Between El-Horria and La Liberté: The Jewish Worldview of a Judeo-Arabic and French Newspaper from Twentieth Century Tangier, Morocco

Abstract:El-Horria/La Liberté was a bilingual, Judeo-Arabic and French, Jewish weekly newspaper published in Tangier, Morocco between 1914 and ca. 1924. This article offers a careful study of this newspaper in order to show the worldview it created for its consumers through discussion of issues its editor and authors deemed to be crucial for Jewish life in Morocco at the time. These ranged from the consequences of World War I to French colonialism, Jewish peoplehood, Zionism, or the reorganization and modernization of Jewish communities in Morocco. Through a comparison of writings in Judeo-Arabic and French, this article also unpacks the intersections between language, social hierarchy, socio-political commitments, and Jewish minority-Muslim majority relations in Morocco. Ultimately, this article demonstrates how El-Horria/La Liberté promoted the integration of French-speaking, intellectual, urban, Jewish elites into a Jewish world focused on eastern and central Europe, and how it tried to do the same for the larger group of Judeo-Arabic speaking Jews in the Moroccan interior, although it was sometimes challenged by the latter.