An estimated one-third of Algeria’s remaining 110,000 Jews are prepared to remaining an independent Algeria under Moslem rule, the weekly Spectator declared here in a report from Algeria.
The report said that the one-third was made up largely of Jews living in secondary Algerian cities of 50,000 to 75,000 inhabitants which have been relatively tranquil in the broiling battle between European elements seeking to keep Algeria French and the FLN Moslem underground. Jews in the smaller cities have not been exposed to the violence of Algiers, Constantine and Oran.
A Jewish shopowner in one of the smaller towns told the correspondent that “we are ethnologically and culturally closer to the Arabs than to the French and in the immediate period of independence there will be a critical need for our services which will assure our safety.”
The correspondent also asserted that the two-thirds of Algerian Jews who do not wish to remain in a Moslem-ruled Algeria prefer to emigrate to France rather than to Israel, since they are French citizens.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
