Algiers אלג'יר

The community of Algiers was small and not rich in learning until in 5151 (1391) refugees from Spain came to it—among them Rabbi Isaac bar Sheshet (Rivash) and Rabbi Simeon ben Zemah Duran (Rashbatz). They brought the Spanish school and set the community up anew: the takkanot of Algiers—rulings on marriage, inheritance and taxation—held for centuries, and their responsa are read still. The Spaniards and the natives argued whose custom should rule; the argument ended with a community Spanish in learning and native in language.

The French. In 5590 (1830) France entered Algiers, and Jewish life took a French shape: consistories, Alliance schools, the French language. On 24 October 5631 (1870) the Crémieux Decree made some 35,000 Algerian Jews French citizens at a stroke. Muslims were not given citizenship: to obtain it one had to renounce Muslim law. With one signature neighbours found themselves on opposite sides, and it was not forgotten—neither by Muslims nor by the European settlers, who from then on attacked the Jews as "imposed Frenchmen".

Vichy. On 7 October 5701 (1940) the decree was abrogated: in a single day Algerian Jews ceased to be citizens, children were expelled from the schools and adults from their posts. The community had to build its own schools in a few weeks. Citizenship was restored only on 14 March 5703 (1943), and not at once—after months of wrangling, already under the Allies.

The end. In 5722 (1962), when Algeria became independent, of 130,000 Jews some 110,000 left—nearly all for France, because on paper Frenchmen is what they were. A community of two thousand years ended in a single summer.