Assan, Valérie

L'exode des Juifs de Mascara, un épisode de la guerre entre Abd el-Kader et la France - 2005.


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Various accounts of the capture of Mascara on December 7th 1835 give us information about the fate of the Jews in the western part of Algeria, during the fight of France against Abd el-Kader. The Jewish population of Mascara was first exposed to massacres and plundering by the troops of the routed emir ; afterwards, fearing new violences, the survivors, under the escort of the French army, were forced to a real flight to Mostaganem and then to Oran. Two documents, drawn up by the French administration on the occasion of the sharing out of aids sent to the victims by James de Rothschild, enable to draw a sociological study of the Jewish community of Mascara before and after the exodus. This study points out the break down and the real impoverishment of the refugees, as well as the necessity to adapt to the war. Indeed, some Jews, mostly men, chose to go back to Mascara controlled again by Abd el-Kader, at the risk of their lives. The case of these Jews of Mascara shows that various factors must be taken into account so as to explain the reasons for a demographic stagnation in Algeria between 1830 and 1840, in spite of the immigration of Jews from neighbo-ring countries.