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“Arab” Singers, French Citizens: Algerian Jewish Musicians in the Interwar Period
Abstract
The historiography of modern Algerian Jewry - French citizens by dint of the 1870 Crémieux Decree - has long rested on the twin assumptions of the community’s near total embrace of French culture and language and the complete separation of Jews from Muslims as the twentieth century wore on. This paper seeks to focus the historical gaze on the interwar period in order to reveal an altogether different phenomenon: throughout the late 1920s and mid-1930s, Jews not only continued to sing in Arabic – professionally and to much acclaim, despite the best “civilizing” efforts – but did so in large numbers alongside their Muslim counterparts in a shared musical space. That this occurred during a period of increased record consumption in Algeria and the emergence of new technologies like radio and intersected with la guerre des ondes (the War of the Airwaves) waged by Germany and Italy against France and in tandem with a growing national movement, makes this all the more intriguing. Remarkably, even as certain Algerian nationalists accused Jews of corrupting Arabic song and all-Muslim musical associations formed to counter overwhelmingly Jewish orchestras like El Moutribia, the attempt to marginalize Jews within the Algerian soundscape fell largely on deaf ears. In fact, a turn to the primary sources reveals that Jewish music-makers not only defied attempts to exclude them, describing themselves and perceived by others as “Arab,” “oriental,” and “indigenous,” but gained an increasingly wide audience in the process. By directing attention to points of Jewish-Muslim convergence and competition in the oft-neglected realm of music, this paper, then, aims to highlight a particular moment in Algerian history, in which Jews, despite the colonial logic of the day, could identify and be identified as at once Arab and French.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Algeria
Sub Area
None