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University of Cambridge

Policy and Practice in Franco-Jewish Migrant Aid

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Most of the sociological literature studies co-ethnic aid processes manifesting as locally-organised interpersonal aid transactions. This doctoral thesis, by contrast, examines what happens when the main sources of co-ethnic aid within an ethnic community are not individuals, but bureaucratised ethnic organisations operating within complex organisational environments. More specifically, it investigates the determinants of the co-ethnic migrant aid policies and practices of Jewish organisations in France between 1881 and 1975. Drawing on primary and secondary historical sources, the thesis is structured around three historical case studies of organised Jewish aid mobilisation. The first case study examines the Franco-Jewish aid response to the mass immigration of Eastern European Jews between 1881 and 1914 (chapter 4). The second case study focuses on how Franco-Jewish organisations responded to the migration of German-Jewish refugees between 1933 and 1940 (chapter 5). The third and principal case study analyses Franco-Jewish aid efforts in the context of the postcolonial immigration of North African Jews to France, between 1950-1975 (chapter 6). Considered together, the case studies advance three main arguments. First, Jewish migrant solidarity does not compel Jewish migrant aid — as chapters 4 and 5 show, before the Second World War, France’s Jewish community establishment would sometimes withhold aid from Jewish migrants in an attempt to control them and deter further co-ethnic immigration. Second, the French state’s migration and welfare policies have shaped Franco-Jewish migrant aid efforts in critical ways, sometimes constraining and sometimes enhancing them. Third, Franco-Jewish migrant aid policies reflect Jewish organisations’ resource constraints and relational strategies in particular socio-political contexts. Building on these findings, the thesis advances an explanatory model of Jewish migrant aid.

Degree

thesis:*
Name dc:type.qualificationname
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Level dc:type.qualificationlevel
Higher Doctorate
Grantor dc:publisher.institution
University of Cambridge
Year dc:date.issued
2025

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Morav, Liran
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Cohen, Shana

Subjects

dc:subject × 6

Rights

dc:rights
Language dc:language
eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Author Identifier
0000-0001-7415-6591
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/388335

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Cambridge University
Base URL
api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Morav, Liran. Policy and Practice in Franco-Jewish Migrant Aid. Higher Doctorate thesis, University of Cambridge, 2025. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.120733