The Jews of Algeria

Even though the Jewish history of Algeria dates all the way to the first century of the Common Era, it wasn't until the 14th century that Jews really started arriving in the country. Those 14th century Jews were Sephardic Jews fleeing Spain and the persecutions there. About 100 years later those fleeing the Spanish Inquisition also fled to Algeria.
Many of these Jews who fled the Inquisition, made their way to the port towns of North Africa. There were large Jewish communities in places such as Algiers, Bejaia, Mostaganem and Oran. Later they also settled more inland, in places such like Costantine. During the 1500's and 1600's the Jews from the city of Livorno in Italy started arriving in Algeria.

These Jews, who were traders and businessmen did very well trading between the business centers of Europe and their new home in the Ottoman Empire. It was in the middle of the 19th century when life began to change for the Jews of Algeria.
In the 1830 there were about 15,000 Jews in Algeria, most still in the coastal areas. More than a third of those lived in Algiers, which was about 1/5 of the population of the city. This was the time of the French Conquest. At first the government allowed the Jews and Muslims to keep their own laws and courts.
In 1841, this began to change and the Rabbinical courts were placed French jurisdiction as were the Algerian courts. In 1845, the French further reorganized and appointed French Askenazic Jews to serve as the Chief Rabbis in each area, ruling over the Sephardic Jews. They were to be loyal to France.
This began to change the relationship between the Jews and the government of Algeria.
Just prior to World War II, the Jewish population of Algeria was about 125,000. This had grown to just under 150,000 by the early 1950's. Algeria gained its independence in 1962, and almost immediately the government started harassing the Jewish community. It sanctioned them and denied them some of the rights they had which had helped them economically. Because of these actions over 90% of the Jewish population immigrated to France. In 1994, a terrorist group announced its plans to eliminate the entirety of the Jewish population. This led to the majority of the remaining Jews to flee to Israel and the closing of their synagogue in Algeria.
With most of the population fleeing to France and Israel, there is not a great amount of records of the Algerian Jews coming to the United States. There are a few however, such as this record which shows Jacob Benarroch, who states that he is a Hebrew, born in Algiers, Algeria, who arrived in New York on board the ship Pannonia on 16 Apr 1913.

There are also not a great deal of Algeria specific genealogical records of the Algerian Jews. However, there is a great website for finding the Jews in the Civil registration records of Algeria. The website Genbriand Chronotheque Genealogique has the Civil Records for Metropolitan France, Overseas Territories and Old French Colonies. This includes Algeria.

The sit is easy to use. The site allows you to research the civil registers from 1830-1912, using the form included.

I performed a very simple search for all records for the surname Cohen. There were almost 5,800 entries returned. The image below shows the first of 290 pages of results. Once the entry is identified, if you click on the icon just to the right of the entry number, who can view the original record.

The image associated with the first entry is located below. This should be a great help for all researchers with French or Algerian ancestry.

Knowles Collection -Jews of Europe updated

The growth that continues to take place has made it possible to update the Knowles Collection - Jews of Europe database. The database was last updated in August of 2012 to include the records of 82,800 people. Today's update increases that number by 60%.  The number of people who are now  included in the records is over 134,700.
The majority of the growth comes from two major sources;

1. The 1869 Hungarian Census. This database is now about 70% loaded into the collection. This collection is possible because of the wonderful work of Marelynn Zipser, who has spent years extracting this information. My thanks to her for making this accessible for everyone.
2. Headstones from Cemetire- du Pere-Lachaise, Paris, France. This information was gathered in August of 2012, by myself as I was in Paris speaking at the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) conference.

In addition to the sources above, the database has also benefited from the family histories that people have continued to add. I am most grateful to all of those who have shared the records of their families
with me, as so many are now able to document their own families.

Camille Pissarro of St. Thomas and Paris

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) annual conference held in Paris, France. It was a great way chance to renew friendships and learn from the experts of Jewish genealogy. 
I was able to present a lecture on The Jews of The Caribbean, a topic that has been discussed here on this blog many times. A major part of the presentation was discussing the records of St. Thomas, which for many Caribbean Jews was a very stable home. I discussed the influence that these great families had upon the rest of the world, not only in America but the entire world. There was no better example of this influence than my visit to Père Lachaise Cemetery before the conference.

Père Lachaise Cemetery is one of the world's most famous cemeteries, the final resting spot of so many influential people. Knowing that I wanted to visit this beautiful place I took an evening and ventured into the subway for my trip. It wasn't very long after arriving that I came upon a Jewish section of the cemetery. There, I found the headstone (at right) of Camille Pissarro and many of his family members.

 Camille Pissarro, was born on 10 July 1830 on the island of St. Thomas, he being the son of Fredrick Abraham Gabriel Pissarro, a merchant in Charlotte Amalie. His father was a Sephardic Jew.
At the age of 12, his parents sent him to a boarding school in Paris, where is interest and talent for drawing was noticed. Upon returning to St. Thomas, however, he found that his parents did not share in the idea of him become a painter. Finally, with a desire to have the freedom to paint to ran off to Venezuela with a painter he had met by the docks. He now had the freedom to pursue his dream.
Pissarro, did return to Paris and painted. His influence, like the Jews of St. Thomas is incredible. While his early paintings fit into the styles of the time, it was not the kind of paintings he loved. He soon began to venture into the French countryside to paint the scenes he saw there. He truly was documenting the life of  the everyday villager. His worked was not well received, in fact most of his work was rejected by the art world.
In 1859, he was attending school, when he became friends with some fellow painters who shared his love of painting in a realistic fashion. Those painters were Claude Monet, Armand Guillaumin and Paul Cézanne. With these men he became one of the greatest Impressionist painters ever, in fact many have called him the father of that style. His works have shown all over the world, and the influence of him was felt in every type of painting. His life is one very much worth studying.

France Marriages

In the latest update to the collections available at www.familysearch.org is one that may be very helpful for those with french ancestry. The collection (described below) includes selected marriages from 1546-1924.The collection has been indexed but does not include the actual images. I did a search for the marriage of those with the surname of Cohen hoping to find the record of Moritz Cohen and his wife Sophie Falckenstein. That search yielding a list of over 1,4oo hits, including the marriage of Moritz. By clicking on the link for that entry a more complete transcript becomes available. The record shows Moritz Cohen, born on 3 Mar 1838, married Sophie Falckenstein, who was born on 4 Aug 1845. They were married on 28 Apr 1873 in Strasbourg, Bas-Rhim, France. The parents of both parties are listed as well, as is the original microfilm number that the record came from. In this case it was #1740176 which is the Civil Registration of Marriages for Strasbourg.This database could be very valuable for those looking for more information on their families from various parts of France, and would be worth the search.

History of the Jews of France

In July of 2012, the annual conference of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) will be held in Paris, France. As was mentioned in a recent posting in this blog the conference already has a wonderful website that is available (www.paris2012.eu). With a Jewish population of around 500,000, France has the third largest Jewish population in the world, trailing only Israel and the United States. With the conference fast approaching, it seems like a great time to explore the history of the Jews of France. Some of the interesting facts about the Jewish history of France include;

• The history goes back over 2,000 years, when France was part of the Roman empire. During this time it was probably more about groups of individuals than an actual community, however there was a presence.
• The first Jewish communities in France are dated from the mid 5th century through the early part of the 6th century. These communities were in Brittany (465), Valence (524) and Orleans(533). In the later part of the 6th century a community was established in Paris and even built their own synagogue.
• Beginning in 1096 and lasting up until the middle ages in the 1400's, the Jews of France lived through a great deal of persecution. At various times they were imprisoned, forced to wear identifying clothing, forced to give up their land and freedoms and even murdered.
• Beginning in the early 1500's Jews began arriving from Portugal, as they fled the Inquisition. At this time was also the first time that Jews were allowed to legally live in France.
• Jews began arriving from Poland and the Ukraine in the middle of the 17th century. The Jews of France thrived and became an active part of the business community. In the late 1700's many of the anti-Jewish laws were repealed.
• The Jews began moving back into Paris in the late 1700's. The Sephardic Jews settled on the Left bank, and places such as Bordeaux and Avignon. Ashkenazic Jews on the other hand settled the Right bank. The first synagogue opened in Paris in 1788.
• In 1790 the Sephardic Jews were granted citizenship and less than 6 months later the Ashkenazic Jews received the same.
• Following the French Revolution, the Jews began to restore their communities, reopening schools and even opening a Rabbinical seminary that is still in use today.
• Beginning in the early 1900's up through the war, France received Jews from many areas, including Turkey, North Africa, Greece and many countries of Eastern Europe.

Today, with a vibrant Jewish community in an absolutely beautiful city, the IAJGS conference promises to be a major success. I look forward to attending.

Jews of Tahiti

In searching through the records of the Jewish communities of Australia and New Zealand, I continue to find occasional references to the Jewish community of Tahiti. This has lead me to try and learn a little more of these Jews of Tahiti.

Not a great deal is known of the first Jews to arrive in the islands, however it was most likely someone travelling with Captain James Cook, who arrived in 1769.

The first Jew to actually live in Tahiti, was probably Alexander Salmon (1822-1866), a French Jew who was a banker by trade and was the son of a Rabbi from London. Ariel Scheib, in an article on the Jews of Tahiti, located at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/, discusses how Alexander Salmon, married into the Royal family of Tahiti, when he married Princess Arrioehau, the leader of the local Teva tribe. Their daughter became the last queen of the Tahiti Islands.

The modern day history of the Jewish people on Tahiti, starts in the 1960's with the arrival of Jews from Algiers. These North African Jews considered themselves to be French, Sephardic and Orthodox. The first Synagogue, was built in 1993 at Papeete. The Jewish Community today is still small, about 125 people, however they maintain a people with a rich heritage.