Berthe Bénichou-Aboulker

1886–1942

The earliest known work by Berthe Bénichou-Aboulker is the 1933 play La Kahéna, reine berbère (Kahena the Berber Queen). With the appearance of this work, its author became the first woman writer published in Algeria.

Institution: José Aboulker

In Brief

Berthe Bénichou-Aboulker was born in Oran, French Algeria, in 1886. The Bénichous were a prominent Jewish family who owned a famous villa equipped with its own synagogue. Bénichou-Aboulker received a French education, married at the age of twenty-two, and had four children. She was a musician, singer, and painter and an active member of numerous Jewish intellectual circles in Algiers. Bénichou-Aboulker published a number of collections of poems and plays, and after publishing her first play, La Kahéna, reine barbère, in 1933, she became the first woman writer to be published in Algeria. During World War II, her and her family collaborated closely with the Allies in preparation for the landing of US troops in Algiers on November 8, 1942.

Contents

Overview and Early Life

Selected Works by Berthe Bénichou-Aboulker

3 Bibliography

Overview and Early Life

The first woman writer to be published in Algeria, Berthe Bénichou-Aboulker, shown here in an undated portrait, was born, wrote and died in her native land.

Institution: José Aboulker.

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Selected Works by Berthe Bénichou-Aboulker

La Kahena, reine berbère. Algiers: 1933.

Pays de flamme. Algiers: 1935.

Louise de Lavallière. Algiers: 1935 (illustrated by Francis Harburger).

Danses, visions. Algiers: 1939.

Balkis la Sabéenne, Poèmes &agrave, Rébécca and Le Stratagème. Algiers: 1939.

Bibliography

Bénichou-Azoubib, Adélaïde, En méditant les livres saints. Paris: 1922 (drawings by Célestine Harburger).

Ayoun, Richard. “Les Aboulker à travers les âges.” In Recherches sur la culture des juifs d’Afrique du Nord, edited by Issachar Ben Ami, 114–116. Jerusalem: 1991.

Ayoun, Richard, and Bernard Cohen. Les Juifs d’Algérie, deux mille ans d’histoire, Paris: 1982.

Tolédano, Joseph, Les noms de familles juifs d’Afrique du Nord. Jerusalem: 1998.

Les Juifs d’Algérie. Images et textes. Paris: 1987.

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