The French conquest freed the mass of Algerian Jews from the Turkish yoke. They welcomed it as a veritable deliverance—which it was—and the very day after the entrance of the French troops at Algiers, they became devoted allies of the civilizing power which made an end of Turkish barbarity in that country. The knowledge of the Arabic language possessed by the Jews made their services, of which they were not sparing, extremely valuable to the French. The roll of honor of the military interpreters contains the names of a number of Algerian Jews, some of whom died on the field. According to highly respected authorities, the brunt of the defense of Oran when besieged by Abd el-Kader in 1833 was borne by the Jews. Therefore it is easy to comprehend that from 1830 to 1870 opinion has been shifting in the direction of the assimilation of the Algerian Jews with the French citizens. Magazine articles, various publications, and the resolutions of the general councils did not cease since 1845 to pronounce such an assimilation to be most profitable for the future of French Algeria. And this desire, frequently expressed, naturally found an echo in the various legislative decisions, which, in the forty years before 1870, pretended to regulate the legal status of the Algerian population. In these decisions the statutes concerning the Israelites were always double in character. In the first place they clearly distinguish between Jew and Moslem among the natives: and in the second place, they more and more approximate the Jewish element to the French. To mention instances: after Aug. 10, 1834, the authority of the rabbinical tribunals was considerably restricted; henceforth they decided only on matters of marriage, divorce, and liturgy; and seven years later they were completely suppressed (ordinance of Feb. 28, 1841), though "prétoires" of the Moslem cadis in the meantime continued to be in operation. The decree of March 15, 1860, which in penal matters subjected the natives of the territories of the commando to martial law, was not applicable to the Jews, who, no matter in what part of Algeria they lived, were tried before the criminal courts of the civil law. The Mosaic law in secular matters had been suppressed by the statute of June 16, 1851, and the suppression was confirmed by the Senatusconsulte of 1865, which in addition, according to article 2, admitted native Jews to all the rights of French citizens on the demand of each individual. In 1866 they were granted a special representation in the municipal councils of Algeria. Finally, the decree of Oct. 24, 1870, better known as the decree of Crémieux, was the last stage in the long journey toward the legal assimilation of the Algerian Jews. It naturalized them as a whole, and, conforming to the principles of the Revolution of 1789, suppressed Judaism as a nationality in the new France of Africa, but permitted it to exist as a religionrecognized by the state. Such in the twentieth century is the situation of the Jews of Algeria. They are French citizens, and since 1870 they have made praiseworthy efforts to show themselves worthy of their new status. Their children attend the schools and colleges of Algeria, and every year a number enter the large schools of Paris.