Protestation contre toute tentative de Retrait du Décret du 24 Octobre 1870 sur le Naturalisation des Israélites Algériens. * WITH: Consistoire central des Israélites de France. Note sur le Projet de Loi. Paris, 1871. * AND: Four related telegrams.

On the 24th October 1870, the French Parliament naturalized the Jews of Algeria, making them citizens of France en masse. This decision was so much identified with Isaac Adolphe Crémieux, initiator and chief advocate of the scheme, that it has been known ever since as the Decret Crémieux. Right-wing Catholic agitation followed, aimed at repealing the act, and by the summer of 1871 a parliamentary vote was pending. This “Note on the Proposed Legislation Relative to the Naturalization of the Indigenous Jews of Algeria” represents an attempt by the the Consistoire Central, led by Crémieux’s principal associates, Chief Rabbi Lazare Isidor and Baron Alphonse de Rothschild, to influence members of the legislature to vote against repeal. Their arguments are set out in nine compelling chapters followed by a declaration from the Muslim notables of the Algerian city of Constantine, who had been asked to respond to the question of whether conferring French citizenship on the Jews had “excited anger and animosity in the hearts of Muslims.” On the contrary, they say, they welcome the measure as opening the door to the future emancipation of the Muslim majority. Together with this political pamphlet, the present lot includes a petition and four telegrams. The petition, dated 1871 and protesting any thought of repeal, contains a one-page case statement and three pages of signatures of newly French-Algerian Jews. Of the 46 signatories, nine sign in Latin script and 37 in Hebrew. Remarkable, too, are the telegrams, updating Jewish community leaders in Algiers on the progress of the high-powered diplomatic effort being made to save the Decret Crémieux.