Crémieux Decree

1870 French decree regarding Algerian Jews

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The decree

The Crémieux Decree (French: Décret Crémieux; IPA: [kʁemjø]) was a law that granted French citizenship to the majority of the Jewish population in French Algeria (around 35,000), signed by the Government of National Defense on 24 October 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War. It was named after French-Jewish lawyer and Minister of Justice Adolphe Crémieux.[1]

The decree automatically made the native Algerian Jews French citizens, while their Muslim Arab and Berber neighbors were excluded and remained under the second-class indigenous status outlined in the Native code (code de l'Indigénat). As a result, the decree did not grant citizenship to the Berber Mozabite Jews, who were only granted "common law civil status" and French citizenship in 1961, over ninety years later.[2]

Part of a series on the

History of Algeria

Prehistory

* Aterian Culture (80,000 BC)
* Iberomaurusian Culture (20,000 BC)
* Capsian culture (10,000 BC)
* Rock art in Oran, Djelfa, Tassili and Ahaggar

* Roknia

* Related: Archeology of Algeria

Antiquity

* Madghacen
* Jedars
* Phoenician settlement
* Ancient Carthage
* Numidia (202–46 BC)
* Punic Wars (264–146 BC)
* Jugurthine War (111–106 BC)
* Roman Mauretania and Africa (146 BC–590 AD)
* Vandal Kingdom (435–534 AD)
* Mauro-Roman Kingdom (477–578 AD)
* Kingdom of the Aurès (484–703 AD)
* Kingdom of Altava (578–708 AD)
* Prefecture of Africa (534–585 AD)
* Exarchate of Africa (585–698 AD)

* Early African Church
* Partenia
* Fossatum Africae
* Gemellae

Middle Ages

* Arab conquest (647–709 AD)
* Umayyad Caliphate (703–744 AD)
* Ifranids (742–1066 AD)
* Muhallabids (771–793 AD)
* Rustamids (776–909 AD)
* Idrisids (789–828 AD)
* Aghlabids (800–909 AD)
* Fatimids (909–1171 AD)
* Maghrawas (970–1068 AD)
* Zirids (973–1152 AD)
* Hammadids (1014–1152 AD)
* Almoravids (1040–1147 AD)
* Almohads (1121–1269 AD)
* Marinids (1215–1465 AD)
* Hafsids (1229–1574 AD)
* Zayyanids (1235–1556 AD)

Modern times

Regency of Algiers (16th–19th centuries)

* Ottoman governors
* Kingdom of Beni Abbas
* Kingdom of Kuku
* Spanish Oran
* Barbary pirates / slave trade
* First Barbary War
* Second Barbary War

French Algeria (19th–20th centuries)

* French conquest
* French governors

* Resistance
* Pacification

* Emirate of Abdelkader
* Fatma N'Soumer
* Mokrani Revolt
* Cheikh Bouamama

* World War II
* Sétif and Guelma massacre

Algerian War (1954–1962)

* Nationalism
* RCUA
* FLN
* GPRA
* 1958 crisis
* 1961 putsch
* Évian Accords
* Independence referendum

* Pieds-noirs
* Harkis
* Oujda Group

Contemporary era

1960s–80s

* FFS rebellion
* 1965 coup d'état

* Berber Spring
* 1988 riots

1990s–2000s

* Algerian Civil War
* Timeline
* Massacres

* FIS
* GIA
* High Council of State
* Civil Concord
* Black Spring
* Peace Charter
* Insurgency in the Maghreb

2010s to present

* Arab Spring
* Hirak Movement
* COVID-19 pandemic

Related topics

* Outline of Algeria
* Military history of Algeria
(List of wars involving Algeria)
* Postal history of Algeria
(List of people on stamps of Algeria)
* History of North Africa

* v
* t
* e

Muslim Algerians could apply individually for French citizenship on paper, but this required that they formally renounce Islam and its laws[3] and their requests were additionally very seldom accepted. That set the scene for deteriorating relations between the Muslim and Jewish communities, with tensions increased by the colonial administration's discrimination between natives and citizens. Seeing a fellow Algerian become a first-class citizen while being left as a second-class citizen made them suspect of collaboration with the colonial authorities as harkis and strongly divided locals.[4]

This eventually proved fateful in the 1954–1962 Algerian War, where suspects of French collaboration were seen as enemies of the revolution and traitors of the people and the nation, after which the vast majority of the Jews of Algeria emigrated to France.

## History

[edit]

Main article: History of the Jews in Algeria

Jews first migrated to Algeria during the Roman period.[5] The Spanish inquisition also led to an influx of Jewish migration.[6] France conquered Algeria in 1830-1834. France became focused on assimilating colonized people into French citizens, and a sénatus-consulte in 1865 revised citizenship laws to allow indigenous Algerians to apply for French citizenship.[4] But Algerian culture prided itself on its customary practices, and as a result application rates were low.[7] Many European Jews lived in France, and so the French believed that Algerian Jews would be more likely to assimilate due to having Sephardic (Portuguese Jews, like Crémieux's mother) and also Ashkenazi relatives in France.[4] Thus, Jews gained recognition in France as a means of control: the French government having realized that, by enabling Ashkenazi practices, they could appoint chief Rabbis with a duty to "inculcate unconditional obedience to the laws, loyalty to France, and the obligation to defend it".[citation needed] France had already given the Sephardic Jews of France citizenship in 1790, and almost two years after, in September 1791, granted citizenship to their Ashkenazi co-religionists who were seen as less French at the time.[8] By granting citizenship to Algerian Jews, the French believed the local Jews would forgo their traditions, and become loyal to France.[9] The intent was rapid acculturation of Algerian Jews into French Jews.

It was signed as Decree 136 of 1870[10] by Adolphe Crémieux as Minister of Justice, Léon Gambetta as Minister of the Interior, and Léon Martin Fourichon as Minister of the Navy and the Colonies. These ministers were members of the provisional Government of National Defense (based in Tours, since France was at war and Paris was besieged. The Muslim revolt of 1871 created distrust of the indigenous non-Jews, as it established that they would not respect French authority.[4] This amplified French desire to attempt the assimilation of Algerian Jews over other indigenous communities who, it was felt, would be more resistant.

At the same time, the naturalization regime in French Algeria was confirmed by Decree 137, which stated that Algerian Muslims were not French citizens. The aim was to maintain the status quo, the sovereignty of France over its North African colonies. Five years later, in 1875, this was confirmed in the framework of the Native code (code de l'indigénat).

Decrees 136 and 137 were published in Official Gazette of the City of Tours (Bulletin officielle de la ville de Tours) on 7 November 1870.

### After effects of the decree

[edit]

Further information: Jewish exodus from the Muslim world § Algeria

Within a generation, most Algerian Jews came to speak French and embrace French culture in its entirety. Conflicts between Sephardic Jewish religious law and French law troubled community members as they attempted to navigate a legal system at odds with their established practice. The French army's control over civilian life in Algeria was limited, as Algerian Jews were legally viewed as equal to other French citizens.[4] The Crémieux Decree also heightened French feelings of racial superiority in Algeria. Many French colonists refused to accept Jews as citizens, leading to a wave of antisemitism that continued to worsen well into the mid-1900s.[11] This led to a divide after the 1882 conquest of M'zab when the French government categorized Southern Algerian Jews and Northern Algerian Jews as distinct groups, recognizing only the rights of the latter, while treating the former as indigenous Algerians.[12]

Following the fall of France and the formation of the Vichy government, Interior Minister Marcel Peyrouton abolished the decree on 7 October 1940, at the same time as the new government promoted antisemitic laws in metropolitan France.[13]

After the Anglo-American landings in Algeria and Morocco in November 1942, Vichyist Admiral François Darlan was initially kept in power by the Allies and did not abrogate the laws of Vichy. After Darlan's assassination on December 24, 1942, General Henri Giraud was appointed French Civil and Military Commander-in-Chief and, on March 14, 1943, he revoked the antisemitic laws of Vichy and reinstated the Crémieux decree. The Decree remained in effect until Algeria won its independence in 1962 and most of the Algerian Jewish population relocated to France.[11] More than 80% of Algerian Jews (110,000 out of about 130,000) opted for France, leaving Algeria en masse, not because they were persecuted there as Jews but because they had so deeply internalized their "Frenchness" that they considered their destiny linked to that of the French.[14]

## Text of the decree

[edit]

> French Republic
>  No. 136. - Declaring the indigenous Jews of Algeria French citizens.
>  24 October 1870.

>  The Government of National Defense Decrees:

>  The indigenous Jews of the departments of Algeria are declared French citizens; therefore, their actual status and personal status will, after the promulgation of this decree, be settled by French law, any rights acquired to date remaining inviolable.

>  Any legislative provision, any Sénatus-consulte, decree, regulation or ordinance to the contrary is abolished.

>  Done at Tours, 24 October 1870

>  Signed Ad. Crémieux, L. Gambetta, Al. Glais-Bizoin, L. Fourichon

## See also

[edit]

* Economic antisemitism § Restrictions on occupations and professions
* Divide and rule
* Salami slicing tactics
* Model minority myth
* Rwandan genocide § Pre-independent Rwanda and the origins of Hutu, Tutsi and Twa groups
* Wedge issue
* Kabyle myth
* Social exclusion

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Jean-Luc Allouche; Jean Laloum (1987). Les Juifs d'Algérie: images & textes. Editions du Scribe. ISBN 978-2-86765-008-6.
2. ^ Stein, Sarah Abrevaya. Saharan Jews and the fate of French Algeria. University of Chicago Press, 2014.
3. ^ Rouighi, Ramzi. "How the West made Arabs and Berbers into races – Ramzi Rouighi | Aeon Essays". Aeon. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
4. ^ a b c d e Arendt, Hannah (6 July 2020). "Why the Crémieux Decree was Abrogated". Contemporary Jewish Record. 1: 116.
5. ^ Stern, Karen B. (2008). Inscribing devotion and death: archaeological evidence for Jewish populations of North Africa. Bril. p. 88.
6. ^ Suarez-Fernandez, Luis (6 July 2020). "The Edict of Expulsion of the Jews: 1492 Spain". Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture. 177: 391–395 - via Edward Peters.
7. ^ Friedman, Elizabeth (1988). Colonialism & After. South Hadley, Massachusetts: Bergin & Garvey.
8. ^ Center For Jewish Education (28 January 2022). "Jewish Citizenship".
9. ^ Stillman, Norman (2006). The Nineteenth Century and the impact on the West. The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
10. ^ (décret no 136 du 24 octobre 1870)
11. ^ a b "Religious Literacy Project: The Cremieux Decree". Harvard Divinity School. 6 July 2020. Archived from the original on 16 July 2020. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
12. ^ Stein, Sarah Abrevaya (2014). Saharan Jews and the fate of Algeria. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
13. ^ "[LDH-Toulon] les juifs de l'Algérie coloniale". archive.wikiwix.com. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
14. ^ Allouche-Benayoun, Joëlle (2015), Dermenjian, Geneviève (ed.), "Les Juifs d'Algérie : Du dhimmi au citoyen français", Les Juifs d’Algérie : Une histoire de ruptures, Le temps de l’histoire (in French), Aix-en-Provence: Presses universitaires de Provence, pp. 27–42, ISBN 979-10-365-6166-5, retrieved 2024-11-30

* v
* t
* e

Jews and Judaism in Algeria

History|

* History
* Crémieux Decree
* 1898 Algerian riots
* 1934 Constantine riots
* Algeria–Israel relations

People|

* Algerian Jews
* category
* Algerian rabbis

Historical sites|

* Great Synagogue of Algiers
* Great Synagogue of Oran

Films|

* Free Men (2011)
* El Gusto (2012)

## Further reading

[edit]

* Marglin, Jessica M. (2023). "The Crémieux Decree seen from afar". The Journal of North African Studies. 28 (3): 540–562\. doi:10.1080/13629387.2021.1973245. ISSN 1362-9387.
* Schroeter, Daniel J. (14 January 2013). "Arabs of the Jewish Faith: The Civilizing Mission in Colonial Algeria". The Journal of North African Studies. 18 (1): 179–181\. doi:10.1080/13629387.2012.712784. ISSN 1362-9387.
* Stein, Sarah Abrevaya (25 September 2012). "Dividing south from north: French colonialism, Jews, and the Algerian Sahara". The Journal of North African Studies. 17 (5): 773–792\. doi:10.1080/13629387.2012.723429. ISSN 1362-9387.

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