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As the social problem of the repatriation of French people from Algeria was nearly solved, new urban planning for the city of Oran in 1971, which entailed the destruction of the old Jewish cemetery, aroused renewed tensions among the Jews who had left Oran and the few members of the community who were still living there. Since they could not oppose this project, those Jews who lived in France saw this project as a symbol designed by the state to erase all signs of their multi-century presence on Algerian soil. Meanwhile, the members of the small Oran community were unable to influence more strongly a questioning of this decision, and they simultaneously had to endure the news that their now vacant synagogue was to become an Islamic cultural center. Although the members of the Paris Consistory made sure that the bodies were buried according to appropriate religious rituals, they belatedly became aware of the cultural needs of the entire Oran community, which dreaded the disappearance of rites that had not yet found a place in the practices of French synagogues. This issue is a good example of the first cultural claims of repatriated Jews, which henceforth would have to be separated from the memory-related demands common to all pied-noirs.