetuated Moroccan musical traditions. One of them, the Andalusian Orchestra of Ashdod, was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize in 2006.

Peretz was born in Kiryat Gat, a town in southern Israel whose population consists mainly of North African, Russian and Ethiopian immigrants. She comes from a musical family. She told Haaretz, “My grandfather, Eliyahu Tobol, was a well-known cantor. He was also a teacher and school principal, making him the best-known person in all of Kiryat Gat. I’m proud to be his granddaughter. He was an inspiration for so many people.”