Description:

Until the last decade, there has been a historical and historiographical silence over Vichy North Africa. Based on archival research at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and ethnographic interviews, I make the case that despite the somber shadow that the Palestine issue cast over the period 1936–39 due to the Arab revolt and the politics of Jewish–Muslim contestation over Jerusalem, the International League Against Anti-Semitism (LICA) was able to foster strong relationships with Muslim communities and its leaders in North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco) until the German occupation of Paris. I maintain that the historical study of Jewish–Muslim relations in North Africa during the interwar period provides the background to current and future historical and anthropological studies of Jewish–Muslim relations in North Africa and the politics of minority studies in North Africa and the Middle East more generally.

Aomar Boum is assistant professor of anthropology at UCLA. His ethnographic work engages many cultural, social, political and academic taboos in the Middle East and North Africa region including the place of religious minorities such as Jews, Baha’is, Shias and Christians in post-independence nation states.