Crémieux Decree

Common card · No. 335224

The Crémieux Decree (French: Décret Crémieux; IPA: [kʁemjø]) was a law that granted French citizenship to the majority of the Jewish population in French Algeria (around 35,000). Signed by the Government of National Defense on 24 October 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War, it was named after French-Jewish lawyer and Minister of Justice Adolphe Crémieux. The decree automatically made the native Algerian Jews French citizens, while their Muslim Arab and Berber neighbors were excluded and remained under the second-class indigenous status outlined in the Native code (code de l'Indigénat). The decree did not grant citizenship to the Berber Mozabite Jews, who only acquired "common law civil status" and French citizenship in 1961, over ninety years later. Muslim Algerians could on paper apply individually for French citizenship, but this required that they formally renounce Islam and its laws and their requests were additionally very seldom accepted. That set the scene for deteriorating relations...

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