Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/430

382 TIIK

Algeria

JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

well-ponstitHtcd Jewish communities, full of vitality, by which they were absorbed, despite their own strength and importance; for. in the lirst place, the division of the Jews into two groups. African and Spanish, that has existed at Tiuiis up to our own tiuKs. ceased in Algeria after the middle of the Turkish period; and. in the secdnd place. Arabic has remained the current speech of the Algerian Jews, while the contrary is the case at Teluan and Tangiers, where !5pauish is the vernacular of the

Jews. Algeria did not offer the Jewish refugees When Carasylum. dinal Ximenes took Oran in l."i(li). lie over-

At

first

from Spain a very secure

whelmed

the

Jews

with his impositions; Peter of Xavarre. in his conquest of Boi(lolO), ma.ssjicrcd,

and

slavery a considerable number of Jews.

But

under Turkfrom 1519 onward, during

the si.xteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, the Jews in the towns of the regency of Algiers enjoyed a fair amount of securi-

Kantara.

their

These Jews from Leg-

exercise of their religion and the liberty affairs.

es-

IIow-

bein,g practically

administer

They

tablished themselves there, erected buildings, and jieopled that part of the city U]) to the desert. In the seventeenth century a new Jewish element foiuid its way into the chief cities of the regencj-, especially at Algiers.

guaranteed the free

to

In theeigliteenthcentury<ertainJewi.sh communiwere reeslablisliiMl or eidarged under the fricnilly rule of Turkish deys. Among the chief of these is the present (nmmimily in Oran. In 1792. after the linal evacuation of the city by the Spaniards, thedey Mohammed al-Kabir invilid the .lews of Tlemten, of jMostaganem. of Mascara, and of Nidroma to live there. On condition of the payment of eerlain taxes, and of building within fixed limits, he conceded to them a iiicce of land ties

of the region some land with inth'finite Imuiidaries between the Sciuls al - Aseur and the gate of El-

ish domination,

own



stantinethedey Salah donated to the Jews

re-

duced to

ty,

interests of Spanish subjects in that cotmtry the descendants of this Jacob Cansino. I.saac. Hayyim, Aaron, and Jacol). in direct succession from father to son. Iille<l the ollice of consuls of Spain in Morocco until l(i((.

between what is now Chateau-Neuf and Saint-Andre. At Con-

pillaged,

gie

382

evcr, they were despised, subjected to

horn.

Italy,

called

(Jorneyim. soon attained .great importance as social eco-

annoying treatment, forced to pay heavy

factors. It was their conunereial activity that brought them to Algiers, and

nomic

taxes, and. if they complained, punishecl with utmost the rigor. In addition they were exposed to

in the course of the arbitrary acts at the eighteenth century (1^'.^'',. hands of petty local they became JtrUl-^li (^u.illfi ui .lMii--i3. Aili-i UiL- iiloU-, the tyrants. Tin- jiaslin liankers of the deys, of Tuggurt. Mohainnicil al-Aklial ben .Jallab. wished intermediaries betw-een them and the Eurojiean powto convert the Jews to Islam by force, and the deys ers, and their respected and influential counselors, almost even their ministers. of Algiers on .several occasions liandcd Turkish over the houses of the Jews to the The organization of the Jewish Algerian commuDomiDetinite inpopulace for pillage. But it was nities developed in the course of time. formation concerning the system during the Turkish nation. chieliy in the villa.ixes occupied by the Spaniards and exposed to the period is in existi'ncc, and a short suniniarv may be wars between the regency and the Catholic kings given. Placed at the head of iIk^ conmiunity was a that the Jews suffered from active fanaticism the miikdddnm selected by the Arabic or Turkish govfanatical hate inspired by the Inquisition. The ernor of the city or the region. The Spaniards in possession of Tlemccn in l.'iG;! killed or The Com- mukaddam was the oHicial representaenslaved fifteen hundred Jews there, and in 1CC9 munities. five of the comnnmity, and the sole Taxardo expelled from Oran the Jewish |)opdation. legal intermediary with the Moslem ]iroscribed the free exercise of Judaism, and rc|ilaced authorities for all administrative and financial afthe synagogue by a church dedicated to San Christo fairs. He was assisted by a covmeil (tnhf ha-'ir), de la Patienza. It is no wonder, then, that the Alappointed by himself, wliieli, apart from its admingerian Jews publicly demonstrated their joy on sevistration of the general affairs of the community, eral occasions when the Turks were victorious over saw to the levying and collecting of the taxes imthe Spaniards. The following curious fact is w-orthy posed on the Jews of the country. The rabbinof mention Emperor Charles V. sent a Jew of Oran ical tribunal possessed two judicial functions. In named Jacob Cansino (1556) to represent him at the purely religious matters, it settled ritual questions court of the emperor of Morocco, and to protect the and, if necessary, inflicted p<'nalties, fines (kemu),

—