The memory of ordinary, everyday intercultural or interreligious relationships, in brief 

Despite political turmoil under successive regimes in Algeria, many Muslims and Jews in Oran continued to enjoy a common life in the city until after Independence. As was true in many North African cities, they often lived in the same neighborhoods, went to school together, visited each others’ houses, celebrated each other’s religious festivals, attended each others’ weddings. In this testimony  Bin Ali Abdo recalls all this, noting another common bond across families: the lady who breastfed him was Jewish.

The common cultural life of Jews, Christians and Muslims also extended to a vibrant musical scene. 

The published sources do not give a sense of the relationships between ordinary Jews and Muslims in Oran, and the Memory Bank intended to highlight and explore this personal dimension further. We are also looking for recollections from other Algerian towns about the ways in which ordinary cross-confessional friendships were valued and helpful, in areas of social and economic life that go beyond the religious area.

The context in which the memory made a difference at the time 

Under the French, from the time of the occupation of Algeria until independence, Jews and Muslims were treated very differently, so that it is all the more noteworthy that social solidarity continued in spite of the political pressure to turn away from each other. The solidarity was a normal feature of urban socialisation, with schools and neighbourhoods drawing citizens together and providing ordinary people with a wide social network and sense of belonging. In Oran, a longer history going back to the time of Spanish rule also spoke of a distinctive convivencia: an influential Jewish community flourished here under the protection of the Spanish king across the sixteenth century and much of the seventeenth century, when Jews were not allowed to live in other Spanish territories, and again across the eighteenth century Jews often played an important role in the city’s political and commercial life. In 1830, when the French took the city, the majority of Oran’s residents were Jewish, from a diverse range of Sephardi and North African backgrounds. Under French rule, increasingly the Jewish community was also subject to violence at the hands of Catholic immigrants, and for the first years of Vichy rule Jews lost their French citizenship and were blocked from holding public positions.

What has happened since, which makes the memory valuable 

During the struggle for independence, the Jewish community was subject to violence, and in 1961 Jewish defence organisations in Oran also fought back in violence which activists on both sides understood in heavily politicised terms from then on. After independence in 1962, large numbers of Christians and Jews fled to France, and most of the city’s Christians and Jews left then – meaning Oran lost half of its population in three months. In the absence, the Great Synagogue of Oran was converted into a Mosque in 1975 (renamed the Abdallah Ben Salam mosque, after one of the first Jewish converts to Islam) and the Cathédrale du Sacré-Cœur was converted into a public library in 1984. 

The memory of a common life was guarded nostalgically by Algerian Muslims and Jews. Oran was a multilingual city, which many of its current citizens cherish as a marker of the city’s tolerance. Ramadan Nights were special, as Reinette L’Oranaise, one of the last Jewish interpreters of Arab-Andalusian music, recalled during the Festival of Ramadan Nights in Paris, singing with great feeling about the Oran that she had left behind.

How might the memory be used in bringing people together in practice now? 

Across the Mediterranean, the memory of a common life stands in contrast to divisive political campaigns which seek to play on the reasons that Jews, Christians and Muslims feel fear or hostility in the face of historical violence and contemporary differences. Algerian Jews and Muslims in their diaspora often live separate lives, and are taught contrasting narratives about the reasons for violence and division in the past. For the city’s cross-cultural and social solidarities to spur conversation today requires deliberate effort, and largely rests on international initiatives.

Additional context/Some additional reading

A brief history of the city is given here.

The history of the Jewish community in Oran is summarised here.