Algerian Jewry's 10-year Integration into French Society

PARIS—Algiers, 10 years their homes. The old Casbah
ago. In the port, thousands synagogue, illuminated by
of Europeans patiently wait dozens of spotlights and
for transportation to France, smothered under national
sitting under a half-erased liberation front (FLN) flags,
but still legible sign—"Ici has become the center for
c'est la France." In the near the Algerian rebel army.
dark of the dismal Matson The Torah had been torn to
Blanche airport waiting room shreds, The Aron Hakodesh
European families, dressed had disappeared, the pews
in their Sunday best, sat on are gore, the windows bro-
the sawdust covered floor ken.
among the cigarette butts
Exactly 10 years later, in
and vomit left by the 200,000 the summer of 1972, Alger-
people who preceded them. ian Jews fill to overflowing
They clutched two suitcases the Jewish community cen-
filled with their only remain- ter in the suburb of Creteuil,
ing belongings. The road only 10 miles from the
from Algiers to the airport French capital. The women
is aglow from burning furni- sit, dressed in decollette
ture, abandoned cars ; refrig- Paris evening dresses, their
erators,
Algiers, the "pearl of the hair done up in the latest
Mediterranean," where hot Paris fashion, sipping the
traditional Algerian "anis-
African breezes from the
ette" and nibbling Oriental
depths of the Sahara desert
gently swing palm trees in honey-filled pastries. On the
front of the modern Europe- stage an Arab belly dancer
writhes to the crying Orien-
an skyscrapers lining the
sun-drenched waterfront, is tal music of the "Arab"
musicians. It is a dinner-
being deserted. Some 400.009
dance for the benefit of the
Europeans, including 150,-
United Jewish Appeal of
000 Jews had abandoned
France.
Henry &Walk
Outside, under the almost
perenially gey. Parisian sky
MAithi'S
modern seven-story grey
21286 1:001,I1H,F,
apartment houses stretch in
extend he.: wt%hev
monotonous rows, with rare
areas of greenery to relieve
to all for a hopp,
the drabness. Refrigerators,
health, & prosperous
washing machines, television

NeIC )

ear

The Shulman Family

Jo*.eph..11:.%elyn, Larry and Ricky
22980 Kenwyck Drive
Southfield, Michigan

wish all our family and friends
a ref-, health,, happy and prosperous
New lenr

sets, modern furniture—all
the apparatus of the consum-
er society—filled the square
box-like rooms of the ferry
built "moderate rent apart-
ments."
• • •
Ten years ago, within a
period of two months — May,
and June of 1962 — the
French Jewish population in-
creased from 300,000 to
around 450,000, becoming
the most important Jewish
community in Western Eur-
ope. Such a rapid and mas-
sive migration in so short
a time is practically without
preCedent in the history of
modern Jewry.
Before the Algerian's ar-
rival, the French Jewish
community was centered in
the Paris region, Alsace, and
a few large cities. Today
Jewish families are scat-
tered throughout the coun-
try, some in towns, where
none existed before, some
miles away from any organ-
ized Jewish community.
In the large cities Jewish
populations soared. Before
the massive influx, Marseil-
les had 4,000 Jewish fam-
ilies. In 1963 it had 20,000.
In the same period, Jewish
families in Nice increased
from 600 to 3,500; in Toul-
ouse from 1,000 to 4,500; in
Lyons from 1,800 to 5,000;
and in the Paris region from
50,000 to 80,000. New Jewish
communities appeared, as in
the Paris suburbs of Sarcel-
les, Creteuil and Villeneuve.
Kosher butchers proliferat-
ed, and new synagogues
were built.
The Algerian Jews brought
another sociologic-al context
to French Judaism, their

411•11114
4 111116

HAPPY NEW YEAR

May the new year
bring you
the special Blessing
of Health and Happiness

Complete Food Centers

L

professions often shocking
their French Jewish counter-
parts. They were post office
employes, customs officers,
policemen, prison guards,
civil servants and govern-
ment officials, They were
also professors, doctors and
artisans. The French Jew
and Eastern European immi-
grant were mostly trades
people, self-employed in such
traditional Jewish occupa-
tions as tailoring and jew-
elry. They bad never before
seen a Jewish policeman or
prison guard. They were a
Jewish collectivity composed
of larger and more united
families, having a more sen-
timental religion, and a Jew-
ish identity less cultural-his-
torical because "s ecular
Judaism" has no meaning
for a North African Jew.
"We found a Judaism
thought out, intellectual and
cultured, but cold and aus-
tere. We had less knowledge,
but more tradition. Ours is
a more sentimental, expan-
sive, spontaneous Judaism.
The Ashkenazi's richness
lies in their ability to ex-
plain everything. They do
not understand a Mediter-
ranean people's 'joi de
vivre,' " said Mrs. Henri
Chemouilli, professor of
French and Latin literature.
•
Often ignorant of his own
past, having a superficial
religious education, the Al-
gerian Jew adheres to a
Jewish community to pray in
a synagogue, find kosher
m e a t, celebrate religious
holidays and family ceremo-
nies, such as the Bar Mitz-
va. In general, it is not to
listen to lectures on the Jew-
ish condition and the mean-
ing of Jewish history.
"They attempt to preserve
their originality . . . to re-
create whenever possible,
the ambiance of happy days.
They come up from Mar-
seilles, from Nice, from Tou-
louse for the marriage of a
child of Constantine. A whole
quarter, a whole village
meets again. The "Arab"
musicians are there, and the
singers, the women dancing
like the moors. There are
kosher sausages, stuffed
olives, oriental pastries and
liquors," Henri Chemouille,
philosophy professor and au-
thor. wrote in the June 1972
issue of the French magaz-
ine L'Arche.
Some Algerian Jews said
the desire to maintain their
traditions is .a basic cause
of division between the Ash-
kenazi and Sephardic com-
munities—a persistent prob-
lem even after lo years of
attempted assimilation.
Neither community under-
stands the religious rites of
the other; the pronunciation
of Hebrew is different, caus-
ing each community to at-
tend its owp synagogue.
In a series of interviews
conducted with leading
members of the Algerian
Jewish community in the
Paris region, the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency examin-
ed the problems still faced
by the some 110,000 Alger-
ian Jews who entered France
in the early summer of 1902.
The Algerian Jew no longer
worries about material prob-
lems. The majority, how-
ever, still seem to be bitter
because of the lack of aid
forthcoming from France's
predominantly Ashkenazi or-
ganizations when they ar-
rived. Although receiving
government aid, they insist
:he majority managed on

their own to find housing
and work.
• • •
"In 1959 a reunion of all
Algerian Jewish community
directors in Algiers tried to
sound an alarm. We believed
it necessary at any price that
the mainland organizations
prepare to receive us. When
I arrived in July 1961, one
year before the mass exodus,
the consistory said there was
no hurry. Yet a Catholic Aid
Society representative had
already offered help. The
French Jewish community'
displayed total disinterest;
they never thought the Jews
would leave Algeria," said
Adolphe Ainouz, president
of the Sarcelles Jewish com-
munity center.
Ainouz said toward the end
of 1962 the Central Welfare
Agency (the Fond Social
Juif Unifie, FSJU) establish-
ed an office to help repatri-
ates find apartments and get
government loan s, b u t
added: "It mattered right at
the beginning when they had
nowhere to go, no apartment,
no money, no work."
FSJU spokesmen insisted
the agency began concentrat-
ing its attention at the be-
ginning of 1962 on the "fore-
seeable exodus of the Alger-
ian community."
Most of those interviewed
said lack of aid resulted
from insufficient organiza-
tion. The Jewish organiza-
tions were overwhelmed and
not prepared to handle the
10,000 to 20,000 arrivals per
day, they said.
Andre Bakouche, former
Algerian assembly deputy
from 1948 until its dissolu-
tion in 1959, former Constan-
tine Jewish community presi-
dent and founding president
of the Algerian Federation of
Jewish Communities, .tend-
ed a reunion of all mainland
French Jewish organizations
called to discuss aid a few
months before the influx.
According to figures pub-
lished by the FSJU, its hous-
ing service received 31,046
visits between 1961 and
1971. It gave out 3,321 loans
in that same period. Its em-
ployment bureau received
25,150 callers. It found work
for 7,702 people. As French
citizens the repatriates were
covered by French legisla-
tion. Government family
loans were distributed, en-
abling many to set up busi-
nesses. These loans were to
be paid back over a period
of 15 years, but in 1969 the
government canceled all out-
standing debts.
Bakouche said 20 per cent
of newly constructed moder-
ate rent apartments were
given to the repatriates. As-
cording to Ainouz, a family
of seven received about 8,000
francs ($1,600) for the peri-
od of one year to relocate.
• • •
There was nothing ready
for the refugees in France
—no homes, no work, no
money. Yet some, 150,000
Jews left the country of their
birth—a country many of
their ancestors had inhabit-
ed for 2,000 years, because
they could not accept living
under Arab rule, which they
believed undemocratic.
Above all they feared their
Moslem neighbors' animos-
ity. Every European family
took with it memories of
children with their throats
slit, women with the bellies
carved open, multilated men,
chopped-off heads.
Algerian Jewry found it-

B- 10— Friday, Sept. 8, 1972

By HELEN DRUSINE
YTS Staff Correspondent,
European News Bureau
(coorneas. ISIS, JTA. lat.)

self Once again in the Dia-

spora, after having lost its

country, French Algeria.
But, said Chemou illi,
"France was • revelation
and a promise; the revela-
tion of an Arab world,
friendly but fossilized, which
we were glad to have left.
The promise of by-passing it
toward a more modern, ac-
tive, and open life."
• • •
Most community leaders
agreed the Algerian Jews'
under - representation in
France's predominantly Ash-
kenazi organizations con-
tinues to be a problem. But
they disagreed on the rea-
sons.
Some believe the Ashken-
azim refuse to give up their
directing positions to the Se-
phardic community, consid-
ering it inferior.
The FSJU said there is an
important participation of
Algerian Jews is community
affairs. North 'Africans make
up 60 per cent of the United
Jewish Appeal volunteers,
and the same percentage ex-
ists among the UJA's 35,000
donors. It is a question of
time and the process has
largely started, it said.
Charles Hababou, former
president of the Federation
of Jewish Communities in
Algeria, said the sore point
is the disproportion between
their representation and
their activities and numbers,
• • •
Believing they were insuf-
ficiently represented in the
French Zionist movement,
the Sephardim formed
SIONA, the Zionist Organ-
ization of North African
Jews.
Some maintain it is a hu-
man, that it is normal for
those in power to want to re-
main there.
Chemouilli insists the only
way to close the rift between
Ashkenazim and Sephardim
in Frence is for French
Jewry—in its totality — to
turn its attention, "not only
with speeches and well wish-
es," to social injustices in
Israel.
Chemouilli said the cam-
paign for Soviet Jews rein-
forces the impression of
derision from the Ashkenazi
community, although t h e
Sephardim support the cam-
paign with "all their heart."
"But we ask questions.
The Jewish world showed no
such emotion or solidarity
when we, Jews in Arab coun-
tries, often hostages, were
really in danger of death
and alone. They never lifted
a little finger for us. We ar-
rived as if we weren't there
—no emotion, no compas-
sion. We were treated like
foreigners, often hearing the
derogatory 'the colonization
of couscous,' (a typical
North African dish)."
Both Ashkenazim and Seph-
ardim agree, however, that
the North Africans revital-
ized French Judaism. Ash-
kenazi community leaders
said the popular, warm, ex-
huberant Judaism brought
by the Algerians has enrich-
ed Metropolitan Judaism.
Since their arrival there has
been a considerable augmen-
tation of the Jewish presence
from the synagogues to street
an FSJU
demonstrations,
spokesman said, adding the
community's active popula-
tion has increased from 15
per cent before the arrival
to 50 per cent today.

THE DETROIT JEWISH HEWS