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Also known as the Saint Eugene cemetery, The Jewish Cemetery of Algiers has been closed to the public since 19621. By the 1990s the cemetery had, like most Jewish cemeteries in Algeria, fallen into a state of ruin as a result of robbery, neglect, and trespassing2. The cemetery is located below the Notre dame d’Afrique and consists of a subsection that used to be the old Jewish cemetery3.
History of the Cemetery: The Jewish cemetery of Algiers was opened in 18494 next to a Christian cemetery and encompassed 3.5 hectares of land5. This was the last cemetery built by the Jewish community of Algiers who had lived in the city since the 13th century.
Soon after the cemetery was established the Jewish community ran into issues with the land because the cemetery was built on a steep hill. The first few burials were located at the bottom of the hill where the land was relatively flat, but soon the community had to build retaining walls to level the land6. By 1910, the cemetery had run out of space and the Jews of Algiers had to search for a new cemetery, which was never approved. The solution to this issue was to raise the walls of the old cemetery which created more space for burials.
Despite the small size of the cemetery, buried at the site are the remains of those who had originally been buried at the Midrash cemetery between 1800 and 18207. Also moved were the bodies of rabbis and chief rabbis from the 17th - 19th centuries. The cemetery is also the resting place of two Spanish rabbis, Rachbats and Ribach, who reestablished the Jewish community of Algiers in the 14th century8.
Notes
1 Jay
2 Jay
3 Durand
4 Durand
5 Durand
6 Durand
7 Durand
8 Durand
Works Cited
1. Durand, Jean-Paul. “The cemetery of Saint-Eugene: Place of memory of the Jews of Algiers”. Allouche-Benayoun, Joëlle, and Geneviève Dermanjian.The Jews of Algeria: A History of Ruptures. Aix-en-Provence: University Presses of Provence, 2015. (pp. 251-261). http://books.openedition.org/pup/18412.
2. Jay, Sara T. “Grave Connections: Algeria’s Jewish Cemeteries as Sites of Diaspora-Homeland Contact.” Jewish Culture and History 18, no. 1 (2017): 96–108. https://doi.org/10.1080/1462169x.2016.1275336.
3. http://zlabia.com/forum/read.php?9,2360
Photographs
1. Mausoleum of Ribach and Rachbats. June 2009. Photograph. https://books.openedition.org/pup/docannexe/image/18412/img-2.jpg
2. Near the Entrance of the Cemetery. June 2007. Photograph. http://books.openedition.org/pup/docannexe/image/18412/img-3.jpg