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Synagogue at Blida, Algeria
Synagogue at Blida, Algeria. Located forty minutes from Algiers at the edge of the Tell Atlas Mountains, Blida is known as the city of roses.1 While it was once renowned for its beauty, the city’s architecture was drastically changed by an earthquake in 1825 and the French occupation beginning in 1839.2 The city is also the spiritual home of the soft drink Orangina; the Orangina factory is located between Blida and Algiers.
Description
History Blida was founded in 1553 by Moorish refugees from Spain, although the site of the town was previously occupied by a Roman military outpost.3 During the rule of the Turks, the town was relatively important, and Kahyr al-Din ordered that a mosque be built there.4 The town suffered severe damage from earthquakes in 1825 and 1867, but was able to rebuild. Two twentieth-century French Jewish intellectuals were born in Blida: Jean Daniel, a writer and journalist, and Shmuel Trigano, a sociologist and the founding director of the College of Jewish Studies at the Alliance Israélite Universelle.5 In addition to the synagogue, Blida has a small Jewish cemetery. In 2009, the Algerian government announced the creation of a Jewish association, giving Jews formal representation within the Algerian government; one of the association's goals will be to protect and restore Jewish cemeteries in Blida, Tlemcen, and Constantine.6
Blida, Algeria
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Sources
[1] Oakes, Jonathan. Algeria. Chalfont St. Peter (Bradt Travel Guides, 2008). Accessed July 1, 2014. http://books.google.com/books?id=Vyg7ViBs4JAC
[2] Ibid.
[3] "Blida (Algeria)." Encyclopaedia Britannica. April 4, 2014. Accessed July 30, 2014. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/69346/Blida
[4] Ibid.
[5] Encyclopaedica Judaica. Ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. 2nd ed. Vol. 20. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. Accessed July 31, 2014. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX2587520045&v=2.1&u=mlin_m_wellcol&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=ccf15180e0f04e80844ae0778047241e
[6] International Association of Jewish Genealogical Studies. "Blida." January 16, 2010. Accessed July 31, 2014. http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/algeria/blida.html
Plans des Villes: Algerie Tunisie. "Blida." Accessed June 11, 2014. http://profburp.com/plans1903/imagepages/blida.html