At first glance, the core argument may seem rather trivial: Jews in Algeria should adopt the custom of ‘peoples around the world’ to mark important historical anniversaries. But behind it stands a more fundamental argument about Jewish history and its role in the contemporary world. Bekache calls on his readers and on the Jewish community in Algiers to commemorate the anniversary of the arrival of the Geonim Isaac ben Sheshet and Simeon ben Zemah Duran in Algiers in 1391. He argues that their arrival was a key historical moment, as he writes: “For what was Algiers before the sun of these two rabbis shone on her? […] They are the ones who elevated her standing and gave her great fame in the entire world.”

Much like French commentators on Algerian Jewish life since the 1830s – Jews and non-Jews alike – Bekache adopts a view of Algerian history as one marked by binaries: darkness vs. enlightenment, ignorance vs. learning, stagnation vs. progress. Yet for Bekache, this history is almost entirely untouched by the timeline of French history. Unlike most other texts published in the Algerian-Jewish vernacular in the late 19^th century, the French milestone years of 1789, 1830, or 1870 play no role at all. Rather, it is the rise and demise of Jewish scholarship in Spain and the Mediterranean diaspora in the aftermath of the persecution of the Catholic Reconquista that are depicted here as the origin of a renaissance of Jewish life in Algeria.

To whom is this text addressed? Bekache writes to the common Jewish reader, no doubt, but also to the chief rabbis and the consistories of Algeria – the councils founded by France in the 1840s to oversee the reshaping of Jewish education, family structures, and religious life to follow the French model. It is also worth noting that Bekache’s tone is not entirely neutral. “Go out and learn” about the arrival of the two Geonim, he tells the consistory members, borrowing an expression from the Passover Haggadah – a key Jewish text that commemorates historical events – and implying that Algerian Jewish leaders lack knowledge of their own history.

It is not coincidental that Bekache adopted this critical outsider’s tone in his feuilleton. A native of Mumbai who was ordained as rabbi in Safed, Bekache settled in Algiers in 1878. He was in a unique position to observe a society undergoing rapid changes, thanks to his migration and strong ties throughout the Jewish world, his command of Hebrew, and the fact that he settled in in Algiers only a few years after the bestowal of French citizenship on Algerian Jews with the 1870 Crémieux Decree. Within a few years of his arrival in Algiers, he founded a printing press, published numerous books, and in 1891 launched Beit Yisrael, a weekly journal written in the Judeo-Arabic vernacular of local Jewry, and in which this feuilleton was published.

Like most maskilim – proponents of the Haskalah – Bekache did not reject European influence altogether and his articles in Beit Yisrael include repeated references to France as a source of civilization and progress. Yet he clearly rejected the French colonial imperative of assimilation, insisting on writing in Judeo-Arabic, promoting the knowledge of Hebrew, and finding a decidedly Jewish way to modernity.’ In this feuilleton, Bekache turns his attention to Algerian Jewish history by infusing it with practices inspired by French culture. In doing so, he offers a model for modern Jewish identity that draws on modern European thought, the Jewish Enlightenment movement (Haskalah), and local traditions.

Further Reading:

• Avraham Hatal, “Sifre rabi Shalom Bekach, ish haskalah, madpis ve-mo”s be-Algir,” Ale-sefer 2, 1976: 219-228.
• Avner Ofrath, 'We Shall Become French': Reconsidering Algerian Jews' Citizenship, c. 1860–1900, French History 35:2 (2021): 243–265.