Saharan Jews and the Fate of French Algeria

277 Pages·2014·3.18 MB·English

by  Sarah Abrevaya Stein

Saharan Jews and the
Fate of French Algeria

Saharan Jews
and the Fate of
French Algeria
Sarah abrevaya Stein
The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London
SARAH ABREVAYA STEIN is professor of history and the
Maurice Amado Chair in Sephardic Studies at the University of Califor-
nia, Los Angeles. She is the author of Plumes: Ostrich Feathers, Jews, and
a Lost World of Global Commerce and Making Jews Modern: The Yiddish
and Ladino Press in the Russian and Ottoman Empires, and coeditor of A
Jewish Voice from Ottoman Salonica: The Ladino Memoir of Sa’adi Besalel
a-Levi and Sephardi Lives: A Documentary History, 1700–1950.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2014 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2014.
Printed in the United States of America
23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-12360-8 (cloth)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-12374-5 (paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-12388-2 (e-book)
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226123882.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stein, Sarah Abrevaya, author.
Saharan Jews and the fate of French Algeria / Sarah Abrevaya Stein.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-226-12360-8 (cloth : alk. paper)—
ISBN 978-0-226-12374-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-226-12388-2 (e-book) 1. Jews—Algeria—History. 2. Mzab
(Algeria)—History. 3. France—Colonies—Africa. I. Title.
DS135.A3S74 2014
305.892'406509—dc23 2013031365
a This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992
(Permanence of Paper).
In memory of Hans Anthony Zimmerman (1984–2012),
gentle soul, dexterous mind, brave inhabitant of
an unjust body.

Contents
Note on Translation and Transliteration ix
Prologue: The Lost Archive xi
Introduction: Inventing Indigeneity 1
1 Anthropology and the Ghost of the Colonial Past 19
2 Jews Northern and Southern: The French Annexation of
the Mzab and the Boundaries of Colonial Law 41
3 Governing Typologies: From the Conquest of the Mzab to
the Touggourt/Dreyfus Affair 57
4 Contested Access: Conscription, Public Health, and
Education from the Fin de Siècle through the Interwar
Period 75
5 Saharan Battlegrounds: From the Vichy Regime to a Post-
war World 95
6 Oil, the Algerian War of Independence, and Competing
Stories of Departure 116
Conclusion: Colonial Shadows 138
Epilogue: Dark Matter 149
Acknowledgments 157
Abbreviations of Archival and Library Collections 163
Notes 165
Bibliography 231
Index 253

Note on Translation
and Transliteration
In North Africa, as elsewhere, Jews, like Muslims, were
known by their first name and the name of their father (e.g.,
Meriem bent Lalou) and did not bear a patronymic—until
the state dictated otherwise. In 1961, France required south-
ern Algerian Jews who wished to acquire French nationality
to assume a patronymic and fix the spelling of their name,
at which point, as we shall see, the choice and spelling of
names became politicized for the individuals involved. Ear-
lier archival sources transliterate southern Algerian names
into French variously, sometimes spelling a person’s name
in multiple forms in the course of a single document. Upon
these names I have imposed standardization through trans-
literation, while tending to remain faithful to the sources.
In the interest of maintaining constancy with my source
material, I employ colonial-era place names, offering con-
temporary names or spelling in brackets at first usage (e.g.,
Géryville [El Bayadh]). Transliterations from Arabic hew to
the guidelines of the International Journal of Middle East Stud-
ies, without diacritics. Transliterations from Hebrew and
Yiddish employ the relevant Library of Congress system,
also without diacritics.
All translations are my own unless otherwise mentioned.
ix