page_title: Oran
section_title: Religious history
hierarchical_section_title: Oran / History / Religious history
caption_attribution_description: English: A postcard depicting the Oran synagogue.Deutsch: Abdellah-ben-Salem-Moschee, Oran, Algerien. Erbaut und 1918 geweiht als Große Synagoge von Oran.
context_page_description: Oran is a major coastal city located in the north-west of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria after the capital Algiers, due to its commercial, industrial, and cultural importance. It is 432 km from Algiers. The total population of the city was 759,645 in 2008, while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000 making it the second largest city in Algeria.
  A legend says that in 900 CE, lions still lived in the area. The last two lions were hunted on a mountain near Oran and are elsewhere referred to as "mountain lions".
context_section_description: With its location as the closest port to Spain and its prominence on the Mediterranean, Jewish refugees first immigrated to Oran to flee persecution and conversion to Christianity in Spain in 1391. This refuge brought other religious refugees that included both Jews again and Muslims in both 1492 and 1502. On October 24, 1870, with the French dominance, Algerian Jews were given French citizenship with the Crémieux Decree. Later, despite a World War II sentiment that favored acceptance, Oran still had a history marked by intolerance. There was a decrease in the Jewish population as Muslims were the only group granted citizenship protection in 1963, one year after Algerian independence.
caption: The Great Synagogue of Oran was converted into a Mosque in 1975
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