The Jews of the Desert: Colonialism, Zionism, and the Jews of the Algerian M’zab, 1882-1962 by Rebecca A. Wall A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) in the University of Michigan 2014 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Joshua H. Cole, Co-Chair Emeritus Professor Todd M. Endelman, Co-Chair Associate Professor Carol B. Bardenstein Associate Professor Rita C-K Chin © Rebecca A. Wall 2014 Acknowledgements This dissertation is the result of several years of work and much support from a wide range of individuals and organizations. I would like to especially thank my advisors, Professor Joshua Cole and Professor Emeritus Todd Endelman at the University of Michigan. I thank Dr. Endelman for his investment in my intellectual development and his close guidance for the past seven years. I have enjoyed our conversations and friendship as well as the many wonderful dinners I enjoyed at his home, for which I also thank Judy Endelman. I am grateful to Dr. Cole for his thoughtful encouragements and suggestions, particularly in our readings courses together. I also thank Dr. Cole for his generosity in introducing me to other scholars in the field of French studies and his assistance in navigating the challenges of graduate school. Professors Rita Chin, Dena Goodman, Jean Hébrard, Victor Lieberman, and Deborah Dash Moore, also of the University of Michigan, have been sources of inspiration and encouragement during my time in Ann Arbor. I thank Dr. Chin and Professor Carol Bardenstein for their thoughtful reading and helpful comments and suggestions on the dissertation. My fellow graduate students in history Sarah Hamilton, Krista Goff, Minayo Nasiali, and Lissy Reiman, as well as my entire cohort made the Ann Arbor winters more bearable and certainly more fun. While an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Professors Don Reid and Lloyd Kramer encouraged my first forays into historical inquiry and supported my senior thesis project   ii and choice to pursue graduate studies in history. Also at UNC, Dr. Jim Ferguson was and is a great friend and mentor. I thank him for many great meals and conversations, opportunities to maintain my connections with my EATS family, and providing a model of intellectual rigor coupled with joie de vivre. This dissertation project benefitted from much support from various organizations in France and the United States. I thank the Mellon Foundation and the Center for European Studies at Columbia University for their early support. The Foreign Language and Area Studies award administered by the University of Michigan allowed me time and support to study Modern Hebrew. The Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, the History Department, the International Institute and the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan have all supported my work throughout my doctoral program. In particular, a Rackham International Research Award and Hubert and Frances Brandt Israel Fellowship enabled me to conduct valuable research in French and Israeli archives. The Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture supported my work in its final stages. A number of individuals assisted my work in the archives in France, Israel, and the United States. At the Alliance Israélite Universelle Archives in Paris, Mlle Rose was always helpful and suggested many useful places to search, particularly in the personal archives of various AIU presidents. At the Archives Nationales d’Outre Mer in Aix-en- Provence, M. André Brochier provided useful advice and a welcoming work environment. At the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem Batia Leshem assisted my search and Galia Weisman at the Israel State Archives was helpful in finding immigration and absorption records of individuals and families from Ghardaïa. In New York, Misha Mitsel and especially Shelley Helfand opened the American Joint Distribution Committee   iii Archives to me during the chaos of summer renovations. I should like to especially thank Marc Balouka in Jerusalem, who has created an incredible record of the M’zabi Jewish community and generously shared his knowledge and contacts with me. In Ann Arbor, I thank Kathleen King, Lorna Alstetter, and Diana Denney for all their work assisting me in procuring funding, arranging travel, filing forms, and many other tasks necessary for the completion of my doctoral program. During my research time in Israel, the Ariel family was a terrific source of joy, laughter, and assistance in navigating life abroad. I will cherish the time I spent discussing my project, history, and Zionism with Batya and Aharon in Jerusalem, and the many Shabbat meals shared in Zichron Yaakov. I could not ask for more wonderful in- laws than Rachel, Kobi, and all the Ariels, to whom I remain lovingly grateful for their advice on navigating academia and Israel. My sister, Kristen Wall, encouraged me to find the beauty in my project and helped me with moving, traveling, and writing. Our grandparents, Sidney and Ann Wall, Ann and Tom Austin, and James and Valerie Tuttle, gifted me curiosity about the world and appreciation for my own history. During the long process of getting a doctorate, my incredible parents, Stephen Wall and Elizabeth Austin Wall, have made the difficult moments bearable and wonderful experiences sublime. Thank you for your encouragement and enthusiasm, from Le Rossignol to the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and providing the serene environment I enjoyed finishing my work in Western North Carolina. I dedicate this dissertation to my husband Nadav Ariel, who lived with and supported this project in Ann Arbor, Paris, Aix, Jerusalem, Haifa, and North Carolina, .אייאדר׳ג דע ןאכמ ךתוא תבהא ינא   iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements ii List of Figures vii List of Abbreviations viii Abstract ix Chapter 1: Introduction 1 The Crémieux Decree: French Nationality Policies in Colonial Context 5 French Annexation in the M’zab and the Jews of Ghardaïa 14 Zionism in Algeria and the M’zab 23 Chapter Overview 32 PART I: 1882-1945 Chapter 2: The Limits of Emancipation and Les Puritains du Désert: The M’zab in French Algeria, 1882-1930 35 The M’zab and its Inhabitants 40 “The Jews of the Desert” 47 Dhimmitude to the Jewish personal status 54 Colonization and Reform in the M’zab 60 Conclusion 65 Chapter 3: The Long Arm of Vichy: French Antisemitism in the M’zab, 1930-1946 69 Antisemitism, Old and New 75 The changing status quo and the long arm of Vichy 81 Liberation and the non-emancipation of the M’zabi Jews 93 Conclusion 97 PART II: 1946-1962 Chapter 4: Zionism in the Sahara, 1943-1954 101 Surveillance in the south: Contrary French policies and Jewish frustration 105 The “Question Palestinienne” and Muslim-Jewish relations in the M’zab 111 Migration: an international effort 116 A shift in French policy? 125 Conclusion: aliyah or assimilation 133   v Chapter 5: War and Development in the M’zab, 1954-1958 136 The Algerian War and the M’zab: a local and global conflict 141 “The key to the Sahara”: the key to France’s future 149 Conclusion: Anti-Jewish violence and Jewish emigration 159 Chapter 6: “The Milk of Liberty,” or the Land of Milk and Honey: Citizenship, Emigration, and Absorption, 1958-1962 164 M’zabi Jewish citizenship and the international Jewish community 169 Belated equality and emigration 178 Citizens, Refugees: Absorption in France 187 Absorption in Israel 196 Conclusion 202 Chapter 7: Conclusion: The Ambiguity of Empire 205 Bibliography 216   vi List of figures 1.1 Map showing the location of the Mzab 17 2.1 “Simplified plan of the city of Ghardaïa” 46 2.2 “Juives de Ghardaïa” c. 1905 51 4.1 “A group of Jewish children… c. 1949” 119 4.2 “A typical Jewish family…c. 1949” 120 4.3 “Young Jewish girl…c. 1949” 120 4.4 “An elderly Jewish woman…c. 1949” 121 4.5 “A Jewish family…c. 1949” 121 4.6 “Working as a watch maker…c. 1949” 122 4.7 “Learning to make mirrors…c. 1949” 122 5.1 The Sebban family in Hassi Messaoud 150 5.2 “View of the Whole” 161 5.3 “View of the Hallway” 162 6.1 “A family heads to the airport, for the departure to Eretz Yisrael” 184 6.2 Burial of religious scrolls in the cemetery in Ghardaïa 186 6.4 Map of development towns in Israel 200   vii List of Abbreviations AJC American Jewish Committee AJDC American Joint Distribution Committee NY AJDC Archives of the American Joint Distribution Committee, Inc., NY, NY ANOM Archives nationales d’outre mer AIU Alliance Israélite Universelle AAIU Archives of the Alliance Israélite Universelle CDJC Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine CZA Central Zionist Archives ISA Israel State Archives   viii Abstract This dissertation studies the Jewish community of the Algerian M’zab during the French colonization of the Sahara from 1882 until 1962. French officials refused to extend the 1870 Crémieux Decree that emancipated Algerian Jews to the M’zab after its 1882 annexation. French administrators saw the M’zabi Jews as insurmountably different and consequently excluded them from emancipation. Despite petitions from the community and French and Algerian Jewish advocacy for extending emancipation to the south, successive French colonial and metropolitan governments declined to extend the Crémieux Decree to the M’zab. French officials justified this decision by invoking the insurmountable difference of M’zabi Jews, who were both too Jewish and too similar to Algerian Muslims to be “regenerated” as French citizens. Within the colonial legal system, M’zabi Jews were classified as “indigènes,” or natives, alongside Algerian Muslims. M’zabi Jews faced the restrictions that bounded the lives of Muslims in French Algeria and settler antisemitism that culminated in the Vichy abrogation of the Crémieux Decree in 1940. When Free French forces reinstated the Crémieux Decree in 1943, the French again excluded the M’zabi Jews. Following this, a number of individuals and families from the community left Algeria to join the growing Jewish community in British mandatory Palestine. M’zabi Jews were the only organized Jewish community who left Algeria for Israel. Their history challenges historiography that claims Zionism was unsuccessful in Algeria. M’zabi Jews were not ardent Zionists, but they did take advantage of the opportunities for emigration made possible by international Zionist organizations including the American Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency. In contrast to the larger history of Algerian Jews, the history of the M’zabi Jewish immigration from Algeria to Israel is part of the larger history of Jewish migrations from the Arab world to Israel after 1945. M’zabi Jews won full French citizenship in late 1961, but most still opted to make their way to Israel rather than France.   ix