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Cemetery at Batna, Algeria
The city of Batna is located in a break in the Aures Mountains of northeastern Algeria, along the Wadi Tilatou and is situated on a well-watered plain that is bounded on the south by the Aurès Massif and on the north by the Batna Mountains. To the west is the cedar-forested Mount Tougour (Pic des Cèdres). The city lies a little over 62 miles from Constantine, in the middle of the Chaouia Berber region, and was formally established in 1848. The city’s original rectangular plan includes tree-lined avenues, a walled military quarter to the east, and less orderly recent additions. Batna trades in agricultural and forest products and is a tourist base for the Roman ruins at Tazoult-Lambese (Lambessa) 7 miles to the southeast and Timgad (Thamugadi) 17 miles to the east-southeast.1
Description
Batna: Batna began as a settlement around a French military encampment during the conquest of Algeria in the 1830s. It was declared a city in 1848, and was already home to a Jewish population of thirty-six by 1851. The Jewish population of Batna grew steadily, amounting to 315 according to the census of 1881, 544 in 1901, 795 in 1921, and 926 in 1931.2
Jewish Community: Culturally, the Batna Jewish community was very close to the town’s Muslim population, sharing a commen Maghrebi heritage.3 They were also tied economically to the Muslims, as the majority of Jewish men in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were involved in artisanal labor that catered to Muslims and other Jews.4 Over time, however, their legal status as French citizens led to Batna’s Jews to adopt a more French identity, which increasingly manifested itself in changes in the style of dress and in language, a growing emphasis on the nuclear family, and an increasing Jewish presence in the colonial civil service.5
Present Day: During the Algerian War of Independence war, five Batnan Jews were killed, the rabbis and community notables were harassed, and the Batna synagogue was damaged in a grenade attack, incidents that prompted the formation, in 1957, of a Jewish self-defense group that favored Algeria’s remaining French.6 As Algerian independence became more imminent, Batna’s Jews fled the country. In 1961, only 155 of around 300 Jewish families remained. After independence in 1962, almost all of Batna’s Jews relocated to Israel or to Aix-en-Provence, France.7
![Cemetery at Batna, Graves [2] (Batna, Algeria 2014)](https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/vCvykU71RPyqriGTUrrt/convert?w=100&h=100&fit=crop)
![Cemetery at Batna, Graves [1] (Batna, Algeria 2014)](https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/BytWJ7ebRDiySvgbAeU6/convert?w=100&h=100&fit=crop)
Sources
Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Batna," accessed July 15, 2014, http://0-www.britannica.com.luna.wellesley.edu/EBchecked/topic/56044/Batna
Walker, Robins. Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. s.v, "Batna." Accessed June 19, 2014, http://0-referenceworks.brillonline.com.luna.wellesley.edu/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-world/batna-SIM_0003340
Notes
[1] Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Batna," accessed July 15, 2014, http://0-www.britannica.com.luna.wellesley.edu/EBchecked/topic/56044/Batna
[2] Walker, Robins. Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. s.v. "Batna" (accessed June 19, 2014) http://0-referenceworks.brillonline.com.luna.wellesley.edu/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-world/batna-SIM_0003340.
[3] Ibid
[4] Ibid
[5] Ibid
[6] Ibid
[7] Ibid.