'We Shall Become French': Reconsidering Algerian Jews' Citizenship, c. 1860–1900

Ofrath, Avner (2021): 'We Shall Become French': Reconsidering Algerian Jews' Citizenship, c. 1860–1900. In: French History, Vol. 35, No. 2: pp. 243-265

Abstract

This article reconsiders a key episode at the intersection of French, Algerian and Jewish history: the naturalization of Algerian Jews in 1870, commonly known as the Crémieux Decree. Whilst historiography largely portrays this as a unilateral French endeavour, this article draws on new Judeo-Arabic sources to trace an Algerian–Jewish campaign for citizenship in the 1860s. Exploring the use of the Judeo-Arabic dialect and religious terminology in this campaign, the article uncovers a complex and much overlooked dimension of Jewish citizenship in colonial Algeria. Beyond the vertical connection between the metropole and the colony, this is a story of the afterlife of pre-colonial practices, as well as of reformist influences from Tunisia, Morocco and Istanbul. Yet as the article demonstrates, soliciting citizenship in a language other than French disrupted the French orthodoxy of assimilation as a precondition for citizenship. The backlash from settlers, politicians and administrators was fierce and long-lasting.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Cultural Studies > Department of Ancient and Modern Cultures > Institute for Near and Middle Eastern Studies; Cultural Studies > Department of Ancient and Modern Cultures > Institute for Near and Middle Eastern Studies > Jewish studies
• Subjects: 900 History and geography > 940 History of Europe
• ISSN: 0269-1191
• Language: English