The decolonization movement and Jews in Third World countries

The decolonization that followed the Second World War profoundly disrupted the situation of Jewish communities established in the countries of the Maghreb, the Middle East, and Asia. The accession to independence of new states, often carried by Arab or Muslim nationalisms, undermined Jewish minorities previously protected by colonial powers or integrated into local societies. The Israeli-Arab conflict, rekindled by the wars of 1948, 1956, and 1967, further exposed these Jews to suspicions of disloyalty, discriminatory measures, nationalizations, and sometimes violence. In the Maghreb, the independence of Morocco, Tunisia, and above all Algeria — whose Jews, French citizens since the Crémieux decree, departed en masse in 1962 — provoked a near-total exodus. These dynamics triggered massive waves of emigration toward Israel, France, Canada, and other countries, profoundly redrawing the geography of the Jewish world and bringing to an end presences that were often millennia-old.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World — Brill
• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan