The capital and largest city of Algeria, situated on the Mediterranean coast, in the north of the country.
Community details: Federation des Communautes Israelites d'Alger, 6 rue Hassena Ahmed (formerly rue de Suffren), Tel: (213) 262-85-72. Synagogue: 6 rue Hassena Ahmed.
JEWS ATTACKED IN ALGIERS.; Governor General Lepine Barely Escapes a Chair Thrown at Him While Suppressing the Riots. NY Times. Sunday, August 23, 2009: [August 2009]
Bibliography:
- Inscriptions Tumulaires des Anciens Cimetieres de Alger (Grave inscriptions in Algiers old cemeteries) by I Bloch. Paris 1888. 142 pages of French and Hebrew inscriptions. 37B577. Notes: 48 tombstones, 1620-1815, short biographies, cemetery history and tombstones found during excavations, chronological order, no index. Source: Tagger, Mathilde.
- Printed Books on Jewish cemeteries in the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem: an annotated bibliography. Jerusalem: The Israel Genealogical Society, 1997.
Jews of Algiers. [August 2009]
Jewish history. [August 2009]
CEMETERY:
- Ayoun Skakna Cemetery - 2 gravestones
- Bacri Cemetery: Bought in 1795, it was called Behirat el Arondj (bitter orange garden) or Ayoun Skakna (Hot Springs). Rabbi Bloch mentions it as "Bacri Cemetery" Entrance of Bacri Cemetery has 8 gravestones.
- Midrash Cemetery: Adjoining the Ribash cemetery, the land was purchased in 1694 and unsed until 1844. The land was divided in several plots and sold. Many marble tombstones were stored in the basement of a house built on one of the plots. 10 gravestones+ 5 gravestones+ 3 gravestones
- Ribash Cemetery: The oldest Jewish cemetery in Algiers. Rabbi Yitzhak bar Sheshet Berfet was buried there sometime at the end of the 13th century. In 1844, the authorities bought the cemetery ground for public purposes. The bones were taken in an ossuary but the tombs of the Ribash and the Rashbatz (Rabbi Shimon be Tzemah Duran) were left intact.
- Saint-Eugene Cemetery - 20 gravestones. The last registry of the Algiers' Saint-Eugene cemetery (June 1941 to May 2001) has been restored and copied by Mrs Line Meller. Jean-Paul Durand and Philippe Danan have indexed and digitalized this registry. Cercle de Généalogie Juive.
Search burial database. [August 2009]
The Jewish Chronicle of 24 February 2006 ran a story about the Jewish cemetery in Algiers. Journalist Paula Slier located it after a two-hour search ("No one ever ask me go Jewish cemetery! " declared Ebrahim, the taxi-driver). " The Jewish cemetery - situated alongside a large Christian one - was completely restored by the Algerian authorities when President Jacques Chirac visited the country in 2003 and is clearly looked after. Some of the graves date back to the early 1800s. Almost all have a picture of the deceased on a small plaque adorning the tombstone. Against the wall, stones from older graves are lined up against each other. But Sherifa (the caretaker's daughter) unfortunately knows precious little about the history of Algerian Jews./ "For this I turn to the community's leader, lawyer Roger Said, who left Algeria for France some years ago, although he comes back several times a year. He has a house in both countries and maintains close ties with the few remaining Jews in this vast North African country."/ M. Said is not about to upset his Algerian friends and clients, and softsoaps the Jewish exodus. There is no mention of attacks on the Jews, terrorist outrages and the brutalities of the Algerian war with the French, which drove out the majority of the Jews along with the pieds-noirs. According to him, 130,000 Jews simply 'emigrated' to France, and 25,000 'made aliyah' to Israel. Most recently, following the civil war, Jews remain 'here and there', but according to a Christian pastor fearful for his own flock, 'none will come forward and openly admit it'./ "When Algeria faced the (recent civil war) terror, three Jews were assassinated", remembers Said."I left for France with my family, as did most of the Jews. And, although the security situation is much better today, I will not give you the names or addresses of any Jews until it is completely safe." / "Before 1962 there were dozens of synagogues around Algeria," says Said." Especially in Algiers, there were many, many Jewish places of worship, but they were all taken over by the locals after the Jews left. There's still one synagogue but it's closed because of looters. The community runs a small one in a building./ "Said stresses that official government policy was never antisemitic, even after the country became independent. Whatever antisemitism there is, or was, is linked to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Antisemitism in Algeria has increased because of this conflcit and some newspapers have been very anti-Israel and sometimes even anti-Jew.." [August 2009]