Algerian Jewry's Plight: Dispersio By LOIS HACKETT (Copyright, 1964, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.) For the Jews still there, Algeria has become like a ghost town, haunted by memories of what used to be, it was reported by William Shapiro, representative of the Joint Distribution Committee in Algeria, on • his recent return from field trips deep into the desert country east and south of Algiers. Following the collapse of • local community organizations that at- tended the exodus of over 100,000 Jews in the summer of 1962, JDC instituted a welfare program in the larger -cities for several hundred sick, elderly and handicapped peo- ple left stranded by the breakdown of community services. With de- partures continuing at amore grad- ual pace throughout 1963, JDC esti- mated that by the beginning of this year only 3,500 to 4.000 Jews re- mained in all of Algeria. Of these, 75% or more were believed to be concentrated in Algiers and Oran. This was confirmed when figures collected at Passover indicated that there are some 2,000 Jews left in Algiers and about half that many in Oran. Shapiro's journeyings took him the length and breadth of an area of 6,000 square miles—due south from Algiers through Djelfa and Lag,fiouat to El Golea .. Best Wishes for z. Happy New Y ear BELCREST HOTEL Dining Rbom—Cocktail Lounge Our own Garage . Transient and Residential 5440 Coss TE 1-5700 Season's Best WisheE BRANDT BROS. INC. Heating Contractors Boiler's Repaired and Replaced n earetims J ATLAS PEST CONTROL, CO. BERRY & SEYBURN BORIN BROSInc. CADIEU?( APPLIANCE S E RVICE a once sizeable community. The cial religious bodies) have dis- man owned a large store which appeared, and in many instances continued to prosper, they were on i community properties were just excellent terms with their Arab abandoned. Outside of Algiers neighbors, nevertheless- they were and Oran, there are less than ! at the point of leaving. half a dozen towns and cities "We're lonely," the man said where Jews have remained in - All the joy has gone out of life. sufficient numbers to reorganize Why should I sit here making the community structure. Most of money? I can't spend it. I can't these reported that they have take it out of the, country. I'm old been living on their reserves and enough to want to pass the rest that the exhaustion of their , of my days in peace. So we're financial resources was immi- going to Lyons to be with our son " nent, since in the past their in- I But some will stay . . . a lone nd Co me de Pe e mainl Y on such Jew employed as the village tax collector . . . two elderly men who run a man's clothing store things as a tax on kosher meat and fees for religious services. On the credit side has been the . . the head of a family of five fact that in recent months the CADILLAC .FENCE 6-SUPPLY:iCO. Sports Outlet Stores- ALPORT SCRAP & SALVAGE CO. ALFORD MOVING CO. • BIRD Friday, Septembe 4; 1964 . 169 Happy Holtday Greetings — east through the mountains year, Shapiro said. They regret the absence of young people and from Tizi Ouzou to Constantine they miss their relatives who and Bone south again down have gone to. France. through Biskra to Touggourt. COMPLETE PEST CONTROL SERVICE In all this vast region he found Yet, looking across the Mediter- Licensed by the Board of Health less than 500 Jews, of whom over ranean, life . in France holds little Single jobs or monthly contracts half are living in Constantine and promise fore the "pied noir," many WO 1-1388 ' 2348 Michiga n Bone. The rest are scattered of the Algerian Jews there are through' 19 towns. On the basis of having a hard timer They feel per- a similar .census taken by two rab- haps people acted too hastily and r ----------------- his, he reports that the same situa- this breeds a certain bitterness and Holiday Greetings tion exists in Western Algeria, resentment, a sense of desertion. If anything, their eliness, their some 700 Jews are living in lon isolation has made 'them more j w 30 to ns. There are those with business Jewish. They cling to it as the most f Property Management precious thing they have There is affairs they are still trying to those who have found a sense of solidarity with the WO 1-8369 liquidate, 3500 David Scott Bldg. it possible to go on living under others who have stayed. Shapiro the new conditions and hope to noted that in Algiers they turn out stay, and the old, the sick or in amazing numbers to parties cele- otherwise handicapped who were brating Purim or Hanukah. Best Wishes For to Happy New Year In communities so small that it either unable or did not want to To Our Relatives,. Friends and Patrons is hard to make up a "minyan," leave. Typical of the first group are a there has been a growing sense of -r family of three brothers and their the need to cooperate with others 400 rce-o-mots - in the same dilemma. This led to dependents in a desert town south There is.one in your neighborhood for the one nearest you the reconstitution in February on TO [8-8800 of Algiers. The brothers owned Federa palm groves which have been a limited basis of the old Ice Punch Bowls — Ice Carvings tion of Algerian Jewish Communi- taken over by the government and get compensa- they are trying tai get In most of the communities, tion for them. When if ever, they Shapiro discovered that orga get it, they will go. Perhaps they ffappy New Year'c — Shalom Aleichem nized Jewish life had either will give up hope and go anyway. ceased to exist or, as people con- tinued to depart, would do so . 1 on his way down to the Sahara. within a matter of weeks or They were the only Jews left from months The Consistoires (offi- who owns and operates a movie attitude of the government on re- 6154 BIVOUAC theatre . . ' ligious matters has- been not only VI 1-3475 They have stoically accepted the tolerant, but even encouraging: fact that their situation is full of for example, the ministry of Reli- contradictions. In an Algeria in the gious Affairs has undertaken to process of socialization, their eca- pay monthly indemnities to reli- Neth Yeirr Best Wishes nomic future is uncertain. Goods of , gi o us functionaries, including rab- all kinds are in short supply, prices; bis. The French Consulate also is are high, so is unemployment. Yet i'considering undertaking some re- in some areas Jewisli businessmen' sponsibility for such things as the have even benefited from the fact upkeep of cemeteries and will con- 13.675 Plymouth that their competitors have left. tinue a certain amount of assist- WE 3-8755 The psychological factors are no ance to needy French Europeans less ambivalent. They feel they are (which include Jewish relief living between two worlds. They 'clients). are oppressed with a sense of nos- Shapiro, said that the number of talgia and loss. Always in their new cases he found in immediate New Year Greeting's minds is what life was like before. need of assistance from JDC proved Algeria today is a country to be relatively small. However, without children — Jewish chil- with local resources on the verge dren, that is—and young people. of exhaustion, he foresaw the ,.con-' Ferndale — Royal Oak There are no "bar mitzvahs." A tinuation of a hard core welfare marriage that took place in Oran Dearborn - problem for JDC in Algeria for an in February was the first. in a indefinite time to ,come. He pointed L_ out that Algiers is the only place where a local community organiza- New Year Greetings tion, in cooperation with JDC, has proved capable of reconstituting a comprehensive welfare program. With the help of the French Jewish community, it has proved Buyers of Scrap Iron, Metal and Junk Cars possible to resettle some 300 needy VI 3-0721 persons in France, either in old 7900 Dix, Detroit 9 age institutions or with their fami- lies, Shapiro said. But there re- mains a total caseload in Algeria Holiday Greetings of over 300 people. 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