History of the Jews in Algeria

The History of the Jews in Algeria refers to the history of the Jewish community of Algeria, which dates to the 1st century CE. In the 15th century, many Spanish and Portuguese Jews fled to the Maghreb, including today's Algeria, following the expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal; among them were respected Jewish scholars, including Isaac ben Sheshet and Simeon ben Zemah Duran. Algeria won its independence in 1962, and by the Nationality Code of 1963 denied citizenship to all non-Muslims. Algeria's Jews, most of whom had held French citizenship since 1870, left with the pieds-noirs. The vast majority moved to France, and the rest moved to Israel. Those who remained resided mostly in Algiers, while some settled in Blida, Constantine, and Oran. In the 1990s, the trials of the Algerian Civil War led most of the few remaining Jews to emigrate. In 1994, the rebel Armed Islamic Group of Algeria's 1994 declaration of war on all non-Muslims in the country was a decisive event for Jews remaining in Algeria. That year, Algerian Jews abandoned their last synagogue, Djamâa Lihoud (now the Ben Farès Mosque). Today, most Jews in France are Maghrebi Jews, and consequently, most of the recent immigration from France to Israel consists of Jews of North African origin. There is evidence of Jewish settlements in Algeria since at least the Roman period (Mauretania Caesariensis). Epitaphs have been found in archaeological excavations that attest to Jews in the first centuries CE. Berber lands were said to welcome Christians and Jews very early from the Roman Empire. The destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by Titus in 70 CE, and thereafter by the Kitos War in 117, reinforced Jewish settlement in North Africa and the Mediterranean. Early descriptions of the Rustamid capital, Tahert, note that Jews were found there, as they would be in any other major Muslim city of North Africa. Centuries later, the letters found in the Cairo Geniza mention many Algerian Jewish families.