Jews of Algiers from 1830 to 1871

Summary of the lecture by Philippe Danan, on september 21, 2008

Between the capture of Algiers and the appointment of Thiers as the President of the Republic, France experienced five different political regimes, went through three revolutions, had its government overturned once, went to war outside its territory with appalling results and was torn apart by a civil war.

During the same period from 1830 to 1871, the Algerian Jews changed radically: persecuted and miserable Easterners upon the arrival of the French, they became after 1871 citizens of a modern occidental country.

Between 1830 and 1847, the move of the Jewish Community towards assimilation is inspired by three indigenous Great Rabbis appointed by the French Authorities, Joseph Aboulker, Judas Amar, and Jacob Smadja. This move is very quick. During this decisive period, the role of the Jews of mainland France is negligible.

In 1846, the General Governor Bugeaud appointed Michel Weill Great Rabbi of Algiers. This appointment began a series of crises between on the one hand the Jewish Community of Algers and on the other hand the main French Jewish Authority (“le Consistoire Central”) and the Great Rabbi Weill. In 1863, the latter had to hand in his resignation under pressure from the whole of the Community.

Until 1870, the Jewish Community repeatedly petitioned to obtain the French nationality collectively as a group. It finally succeeded in having all parties involved reach a consensus. Crémieux, the then Minister of Justice, proclaimed a decree for the naturalization of the Jewish Community as a whole on October 24, 1870.

Cremieux’s Decree was attacked in July 1871: Thiers tried to have it repealed in Parliament, although he was to change his mind in August. The Thiers’s and Lambrecht’s Decree which detailed the implementation of Crémieux’s decree definitively gave the French nationality to Algerian Jews.