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Jewish Quarter at Ghardaya, Algeria
Ghardaïa, one of five walled towns in Algeria’s M’zab Valley, was once home to a thriving Jewish population.
Description
The M’zabites are a Berber ethnic group inhabiting the northern Sahara in Algeria. In 911 CE, they were driven from Tiaret by the Fatimid Caliphate and resettled farther east in the desert. [1] In the tenth century, they established the M’zab oases–five walled towns in the M’zab Valley. [2] Ghardaïa, founded in the eleventh century along the left bank of the northern Sahara, became the largest of these towns. At the time, the region was under Almoravid influence, which gradually replaced Fatimid authority in the central Maghreb. [3] The area later came under Almohad rule in the twelfth century and Ottoman suzerainty from the sixteenth century until French conquest. [4] Its architecture is characterized by distinctive white, pink, and red houses built of clay and sand. [5]
Jewish settlement in the region began several centuries later.
Beginning in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, four Jewish families were invited to the M’zab to work as jewelers and smiths, marking the beginning of a centuries-old Jewish community in Ghardaïa. [6] Ghardaïa was historically divided into three sectors: the central M’zabite (Ibadi Muslim) section, the Mellah, or Jewish quarter, where the town’s synagogue was located, and the Medabian (Sunni Muslim) quarter. [7] The Mellah housed a Jewish population that lived separately, interacting mainly with others through commerce. Before the French occupation of Algeria, M’zab Jews were required to wear black robes and turbans as identifying markers. [8]
In 1882, the French formally annexed the M’zab Valley, extending colonial authority over Ghardaïa. [9] Although the Crémieux Decree of 1870 had granted French citizenship to Jews elsewhere in Algeria, it was not applied to the M’zab until this annexation. [10] The extension of French law also facilitated Jewish integration into broader trade networks. It provided access to French-administered schools and courts, though these influences remained more limited in the M’zab than in Algeria’s coastal cities where Alliance Israélite schools were established.
In a 1964 publication, anthropologist Lloyd Briggs noted that young M’zab Jews learned Hebrew to read scripture, Arabic for everyday use, and later, French for commerce. [11]
In the twentieth century, social and economic life reflected both diversity and hierarchy. Economic status ranged from families living in large twelve-room homes to those in crowded, impoverished dwellings. Ghardaïan Jews observed a strict patriarchal and religious structure, with polygamy common among men. Compared to the 1934 Algerian Jewish census average of five children per family [12], Jewish families in Ghardaïa often had seven or eight children. [13] Men worked as jewelers, porters, steelworkers, glaziers, and tax collectors, while women remained at home. [14]
According to limited census data, the Jewish community in Ghardaïa never exceeded 2,500. In 1954, it numbered 1,091. [15] This represented a significant proportion of Ghardaïa’s total population at the time. It also made Ghardaïa one of the largest Jewish centers in the M’zab, alongside towns such as Beni Isguen and Melika. By contrast, Algeria’s major Jewish centers—such as Constantine, Tlemcen, and Algiers—were far larger and more integrated into colonial institutions. The synagogue had long served the population as a place of worship. It was left abandoned after the majority of Jews departed Algeria between 1950-1962, primarily following independence in 1962. Most resettled in Israel—particularly in Beersheba—and in France, especially in Paris. [16] The synagogue has since fallen into severe disrepair. [17]
Distinctive cultural and linguistic patterns also emerged in the mellah.
The mellah was known for a high incidence of hereditary deafness among residents, likely resulting from centuries of endogamy within the small community. [18] Because of Ghardaia's isolation, Algerian Jewish Sign Language (AJSL) likely developed independently in the M’Zab region. It is notable for its high iconicity. [19] While AJSL appears most clearly in Ghardaïa, evidence suggests related sign practices may have existed in other M’zab towns as well. AJSL remained largely undocumented until rediscovered among former Ghardaïa residents in Israel in the 2010s.
Ghardaya, Algeria
© Mapbox, © OpenStreetMap
Sources
FOOTNOTES
[1] Jamil M. Abun-Nasr, A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 90–94.
[2] Joan Tilouine, “Oasis de Ghardaïa, la richesse du secret,” APAJ, 2009.
[3] Amira K. Bennison, The Almoravid and Almohad Empires (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016), 33–38
[4] Charles-André Julien, History of North Africa: Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, From the Arab Conquest to 1830, trans. John Petrie (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970), 215–217; Patricia M. E. Lorcin, Imperial Identities: Stereotyping, Prejudice and Race in Colonial Algeria (London: I.B. Tauris, 1995), 22.
[5] Tilouine, "Oasis de Ghardaïa."
[6] Eden Moyal, “Algerian Jewish Sign Language,” Jewish Languages Project
[7] Jason Dzubow, “Remembering Algeria’s Jewish Refugees – 50 Years Later,” The Asylumist, 2012.
[8] Ronald L. Nagel, “Jews of the Sahara,” Einstein Journal of Biology and Medicine 21, no. 1 (2004): 29.
[9] Julien, Histoire de l’Algérie contemporaine, Vol. I: La Conquête et les débuts de la colonisation, 1827–1871 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1964), 487–488.
[10] Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1991), 108–110.
[11] Nagel, “Jews of the Sahara,” 31.
[12] Robert Attal, Les émeutes de Constantine, août 1934 (Jerusalem: Institut Ben-Zvi, 1980), 41.
[13] Sara Lanesman, Algerian Jewish Sign Language: Its Emergence and Survival, Ishara Research Series No. 2 (Lancaster: Ishara Press, 2016), 40.
[14] Lanesman, Algerian Jewish Sign Language, 41.
[15] Lanesman, Algerian Jewish Sign Language, 12.
[16] Michael M. Laskier, North African Jewry in the Twentieth Century: The Jews of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria (New York: New York University Press, 1994), 311–318; Doris Bensimon, Les Juifs de France et leurs relations avec Israël(Paris: CNRS, 1989).
[17] Georges Bensoussan, Juifs en pays arabes: Le grand déracinement, 1850–1975 (Paris: Tallandier, 2012), 291–293; Diarna Geo-Museum fieldwork documentation, 2009–2010 (Jason Guberman-Pfeffer, Ghardaïa mission notes and photographs).
[18] Lanesman, Algerian Jewish Sign Language, 42.
[19] Lanesman, Algerian Jewish Sign Language, 47.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abun-Nasr, Jamil M. A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Attal, Robert, Les Émeutes de Constantine, août 1934 (Jerusalem: Institut Ben-Zvi, 1980)
Bennison, Amira K. The Almoravid and Almohad Empires. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016.
Bensimon, Doris. Les Juifs de France et leurs relations avec Israël. Paris: CNRS, 1989.
Bensoussan, Georges. Juifs en pays arabes: Le grand déracinement, 1850–1975. Paris: Tallandier, 2012.
Dzubow, Jason. "Remembering Algeria’s Jewish Refugees – 50 Years Later." The Asylumist, May 30, 2012. https://www.asylumist.com/2012/05/30/remembering-algerias-jewish-refugees-50-years-later/.
Julien, Charles-André. Histoire de l’Algérie contemporaine. Vol. 1, La Conquête et les débuts de la colonisation, 1827–1871. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1964.
Lanseman, Sara. Algerian Jewish Sign Language: Its Emergence and Survival. Ishara Research Series No. 2. Lancaster: Ishara Press, 2016.
Laskier, Michael M. North African Jewry in the Twentieth Century: The Jews of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. New York: New York University Press, 1994.
Moyal, Eden. "Algerian Jewish Sign Language." Jewish Languages Project. https://www.jewishlanguages.org/algerian-jewish-sign-language
Nagel, Ronald. L. “Jews of the Sahara.” Einstein Journal of Biology and Medicine 21, no. 1 (2004): 25-32.
Stillman, Norman A. The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1991.
Tilouine, Joan. "Oasis de Ghardaïa, la richesse du secret." APAJ, 2009. https://www.apaj.org/textes/2009/joan-tilouine-oasis-de-ghardaia-la-richesse-du-secret/.