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JewishHistoryעברית

Constantine pogrom

Date
3 August 1934 – 5 August 1934Hebrew date: 22nd of Av, 5694 – 24th of Av, 5694
Location
ConstantineAlgeria
Then part of
French Algeria
Perpetrators
  • Muslim rioters in Constantine (Mob)
Killed (estimate)
23 – 25[1]Jews killed. Encyclopaedia Judaica (via JVL) reports 25 killed and dozens wounded. Robert Attal, in Revue des études juives, gives 27 dead of whom 23 were Jews, 150 wounded, and large-scale looting.
Locality

0.19% – 0.21% of the Jewish population of Constantine[1]

Country

0.021% – 0.023% of the Jewish population of French Algeria (c. 1931)[60]

Worldwide

0.00015% – 0.00016% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1933)[5]

Category
Pogrom
Confidence
DisputedEncyclopaedia Judaica gives 25 Jews killed. Attal gives 23 Jews among 27 dead. The two sources also differ on whether French antisemitic propaganda or a premeditated local riot is the main frame.

Summary

On 3–5 August 1934 Muslim rioters in Constantine, then in French Algeria, attacked the Jewish community. Encyclopaedia Judaica states that French antisemitic propaganda provoked the assault, that 25 Jews were killed and dozens wounded, and that French forces did not intervene despite appeals from Muslim leaders; the killings stopped when Jewish resistance was organized. Robert Attal describes a premeditated riot that left 27 dead, of whom 23 were Jews, and 150 wounded, with shops looted.

Sources

  1. David Corcos, Constantine, Algeria. Jewish Virtual Library (Encyclopaedia Judaica)
  2. Robert Attal, Un témoignage inédit sur le pogrom de Constantine (1934). Revue des études juives (1989)

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 15,300,000[5]c. 1933USHMM, citing the American Jewish Year Book, estimates 15.3 million Jews worldwide in 1933 (about 9.5 million of them in Europe).
  • French Algeria: 110,000 – 110,127[60]c. 1931Archives Juives, citing Grand Rabbi Maurice Eisenbeth's census-card count: 110,127 Jews in Algeria in 1931. AJYB 1940–41 and 1946–47 round to 110,000 / 110,127 for the early 1930s and list 110,000 for 1939. Snapshot for the Constantine 1934 period under French Algeria.
  • Constantine: 12,000[1]Jews in Constantine in 1934, the year of the pogrom of 3–5 August.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
  2. Sergio DellaPergola, Notes toward a Demographic History of the Jews. Genealogy 8(1) (2024)
  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  4. Jewish Population of the World. American Jewish Year Book 1948–1949, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1949)
  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
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  7. Mandate for Palestine. Report of the Mandatory to the League of Nations (Palestine Administration, 1922). United Nations UNISPAL (British mandatory report) (1922)
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  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
  12. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, THE CHOSEN FEW: HOW EDUCATION SHAPED JEWISH HISTORY, 70–1492 (book summary). Bar-Ilan University Economics seminar PDF (Princeton University Press forthcoming summary)
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  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
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  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
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  57. Algeria (Vital Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
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  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
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