Identité et nation, migrations juives et rapports intercommunautaires au Maghreb colonial

Session 2 : Des « jeux de l’échange » au « temps du monde »

Colloque : Migrations, identité et modernité au Maghreb

Colloque international organisé à Essaouira (Maroc), du 17 au 20 mars 2010.

Ce colloque est une initiative d’universitaires français et marocains, auxquels se sont joints des collègues du monde entier, dans un engagement commun pour une lecture pluraliste de l’histoire récente du Maroc et du Maghreb. Accueilli à Essaouira et soutenu par deux instances chargées de la défense des droits humains et de la mise en application des recommandations de l’Instance équité et réconciliation, ce colloque a essayé d’aborder, de façon publique, pour la première fois dans un pays du Maghreb, la question du départ des juifs, recontextualisée dans sa profondeur historique et mise en perspective avec les flux migratoires des communautés musulmanes. Sans esquiver les dimensions spécifiques ni les enjeux politiques de ces départs, il a cherché à en réévaluer la place. Il a pour cela réintroduit au cœur du questionnement les projets migratoires, les parcours de migrants et les dynamiques de constructions communautaires.

En savoir plus : https://www.canal-u.tv/mediamed/migrations-juives-maghreb

Résumé

Much of the literature on the Jews of the Maghreb imagines a singular Jewish community associated to the countries in which Jews lived in the 20th century. These identities, defined as "Tunisian Jews," "Algerian Jews," and "Moroccan Jews," were produced by the creation of national boundaries under colonial rule and the development of national institutions that encompassed the Jewish community of each country. Yet these "fixed" identities conceal a more complicated reality, which was characterized by fluid identities that were contingent of circumstance, migration across political boundaries in the Maghreb and larger Mediterranean world, and the strategic marketplace of citizenship. The different timing of colonialism in the Maghreb in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the distinctive status granted to the Jews by the colonial regimes in Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, contributing to a complicated web of relations across the political frontiers. Seeking commercial opportunities, the acquisition of citizenship, or religious training, Jews would migrate across the countries of the Maghreb, or elsewhere in the Mediterranean: Gibraltar, Livorno, Marseilles, etc. Algerian Jews, with their French citizenship might find opportunities in Morocco, while Moroccan rabbis could obtain leadership positions in local Algerian communities. New or developing towns, under the colonial economy, were frequently composed of Jewish migrants from across the boundaries, from Libya to Tunisia or between Eastern Morocco and Western Algeria for example. In examining these diverse migratory patterns, I argue that national identities were much more contingent and ambiguous than is often thought.