Jews, Citizenship, and Antisemitism in French Colonial Algeria, 1870-1943
Keywords: Citizenship
Colonialism
Antisemitism
Algeria
Jews

This dissertation traces the competing forces of antisemitism and Jewish civic activism in French colonial Algeria from the 1870 Crémieux decree to the end of World War II. It examines the relationship between antisemitism and the practices of citizenship in a colonial context. The dissertation centers on the experience of Algerian Jews and their evolving identity as citizens as they competed with the other colonial groups, including French citizens from the metropole, newly naturalized non-French settlers, and Algerian Muslims. Periodic and recurring episodes of antisemitism resulted from competition for control over municipal government. In colonial Algeria, municipal governments acted as the major crucible for politics and patronage available to settlers and citizens. This dissertation contends that through the competition for the scarce resources and rights as citizens, various political groups in the colony exerted their claims on the state via the degradation of Algeria Jews, who were naturalized en masse in 1870. This competition resulted in antisemitic violence as well as an ongoing and hotly contested debate on the definition of French identity. As Algerian Jews assimilated as a result of the urging of their communal leaders and outside influences from metropolitan French Jews and Jewish organizations such as the Alliance Israélite Universelle, antisemites sought to limit Algerian Jewish access to rights. Algerian Jews faced particularly strong competition from the newly naturalized French settlers who emigrated from Italy, Spain, and Malta. These immigrants viewed the Algerian Jews as particularly dangerous status competitors. Rather than accept antisemitism as inevitable, Algerian Jews defended themselves against antisemitic attacks through the ii i formation of defense organizations such as the Comité Algérien des Études Sociales. They urged fellow Jews to fulfill their responsibilities to France, celebrating military service and sacrifices, and demanding that Jews exercise their right to vote. Algerian Jews negotiated the antisemitism of French and newly French settlers, as well as Algerian Muslims. French antisemites took advantage of Algerian Muslim frustrations with their inferior status and encouraged antisemitic violence among Algerian Muslims. Algerian Jews sought to diffuse such tensions by encourage fraternity with Algerian Muslims in the colony. As Algerian Jews assimilated and integrated into the French colony and civil society, they negotiated fraught relationships with other colonial groups, proving themselves as Frenchmen while encouraging unity with Algerian Muslims. Algerian Jews straddled the line between citizen and subject in the colonial context and fought to prove themselves as worthy French citizens in the face of competition and antisemitism. Although specific to the case of French colonial Algeria, these issues of competition for status, identity, and rights are complementary to studies of other colonial contexts and that of newly emerged states. Such debates about citizenship and belonging lie at the heart of much of the turmoil of twentieth century history.