The creation of the ‘Israélite indigène’ Jewish merchants in early colonial Oran

Abstract

Jews in pre-colonial and early colonial Oran were a diverse group that not only constituted a significant portion of the population, but a subsection of them was responsible for a great deal of the city's commerce. Contrary to traditional narratives of the French colonial ‘civilising mission’, wealthy North African Jews helped underwrite the institutions that were putatively imported to help them. These institutions provided a forum for new and pre-existing rivalries between North African Jews in Oran to be worked out. This laid the groundwork for the rhetorical formation of a community of ‘indigenous Jews’ in Algeria, a category that placed those described at the centre of ongoing French debates about political emancipation.