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ABSTRACT
The synagogues built in Algiers after 1830 show the changes the Jewish community underwent during the occupation. Moreover, the synagogues reflect a contrast between the colonial administration’s attempt to achieve monumentality and the Moorish architectural language. Based on unpublished archival documents, this article explores the influence of the historical and social contexts of the time on architectural choices.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 From a historiographical point of view, the neo-Moresque officially appeared in Algeria at the beginning of the 20th century with the emergence of Governor Jonnart’s politics.
2 Muslims and Jews are called under the French occupation “indigenous.” This concept/word has been used in the French colonies to separate between natives and French. It has an official definition and a pejorative meaning. In law, this means that the natives have French nationality but not that of citizenship. They do not have the same rights as the French or other Europeans in Algeria. This statute defined since the annexation of Algeria to France received a legislative text in 1865. The latter defines Aboriginal peoples as French, but not citizens, because they have retained their personal denominational status. In French law, between the French national and the non-national foreigner, the «indigenous», a French non-citizen, was than inserted, according to a personal status distinct from the civil code. It was a discriminatory law. The Jews officially left this status in 1871 with the collective attribution of French nationality but in fact they remained assimilated to the natives moreover under Vichy during the Second World War they had simply lost nationality French. See about this :BLéVIS Laure, “The Invention of the ‘Indigenous,’ Non-Citizen French,” in: Abderrahmane Bouchène ed., History of Algeria in the colonial period. 1830-1962. Paris, La Découverte, «Poche/ Essais», 2014, pp. 212–218. DOI: 10.3917/dec.bouch.2013.01.0212.
3 Valérie Assan is an Associate of Classical Literature, a PhD in History and a lecturer at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne.
4 Dominique Jarrassé is a professor of art history specializing in Jewish architecture.
5 Assan, “The Circulation of the Consistorial Model in the Maghreb and the Orient in the 19th Century.” Archives Juives, 70–85.
6 Jarrassé’s books: (1) Synagogues. Architecture of Jewish Identity Vilo International, 2001; (2) History of French Synagogues. Actes Sud, 1999; (3) The Golden Age of Synagogues. Actes Sud, 1991.
7 Ayoun and Cohen. The Jews of Algeria: Two Thousand Years of History, 31–35.
8 Allouche-Benayoun and Bensimon. Jews of Algeria: Yesterday and Today, 12.
9 Ayoun. “The Jews of Algeria. Beyond Official Pressures and Memory Lobbies.” Paper presented at the Symposium for a Critical and Civic History: The Case of Franco-Algerian History. Accessed December, 2021. http://colloque-algerie.ens-Lyon.fr/communication.php3?id_article=215.
10 Kateb. Native Europeans and Jews in Algeria (1830—1962), 190.
11 Cresti. “Description and Iconography of the City of Algiers in the 16th Century.” Review of the Muslim West and the Mediterranean, 14.
12 Allouche-Benayoun and Bensimon. Jews of Algeria: Yesterday and Today, 15–19.
13 Lafi. “Being Jewish in Ottoman Algeria.” Juifs d’Algérie, 72.
14 In North Africa before 1830, the oratories were places of prayer and spiritual pursuits situated on the ground floor or on the floor of a house in the Moorish style and merged with the house. The landlord frequently managed them.
15 Archives of the Alliance Israelite Universal. “Report on the Community of Algiers before 1830.”
16 Assan. The Jewish Consistories of Algeria in the 19th Century, 28.
17 Assan. “The Circulation of the Consistorial Model in the Maghreb and in the East in the 19th century.” Archives Juives. 38.
18 A Jewish consistory was a governing body of the Jewish congregations of a province or of a country. The central Israelite consistory of France was created in 1808 by Napoleon I to administer the so-called Israelite religion in France, modeled on the Catholic and Protestant religions. Napoleon named the Chief Rabbi of France and appointed a great consistorial synagogue.
19 Assan. “Synagogues of Algeria, from Orientalist Cliché to Erasure.” Tsafon, 109–124.
20 National Archives of Overseas Territories 2N/57.
21 National Archives of Overseas Territories 12/G/01.
22 Assan. “Synagogues of Colonial Algeria during the 19th Century.” Archives Juives, 75.
23 Accessed October, 2020. https://agorha.inha.fr/inhaprod/ark:/54721/00281482.
24 Assan. “Synagogues of Colonial Algeria during the 19th Century." Archives Juives, 82.
25 National Archives of Overseas Territories. 2N/56.
26 Piaton et al. Algiers – City and Architecture 1830–1940, 98.
27 Jarrassé. “Two Monumental Synagogues: Algiers and Oran.” In Jews of Algeria: Exhibition Catalogue, 211–214.
28 Paviot Marcel. “A Brief History of Our Shrines the Temples Ben Toua and Serfati-Siari.” In l'écho d'Alger, Press Kit Archives of the Center of Diocesan Studies–The Glycines Algiers. 270.96 AAJ. 01/2.
29 National Archives F/19/11155-11156.
30 Klein. “Folios of El Djazaïr,” 32.
31 National Archives F/19/11155-11156.
32 National Archives. F/19/11157-11158.
33 Bensoussan. “The Synagogues of Algeria.” Accessed January, 2021 www.judaicalgeria.com/pages/patrimoine-historique/lieu https://www.judaicalgeria.com/pages/patrimoine-historique/synagogues-d-algerie.htmlx-de-culte.html.
34 Paviot Marcel. “A Brief History of Our Sanctuaries.” In l'écho d'Alger, Press Kit Archive of the Library of Glycines Algiers. 270.96 AAJ01/1.
35 Allouche-Benayoun and Bensimon. Jews of Algeria: Yesterday and Today, 229, 230.
36 National Archives of Overseas Territories. 2N/57.
37 Paviot Marcel. “A Brief History of Our Shrines the Temples Ben Toua and Serfati-Siari.” In l'écho d'Alger, Press Kit Archives of the Center of Diocesan Studies–The Glycines Algiers. 270.96 AAJ. 01/2
38 National Archives. F/19/11157-11158.
39 Paviot Marcel. “A Brief History of Our Sanctuaries, the Synagogue of Dijon Street.” In l'écho d'Alger, Press Kit Archive of the Library of Glycines Algiers. 270–96, AAJ.01 (3).
40 Jarassé. “Orientalism, Colonialism, and Jewish Identity in the Synagogues of North Africa under French Domination.” Art Judaica, 13–15.
41 National Archives of Overseas Territories. 2N/57.
42 Ibid.
43 Jarassé. “Orientalism, Colonialism, and Jewish Identity in the Synagogues of North Africa under French Domination.” Art Judaica, 10.
44 Piaton et al. Algiers–City and Architecture 1830-1940, 58.
45 National Archives. F/19/11157-11158.
46 Piaton et al. Algiers–City and Architecture 1830-1940, 98.
47 Paviot Marcel. “A Brief History of Our Sanctuaries, the Jewish Temple Grand Rabbi Bloch.” In l’écho d’Alger Press Kit Archive of the Library of Glycines Algiers. 270–96, AAJ. 01 (4).
48 Bensoussan. “The Synagogues of Algeria.” Accessed January, 2021. www.judaicalgeria.com/pages/patrimoine-historique/lieu https://www.judaicalgeria.com/pages/patrimoine-historique/synagogues-d-algerie.htmlx-de-culte.html
49 Paviot Marcel. “A Brief History of Our Sanctuaries, the Synagogue of Dijon Street.” In l'écho d'Alger, Press Kit Archive of the Library of Glycines Algiers. 270–96, AAJ.01 (3).
50 Borgé and Viasnoff. Archives of Algeria, 35.
51 Promulgated on December 9, 1905, the law concerning the separation of churches and the state is the culmination of a long process of secularization and secularization initiated since the French Revolution. It proclaims freedom of conscience, guarantees the free exercise of worship and establishes a new system of worship.
52 Paviot Marcel. “A Brief History of Our Sanctuaries, The Kaoua Temple of Belcourt.” In l'écho d'Alger, Press Kit Archive of the Library of Glycines Algiers. 270–96 AAJ.01(1).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Naouel Nessark
Naouel Nessark PhD in architecture and art history at the University of Biskra (Algeria) and Bordeaux Montaigne (France). Area of interest and publications in French: history of religious architecture, heritage and architecture in colonial context.
Mohamed Dahli
Mohamed Dahli Lecturer-researcher at the Department of Architecture of the Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou (Algeria) since February 1999. Field of multidisciplinary interest, publication and management in themes related to architectural heritage, bioclimatic architecture and the recovery of waste from industry.
Dominique Jarrassé
Dominique Jarrasse Professor of contemporary art history at the University of Bordeaux Montaigne in France. Member of numerous research teams, authors of numerous articles and works dealing among others with the issues of the history of architecture and heritage, the architecture of synagogues and Jewish art, the history of art Art and architecture in colonial context.