Date of Award
Summer 8-15-2015
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Type
Dissertation
Abstract
Following the 1962 Evian Agreement, which denied Algerian citizenship to Jews living in Algeria, all but 5,000 members of the community decided to emigrate. What becomes of an ethnic community of 140,000 in the aftermath of a sudden mass migration to two separate continents? Is it a story that highlights the dramas of assimilation and integration into new host societies? Or perhaps, one could shift the focus, and instead examine the maintenance of lines of communication across national boundaries among members of what once was a single community? These transnational relationships reveal a different kind of story—that of an economically dynamic, productive and creative community, which moves beyond the narrative of struggle and displacement associated with North African migrants in France and Israel. Focusing on material culture and cultural exchange, rather than the internal negotiations taking place with regard to assimilation, my project will show how the international community of Algerian Jews was able to craft a distinct transnational presence in which they served as transmitters of Algerian, French and Israeli culture in their new homes and abroad.
Language
English (en)
Chair and Committee
Hillel J Kieval
Committee Members
Nancy Berg, Tabea Linhard, Timothy Parsons, Nancy Reynolds,
Recommended Citation
Jay, Sara Traci, "Falafel, Raï, and Bijoux: Cultural Exchange and the Formation of a Transnational Algerian Jewish Community, 1950-1970" (2015). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 545.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/545
Comments
Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/K70Z71G7