Algeria is the modern designation for the central part of North Africa, bordered by Morocco on the west and Tunisia on the east. By the end of World War II, Algeria’s Jewish community numbered more than 100,000. Today, however, the Jewish population is almost non-existent.

Learn More - Cities of Algeria:
Algiers | Atlas | Bone | Bougie | Constantine | M’zab | Oran | Qal’at Hammād | Tlemcen | Tuat

Early History
Jews Under French Rule
Holocaust Period
Contemporary Period
Relations with Israel

Early History

Resistance against the Arab invasion in the seventh century was organized first near Biskra and later in the Aurès mountains, where the kāhina (an epithet meaning priestess), the “queen” of the Judeo-Berber tribe Jarawa, won brilliant victories. With the death of the kāhina in 693 came the collapse of Berber independence. Most Jarawa adopted Islam; others escaped to the west and south, reinforcing the Jewish elements there. Oriental Jews, who followed in the wake of the Arab armies in large numbers, rebuilt the old destroyed communities of Algeria. The Jews in the urban centers, such as Mejana or Mesila, were Rabbanites; so also were the Jews in the capitals of the various Berber kingdoms – Ashir, Tahert (Tiaret), where the philologist R. Judah ibn Quraysh lived, Tlemcen, and Qalʿat Ḥammād, where R. Isaac Alfasi was probably born. These communities were in contact with the communities of Fez in the west, Kairouan in the east, and even with the geonim of Babylonia and Palestine. It is partly through them that the teachings of the academies of Sura and Pumbedita, and later of Kairouan, spread to Morocco and Spain. Thus, the influence of these communities on the intellectual and religious development of the Jews of Spain can be seen. The teachings of the sages were spread to the area north of the Sahara Desert from Gabès, Tunisia, to Sijilmassa (in the Ziz Valley), Morocco, by traveling merchants. The Jewish tribes of the region of Wargha were Karaites. They were nomad warriors. Their descendants were called “Bahusim” and remained in the eastern part of Algeria up to modern times. In the tenth century, a Jew named Abu al-Faraj instigated an important revolt against the Zirid sovereigns of the Berber tribes in the Setif region. Defeated, he was tortured to death in 989.

Places of Jewish settlement in Algeria.

Places of Jewish settlement in Algeria

Apart from the fact that the community of Tlemcen was destroyed, almost nothing is known about Algerian Jews during the rule of the Almohads in the 12^th and 13^th centuries. In any case, the Jewish population of Algeria was considerably diminished after that period of disorder. In the 13^th and 14^th centuries, some Jewish merchants residing in Algeria had regular contacts with other countries, particularly Catalonia, and these ties kept open communication channels with the more developed Jewish communities. Jews of Languedoc and even Marseilles lived in Bougie, the Algerian harbor town, from 1248. Tlemcen, the gate to the Mediterranean and a final station on the Sudanese gold route, known as the “Jewish Road,” had a small but lively community, which was sustained by the wealthy Jewish merchants of Barcelona, Valencia, Tortosa, and Majorca. Most of these merchants were natives of the Maghreb and were particularly favored by the kings of Aragon, who relied on them as essential to their prosperity. Their relatives had remained in the Maghreb, settling at Algiers, Cherchel, Tenes, Mostaganem, and Tlemcen. At that time, there was a continuous emigration of Muslims from the Christian kingdoms of Spain to Africa, and the Jews assisted them in Spain. This was the very remunerative business of the great Jewish African-Spanish family Alatzar (also al-ʿAzār). The Jewish merchants of the central Maghreb had many trade activities, including the slave trade, which was so important at the time. However, they traded chiefly in Sudanese gold. Many traded with the Balearic Islands using their ships.

The Christian kings of Spain appointed many Jews as their ambassadors to the Muslim courts. In that capacity, Abraham and Samuel Bengalil, Judas “Abenhatens,” and the alfa-quim (“physician”) Bondavin made their first visit to Tlemcen in 1286. In 1305, Solomon b. Zequi of Majorca was chosen to settle a dispute with the town of Breshk. These experts in North African diplomacy and the wealthy merchants in the country were exceptions among the mass of Algerian Jewry, whose level of culture was shallow. Mainly because of them and the possibility of communication with the important economic centers they represented; many Spanish refugees of 1391 chose Algeria as their haven. They emigrated in continuous groups from Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. They were favorably received by the Muslim authorities, particularly by the Ziyanid princes. In contrast, their relations with the local Jews, who had at first received them fraternally, later became tense. Their numbers gave rise to fear of competition in their professions. Differences in ritual, language, customs, and above all, social conceptions, caused conflicts between the two communities. The Sephardi Jews asserted themselves by their intellectual superiority, financial means, and skills. The older community resisted the attempt of the newcomers to dominate communal life. However, there were refugee leaders who were able to mitigate the conflicts between the two groups. The learning and dedication of the new immigrants renewed the moral and religious life of Algerian Jewry. Their talent in organizational activities strengthened the Jewish institutions of Algeria.

R. Ephraim Ankawa reestablished the community of Tlemcen; the eminent Talmudic authorities R. Isaac b. Sheshet Perfet (Ribash), R. Simeon b. ẒemaḥDuran (Rashbaẓ) and the latter’s descendants were mainly responsible for Algiers becoming a religious and intellectual center. The communities of Honein, Oran, Mostaganem, Miliana, Médéa, Tenès, Breshk, Bougie, Bône, and Constantine, although dependent on Algiers, also became centers of Jewish learning under the leadership of the rabbis Amram Merovas Ephrati, Samuel Ḥalawa, the brothers Najjār, and others.

Very few of the Spanish exiles of 1492 came to Algeria. The only city that attracted them was Tlemcen, which they reached through Oran. It has been said, however, that the Muslims’ loss of Granada, Spain, in 1492 had grave repercussions for the Jews in Algeria. In cases like that of the Muslim preacher al-Maghillī, resentment was expressed in violent tirades against the Jews. The prosperous and powerful communities of Tlemcen and, in particular, Tuat was destroyed some years later because of such agitation. Just after these events, the Spanish occupation of Oran (1509–1708) and Bougie (1509–55) resulted in Jewish property being pillaged and the Jews themselves sold as slaves. Finally, however, some influential families such as Jacob Cansino, Jacob b. Aaron, and Sasportas convinced the Spaniards in Oran that their Arab policy would best be served by accepting a Jewish community in Oran. In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, descendants of Marranos and Jews from Leghorn, Italy, settled in Algeria, especially Algiers. Among the first who arrived were the Lousada, Alvarenga, Zacuto, Molco, and dela Rosa families; among the later ones were the Soliman, Busnach, Bouchara, Bacri, Lealtad, and Delmar families. They played an important role in ransoming Christian captives for European governments, and their commercial activities enriched the country.

The “refugees of 1391” had stimulated Algerian trade and brought prosperity to remote communities. They exported ostrich feathers from Mzab and African gold from Tuat, as well as burnooses, rugs, cereals, wool, and pelts to Europe, while European products were in turn sold in Africa by the same merchants. At that time, the Jews owned estates, slaves, and flocks. In the regions subject to a central power, the Jews paid the jizya, the tax levied on all non-Muslims. Their rabbis were exempted from it, as were the merchants, mainly descendants of megorashim, because they paid customs on their imports. The native Jews were thus in an inferior position. Moreover, the megorashim had a separate quarter, synagogue, and even cemetery. Their dress was also different from that of the native Jews; they continued this distinction by wearing berets or hoods. Thus, they were called ba’alei ha-kappus or kabbusiyyin, in contrast to the ba’alei ha-miẓnefet, native Jews who wore turbans.

The organization of the communities that was established in the 14^th century was in effect until 1830. At the head of each community was a Sheikh al-Yahūd, or Zaken ha-Yehudim, called also muqaddam, who was appointed by the Muslim authorities. His powers were discretionary, tempered only by protests of the rabbis. A prison and the police were at his disposal for punishing and carrying out the sentences of the bet din. He also named the officers (gedolei ha-kahal, ziknei hakahal) who were charged with the collection and administration of charity funds, and the management of the synagogue and charitable institutions. The Judeo-Spanish groups chose their officers (ne’emanim) themselves. The rabbinical courts were composed of three judges chosen and paid by the community. Only civil disputes were brought to them; they had no jurisdiction in criminal matters.

Although the rabbinical courts were available to Algerian Jews, they tended more and more to turn to Muslim civil courts. To discourage this practice the rabbis were able to threaten, and indeed put into effect, decrees of excommunication. On questions of minhag, however, the rabbis were often compelled to approve the local custom followed by African Jews. Some later practices originated in takkanot. The haskamot, agreements over administrative regulations, also legalized local practices. The regulations of each community gave it a certain individuality that it jealously preserved for future generations. This resulted in collections of minhagim, prayers, and liturgy (piyyutim), the work of local rabbis, written either in Hebrew or Judeo-Arabic. The communities of Tlemcen, Oran, and Algiers each had its own maḥzor. Sometimes the synagogues of the same town even had different liturgies. Thus, in the 18^th century the community of Algiers was convulsed by disputes over liturgy.

Jewish-Muslim relations were, on the whole, good. It was only occasionally that outbursts of fanaticism gave rise to local persecutions. In certain towns it was accepted that at such times the mosques, although forbidden to infidels, should serve as a refuge to the Jews. The religious Muslim leaders sometimes helped them; for example, the marabout (Muslim holy man) of Blida, southwest of Algiers, stopped a pogrom and forced the plunderers to return their booty.

Generally, from the 16^th century the situation of the southern Jews was better than that of their coreligionists in the centers under Turkish domination. The Turks were the ruling class who had come to exploit the country, and they treated the natives, both Muslims and Jews, roughly. Most Jews, living in separate quarters, were at their mercy. They increased the restrictions imposed on Jews in Islamic countries more through greed than fanaticism. On the other hand, the “sovereign” days, chosen by the Janissaries, and the beys, governors of provinces, humored the upper-class Jews, from among whom they chose their counselors, physicians, financiers, and diplomats. The Muslim rulers charged these diplomats with the difficult assignment of maintaining relations with European Powers, a task that was complicated by the pirate raids on European ships, condoned by the Algerian rulers. It was usually the wealthy and influential Jews originally from Leghorn, the Gorenim who received these assignments. Their high positions could not, however, protect them against the violence of the Janissaries who resented the favors the Jews received from the bey. The assassination in 1805 of the bey’s chief aide, the powerful Naphtali Busnach, was followed by the only massacre of Jews to take place in Algiers.

The French government had accumulated enormous debts to the Bacri and Busnach families, relatives and partners, who had been delivering grain to France for them since the end of the 18^th century. These unpaid debts were the cause of diplomatic incidents that resulted in the French conquest of Algiers in 1830. The French conquest opened a new era for the 30,000 Jews of Algeria. In the beginning the communities could continue their self-government, and the rabbis continued to administer justice. But this autonomous structure was soon overturned. Rabbinical justice was deprecated, and jurisdiction of the Jews passed to the French tribunals. The muqaddam, who had previously headed each Jewish community, was replaced by a deputy mayor. These reforms did not give rise to any protests on the part of the Jewish population, as they retained their previous legal status. However, the changes caused some to leave: many European Jews returned to Leghorn, and the middle class, small tradesmen, and craftsmen emigrated to Morocco and Tunisia. On the other hand, Moroccan and Tunisian Jews, attracted by new conditions, immigrated into Algeria. There was also a movement of Jews from the south toward the centers and the port towns.

The Jews Under French Rule

French colonialism lasted from 1830 to 1962. The duration of colonialism, the presence of French settlers, the involvement of French Jewry, and the impact of the changes in the country, its people, and its Jews shaped Jewish community history during this period. The cornerstones of the period were the establishment of the consistorial organization in 1845, the naturalization of the Jews in 1870, World War II and its impact (1939–45), and the decolonization processes from 1954 to 1962. The modernization process of Algerian Jewry was the most complete in the Muslim world; Jews became French citizens and dissociated themselves from Muslim society. It is not surprising that at the end of the colonial area most Algerian Jews continued their life in France, like all the French settlers.

Under the French each municipal council and chamber of commerce had one or two Jewish members. In 1858 a Jewish general counselor was elected for each province. In 1845, after a long mission of two French Jews, Jacques-Isaac Alters and Josef Cohen, consistories, on the model of those of France, were created in Algiers, Oran, and Constantine. Chief rabbis, brought from France, were appointed and paid by the government, and presided over all other religious functionaries. One of the tasks of these chief rabbis was to promote the emancipation of their followers, although they were not yet French citizens. Cultural assimilation was so rapid that it provoked a break with the old Jewish world. Some attempted to fight the trend toward total assimilation in such undertakings as the establishment of Hebrew printing houses in Algiers in 1853 and Oran in 1856 and 1880. French education, despite its advantages, led many Jews who were unprepared for it to leave Judaism. To counteract this trend talmud torah schools were opened in many cities. Several highly influential families formed a Jewish intelligentsia, capable of assimilating French civilization yet maintaining their own traditions. Members of these families were the first to enter the liberal professions, becoming magistrates, physicians, lawyers, engineers, high-ranking officers in the army, and, later, university professors. Both they and the French Jews favored the naturalization of Algerian Jews as did also French liberals.

Algerian Jews were granted the right of individual naturalization in 1865, and on October 24, 1870, by the Crémieux Decree all Algerian Jews were forced to become French citizens, except for those in the south, whose legal situation remained uncertain. This was the first instance in the Muslim world in which the Jew’s legal status changed so radically. The naturalization of some 35,000 Jews resulted in a wave of antisemitism. Jews were attacked and in Tlemcen in 1881, in Algiers in 1882, 1897, and 1898, in Oran and Sétif in 1883, and in Mostaganem in 1897, where the violence reached its peak. Up to 1900 there were in all towns and villages cases of looting and killing, and numerous cases of synagogues being sacked, and the Holy Scrolls desecrated and used as banners by the rioters. The Dreyfus affair in France inflamed the anti-Jewish campaign even more. An antisemitic party came to power: Edouard Drumont was elected the representative of Algiers and Max Regis became its mayor. Extraordinary measures were taken against the Jews. In Constantine, by decision of the deputy mayor Emile Morinaud, Jewish patients were not admitted to hospitals. The illegality of such steps, together with the fact that the Muslims failed to support the movement, brought about the defeat of the antisemitic party; in 1902 it ceased to exist altogether.

It should be emphasized that the wave of antisemitism came only from the French colonial settlers. It was a modern form of antisemitism deriving from the fear of a breakdown of the colonial hierarchy in which “inferior” elements might become part of the ruling class.

The heroic participation of Jews in World War I caused an improvement of relations, although in 1921 there was a renewed outburst of hatred in Oran. Hitler’s rise to power, greeted with rejoicing by the antisemites, caused a new wave of antisemitic campaigns, which resulted in a massacre in Constantine in 1934.

The crisis was renewed in 1936, when Léon Blum, a Jew, became premier of France. The Jewish Algerian Committee for Social Studies, directed by Henri Abulker, André Lévi-Valensi, Elie Gozlan, and others, undertook intensive activities aimed at curbing the racial unrest. Subsequently, the Union of Monotheistic Believers (Union des Croyants Monothéistes) was formed; during World War II it was responsible for the Muslims declining to identify themselves with the antisemitism of the Vichy government.

Holocaust Period

Despite the bravery shown by the Jews on the front during World War II, one of the first measures taken after the French defeat in 1940 was to abrogate the Crémieux Decree. The 117,646 Jews of Algeria became the object of daily suffering: they were cast outside the pale of society, impoverished, and humiliated. The Algerian administration applied the racial laws of Vichy with excessive severity. After Jewish children were banned from attending schools and restrictive clauses were applied in institutions of higher learning, Robert Brunschwig organized private courses and schools. The expenses of these private schools were met by the communities jointly, although the financial burden was heavy. Some time later, the government totally forbade Jewish higher education and put the Jewish schools under strict, malevolent supervision without, however, contributing toward their upkeep. Only the rabbis were granted the right to represent the community before the authorities.

Algerian Jewry, in danger of total destruction, was saved only by its own determination. The Algerian resistance movement was the work of Jews, and consisted almost entirely of Jews. Among its leaders were Raphael and Stéphane Abulker, Roger and Pierre Carcassone, Jean Dreyfus, Jean Gozlan, and Roger Jais. Their activity led to the insurrection of Algiers led by Jose Abulker on November 8, 1942, which neutralized the capital while the Americans landed in the country as part of Operation Torch. Paradoxically, after this victory of the allies in Algeria, General Giraud, Admiral Darlan, and Governor Yves Câtel, with the complicity of the local diplomatic representative of the U.S.A., Robert Murphy, took new measures against the Jews, including the establishment of detention camps. The protests of Jewish international and Algerian organizations and the French Committee of National Liberation in London, the intervention of highly placed Jews, Muslims, and Christians against this injustice, and a world-wide campaign were all to no avail against the will of the antisemites. Finally, after the personal intervention of President Roosevelt, the Crémieux Decree was again put into force on October 20, 1943. However, it was only in 1947 that equality for all was proclaimed.

In February 2018, the German government agreed to recognize Algerian Jews as Holocaust survivors and offered them compensation.

Contemporary Period

During the postwar period, several Jewish organizations were formed in Algeria. The Fédération des Communautés Israélites d’Algérie was established in April 1947 for the purpose of defending Algerian Jewry and safeguarding its religious institutions. ORT was founded in 1946 in Algiers and Constantine; the Ecole Rabbinique d’Algérie, established in 1947, began its activities in 1948; the Comité Juif Algérien d’Etudes Sociales, formed after World War I, resumed its activities in 1948 and published a monthly, Information Juive, from 1948 to April 1962 in Algiers and from September 1963 in Paris.

Although the formal structure of the Algerian community resembled the French pattern centering around legally sanctioned “religious associations,” in practice each kehillah functioned autonomously. Until 1961 the Fédération united 60 different communities. Thereafter the communal structure underwent a gradual disintegration and communal life became primarily a function of local customs and traditions.

The fate of the community was fundamentally determined by the Algerian nationalist struggle for independence. Tragically caught between two violently opposed forces the marginal position of the Jews in Algerian society exposed them to constant danger.

The conflict had already become clear in August 1956 when the FLN (Front de Libération Nationale – the Algerian National Liberation Front, an organization dedicated to achieving Algerian independence) appealed to the “Algerians of Jewish origin” who “have not yet overcome their troubled consciences, or have not decided which side they will choose” to opt for Algerian nationality. Jewish fears increased when, on February 18, 1958, two emissaries of the Jewish Agency were kidnapped and assassinated by the FLN. In December 1960, the Great Synagogue of Algiers was desecrated and the Jewish cemetery in Oran was defiled. The son of William Levy, a Jewish socialist leader was killed by the FLN and subsequently Levy also was assassinated by the OAS (Organisation Armée Secrète – a counter-terror organization opposed to an independent Algeria). In May 1956 the Mossad, the Israeli secret service, which had begun to work in North Africa and created networks of Algerian Jews from Constantine, attacked the Muslims of Constantine in response to continuous attacks against Jews. About 20 Muslims were killed as a warning to Algerian Muslims not to involve the Jews in their struggle with the French.

Until 1961 the majority of Algerian Jews had hoped that partition or a system of dual nationality would obviate the conflict. As the struggle developed, however, they increasingly feared that popular reaction would be directed against them not only as Europeans but as Jews and Zionists. Consequently, although the community never adopted an official anti-independence position, in March 1961 a delegation from the Comité Juif Algérien d’Etudes Sociales urged that the negotiations then in prospect should obtain official recognition of the French nature of the Algerian Jewish community. (Later it was agreed in Evian to treat Jewish Algerians as “Europeans.”)

By the 1960s the “Gallicization” of the large mass of Algerian Jews had developed to the point where both their emotional allegiances and cultural predispositions were largely French. The resulting diminution of Jewish observances did not, however, reflect a positive integration into the Algerian French community which was less a community than a settlement of colons. Fundamentally, however, the separate identity of the community was maintained by the system of status inherent in Islamic society where religion and family and not formal nationality and cultural behavior were the determinative factors. The term “Frenchman” in Algeria did not apply to either Arab or Jew. The FLN and OAS reign of terror and counter-terror in 1961 and 1962 had catastrophic consequences for the Jewish community. As elsewhere in North Africa the Jewish quarters often straddled the European and Arab sections. These quarters often sustained the first and sometimes only Muslim reprisals after attacks by European terrorists on the Muslim quarters. These often degenerated into pitched battles between the two communities, especially their youth.

Throughout this period there was a steady flow of emigration of Jews from Algeria. The rate of emigration rose steeply in mid-1962 when, because of OAS violence, the community feared that the proclamation of independence on July 5, 1962, would precipitate a Muslim outburst. By the end of July 1962, 70,000 Jews had left for France and another 5,000 for Israel. France treated the Algerian Jews on an equal footing with the non-Jewish repatriates. The United Jewish Social Fund made extraordinary efforts to help the refugees. In the course of a few months, no fewer than 32,000 refugees arrived in Paris and the nearby communities. Many Jewish refugees from southern Algeria found a haven in Strasbourg and its vicinity and were gradually integrated with the aid of the existing Jewish community. It is estimated that some 80% of Algerian Jews settled in France.

After Algeria had achieved its independence, all its Jews who held French citizenship retained it, except for a few isolated cases. The regime of Ben-Bella maintained a correct relationship with the Jews. During the years 1963–65, the minister of culture addressed the Jewish congregation at the synagogue of Algiers on the Day of Atonement.

In February 1964, a General Assembly was held at Oran by the Jewish communities of Algeria, which elected Charles Hababou as its president. After Houari Boumédienne rose to power in 1965 the situation rapidly deteriorated. Heavy taxes were imposed on the Jews, and discrimination of various kinds betrayed the anti-Jewish tendencies of the government. The rabbis no longer received their salaries from the state. This was explained by the fact that they had not become Algerian nationals. The Supreme Court of Justice declared that the Jews were no longer under the protection of the law, and an intensive economic boycott was instituted against Jewish merchants. The police engineered a libel suit against Hababou on the grounds that he had had connections with Zionism. In September 1966, as the result of a case brought before the Economic Court, Désiré Drai was condemned to death together with two non-Jews; but whereas he was executed on the day of Rosh Hashanah, the two others were pardoned.

On June 5, 1967, the Algerian press launched a violent attack against Israel and the Jews. The walls of the synagogues of Algiers and other Jewish communities were defaced. With one exception, all the synagogues in the country were taken over and converted into mosques, and the Jewish cemeteries of the country fell into decay. By 1969 fewer than one thousand Jews remained in Algeria. Most of the young men and women left, and thus there were hardly any marriages. The property of the Jewish communities was abandoned.

The Jews who remained in the 1970s were mostly of advanced in age, unwilling to leave their assets behind and emigrate with the rest of the Jewish community to France. Only 50 Jews remained in Algeria in the 1990s, nearly all in Algiers, but there were individual Jews in Oran and Blida. A synagogue functioned in Algiers but had no rabbi. All the other synagogues were taken over for use as mosques.

See also Jews of Algeria.

Relations with Israel

On gaining independence, Algeria joined the Arab League and fully participated in its conferences against Israel. On June 5, 1967, Algeria along with other Arab states declared war on Israel, sending military assistance to Egypt. Even the Egyptian acceptance of ceasefire was denounced by Algerian mobs. Consequently, President Boumedienne pressed the U.S.S.R. to adopt a firmer anti-Israel policy, “a firm commitment to wipe out traces of the aggression” as well as to give military aid, some of which was subsequently channeled to Egypt.

On July 23, 1968, the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) hijacked an El Al plane to Algeria. The plane, the crew, and its male Israel passengers were kept under detention for several weeks and only released in return for terrorists being held by Israel. Algeria adopted an extreme attitude among the anti-Israel Arab factions, and gave full support to the Palestinian terrorists. It repeatedly expressed its official reservations regarding the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Even after Israel signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan and relations improved with the Gulf states, Algeria has remained hostile.

Bibliography

General. A. Cahen, Les Juifs dans l’Afrique septentrionale (1867), passim; I. Bloch, Inscriptions Tumulaires des Anciens Cimetières d’Alger (1888); N. Slouschz, Travels in North Africa (1927), 295–343; M. Ansky, Les Juifs d’Algérie (1950); A. Chouraqui, Between East and West (1968); R. Attal, Les Juifs d’Afrique du Nord – Bibliographie (rev. 1993); H.Y. Cohen, Asian and African Jews in the Middle East – 1860–1971; Annotated Bibliography (1976); R. Attal, in: Bi-Tefuẓot ha-Golah (1961), 14–20; idem, in: Sefunot, 5 (1961), 465–508; Hirschberg, Afrikah; idem, in: Journal of African History (1963), 313–9. BERBER-ARAB RULE (680–1516). I. Epstein (ed.), Responsa of Rabbi Simon b. Ẓemaḥ Duran (1930); R. Brunschvig, La Berbérie Orientale sous les Ḥafṣides, 1 (1940), 396–430; A.M. Hershman, Rabbi Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet and his Times (1943); Hirschberg, in: Tarbiẓ, 26 (1956/57), 370–83; Corcos, in: JQR, 54 (1963/64), 275–9; 55 (1964/65), 67–78; idem, in: Zion, 32 (1967), 135–60; C.E. Dufourcq, L’Espagne Catalane et le Magrib aux XIII^e et XIV^e siècles (1965), passim. TURKISH RULE (1516–1830). J.M. Haddey, Le Livre d’or des Israélites Algériens (1872); R.L. Playfair, The Scourge of Christendom (1884), passim; M. Eisenbeth, in: Revue Africaine (1952), 112–87, 343–84; Mainz, in: JA, 240 (1952), 197–217; Rosenstock, in: JSOS, 14 (1952), 343–64; HJ, 18 (1956), 3–26. FRENCH RULE UP TO 1948. C. Frégier, Les Israélites Algériens (1865); Féraud, in: Revue Africaine (1874), 30 ff.; J. Cohen, Les Israélites de l’Algerie et le Décret Crémieux (1900); J. Hanoune, Aperçusur les Israélites Algériens (1922); C. Martin, Les Israélites Algériens de 1830 à 1902 (1936); M. Abulker, Alger et ses Complots (1945); Mainz, in: PAAJR, 21 (1952), 63–73; HJ, 18 (1956), 27–40. ANTISEMITISM: J.F. Aumerot, L’Antisémitisme à Alger (1885); E. Drumont, La France Juive, 2 (1886), 4 ff.; G. Meyné, L’Algérie Juive (1887); G.R. Rouanet, L’Antisémitisme Algérien (1900); L. Durieu, Les Juifs Algériens, 1870–1901 (1902); Brunschvig, in: Revue d’Alger, 1 no. 2 (1944), 57–79; M. Eisenbeth, Pages Vécues, 1940–1943 (1945); Szajkowski, in: JSOS, 10 (1948), 257–80. CONTEMPORARY PERIOD. JC (Oct. 19, 1962, June 12, 1964, Aug. 30, 1968); Congress bi-Weekly, vol. 35, no. 15 (1964), 9–11; L’Arche, no. 40 (1960), 24; Information Juive, 139 (Sept. 1963), 3; 151 (Dec.–Jan. 1965), 6; 185 (Aug.–Sept. 1968), 7; Mandel, in: AJYB, 64 (1963), 403–11; 65 (1964) 326–30; 66 (1965) 478–83; 67 (1966) 441–4; idem. in: Commentary, 35 (June 1963), 475–82; In the Dispersion, 5–6 (1966), 318–20 (list of articles). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Heoxter, “Ha-Edah ha-Yehudit be-Algeria u-Mekomah be-Ma’arekhet ha-Shilton ha-Turki,” in: Sefunot, New Series, Book 2, 17 (1983), 133–63; A. Ben-Haim, “Mivtzah Zebbu, Algeria 1947–1948,” in: Shorashim ba-Mizraḥ, Book 3, (1991), 213–31; A. Attal, “Ha-Itton ha-Yehudi ha-Rishon ba-Magreb L’Israélite Algérien (hadziri) 1870,” in: Pe’amim, 17 (1984), 88–95; idem, “Ha-Defus ha-Ivri be-Woharran,” in: Kiryat Sefer anthology, suppl. to vol. 68 (1990), 85–92; D. Cohen, “Megoiasim Yehudim me-Algeria bi-Shenot 1875–1878, Hebetim Kalkaliyyim ve Ḥevratiyyim,” in: Pe’amim, 15 (1983), 96–111; E. Sivan, “Sin’at Yehudim be-Algeria ke-Tolada shel Matzav Koloniali,” in: Pe’amim, 2 (1979), 92–108; G. Amipaz-Zilber, Maḥteret Yehudit be-Algeria 1940–1942 (1983); M. Abitbol, Mi-Kremieux le-Peten; ha-Antishemiut be-Algeria ha-Kolonialit 1870–1940 (1984); M. Laskier, “‘Ha-Mossad’ ve-ha-Du-Kiyyum ha-Muslemi-ha-Yehudi be-Algeria ha-Kolonialit, Parashat Constantin 12–13 1956,” in: Pe’amim, 75 (1984), 129–143; J. Allouche-Benayoun, D. Bensimon: Les Juifs d’Algérie. Mémoires et identités plurielles (1998); R. Attal, Regards sur les Juifs d’Algérie (1996); A. Chouraqui, Chronique de Baba; lettres d’Abraham Meyer, mon grand-père, à ses fils (1914–1918) (2000); D. Cohen, “Le Comité juif algérien d’études sociales dans le débat idéologique pendant la guerre d’Algérie (1954–1961),” in: Archives Juives, 29:1 (le semestre 1996), 30–50; idem, “Les circonstances de la fondation du Comité Algérien d’Édudes sociales ou la prise de conscience d’une élite intellectuelle juive face au phénomène antisémite en Algérie (1915–1921),” in: Revue des Etudes Juives, 161 (2002), 179–225; idem, “Algeria,” in: R. Simon, M. Laskier, S. Reguer (eds.), The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in Modern Times (2003), 458–470; G. Dugas, “La guerre d’Algérie comme métaphore obsédante; ‘Les Bagnoulis’ d’Albert Bensoussan,” in: Archives Juives, 29 (1996), 82–86; E. Marciano, Les Sages d’Algérie; dictionnaire encyclopédique des sages et rabbins d’Algérie, du haut moyen âge à nos jours. Adaptation et iconographie de Jacques Assouline (2002).

Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.

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