The Sheikh’s Jews: Muslim-Jewish Relations in Interwar Algeria
Until the middle of the twentieth century, Algeria hosted an array of Jewish communities—some deeply-rooted, others more recently settled—that played important roles in North African society. French colonial rule, however, brought changes that profoundly reshaped Jews’ relationship to their Muslim neighbors. By the years leading up to the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962), these changes had created new lines of solidarity—and new tensions—that cast doubt on Jews’ place in Algeria’s future. In this lecture, Professor Joshua Schreier will explore how the most prominent figure among Algerian Ulema, ͑Abd al-Ḥamīd Ben Bādīs (1889–1940), the undisputed leader of reformist Islam in interwar Algeria and a powerful influence on Algeria’s nascent nationalist movement, understood Jews, their relationship to Muslims, and the escalating conflict in Palestine.
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Joshua Schreier’s research and teaching navigate the intersection of Jewish, Middle Eastern, North African, and French colonial history. His publications explore the ways colonialism in Algeria not only transformed the relationship between Jews and Muslims but also redefined what these identifiers meant. He is the author of Arabs of the Jewish Faith: The Civilizing Mission in Colonial Algeria (Rutgers, 2010), and The Merchants of Oran: A Jewish Port at the Dawn of Empire (Stanford, 2017), which was a National Jewish Book Award Finalist.
This event is a part of The Helen Diller Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Studies.
