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acri, Jean-Pierre
ernments, however, which had profited by David’s business
activities, put pressure on the Algerian Regency and secured
his release. These same governments then helped David set
up the Bacri firm in payment for his past services to them. In
1806 the dey named him head of the Jewish community. Subsequently,
his enemy, David Duran, who wanted the leadership
for himself, denounced Bacri to the authorities and he
was executed for treason.
JACOB COEN BACRI (1763–1836), a financier, served as
French consul in Algiers under the restored Bourbon monarchy.
In 1827, he represented Charles X in negotiations with
Dey Hassan in regard to a French claim. Hassan, angered by
Bacri’s impassioned defense of French interests, insulted him.
The French government regarded the dey’s action as a national
insult and as an immediate excuse to declare war. The war resulted
in the French conquest of Algiers in 1830 and the banishment
of the dey.
Bacri, who had left Algiers at the outbreak of the war, settled
in Paris. During the last years of his life, he was continually
importuned by creditors because of his inability to collect
a 35-million-franc debt from the Spanish government.
[Joachim O. Ronall]
Bibliography: M. Eisenbeth, in: Revue Africaine, 96 (1952),
372–83; M. Rosenstock, “Economic and Social Condition among the
Jews in Algeria,” in: H.J. 18 (1956), 3–26; Hirschberg, Afrikah, index
(includes bibliographies); R. Ayoun and B. Cohen, Les Juifs d’Algérie,
(1982), 102–13. Add. Bibliography: M. Hoexter, “Ha-Edah ha-
Yehudit be-Aljir ve-Mekoma …” in: Sefunot, 17 (1983), 133–63.
BACRI, JEAN-PIERRE (1951– ), French actor, playwright,
and screenwriter. Bacri was born in Castiglione (French Algeria),
where his father was a mailman and part-time worker
at the local movie theater. The family moved to Cannes at the
end of Algeria’s war of independence war and Bacri began to
write copy for an advertising company in Paris in 1976 while
studying theater at the prestigious Cours Simon and writing
his first comedies, including the 1980 Le grain de sable, which
was awarded the Tristan Bernard Prize. He began to make a
name for himself as an actor in Alexandre Arcady’s feature
film Le Grand Pardon, dealing with the Jewish-Algerian mafia,
and in Luc Besson’s Subway (1985), where he established
his trademark character, taciturn and grouchy but sensitive.
After collaborating regularly with satiric playwright Jean-Michel
Ribes, Bacri went on to create several witty, ironic, and
biting but humanistic comedies, co-written with his wife, Agnes
Jaoui, which became tremendous popular successes that
were adapted for the screen: Cuisines et dépendances (1993)
and Un air de famille (1995). The couple also adapted two plays
by Alan Ayckbourn for the screen, Smoking and No Smoking,
for renowned avant-garde film director Alain Resnais (1993).
The collaboration with Resnais later gave birth to the musical
comedy On connait la chanson (1997), a witty exploration of
French popular culture. Actor and co-screenwriter in Agnes
Jaoui’s first movies, Le goût des autres (2002) and Comme une
image (2005), Bacri was also worked in films by Sam Karmann,
Alain Chabat, Nicole Garcia, and Claude Berry, establishing
himself as one of France’s most popular actors.
[Dror Franck Sullaper (2nd ed.)]
BADAJOZ, city in Castile, western Spain, near the Portuguese
frontier. Jewish settlement evidently began to develop in the
11th century, when Jewish artisans and merchants engaged in
international trade are mentioned. After the Christian reconquest,
the Jews of Badajoz were ordered to pay the oncena in
addition to other taxes for which they were liable (1258). In
the 15th century the Badajoz community claimed that it had
been exempted from all taxes and imposts and was required
to produce evidence at the synod of *Valladolid. The tax assessment
for Castilian Jewry of 1474 required the Badajoz and
Almendral communities to pay the sum of 7,500 maravedis.
The enactment ordering the segregation of Jews from Christians
was implemented in Badajoz during the 1480s, and many
Jews were turned out of their homes. After the edict of expulsion
of the Jews from Spain in 1492, large numbers of the exiles
passed through Badajoz on their way to Portugal. Badajoz
remained an important Converso center. Between 1493 and
1499 the local inquisitional tribunal punished no fewer than
231 New Christians. David *Reuveni was burned at an autoda-fé
in Badajoz in 1535 after a long imprisonment there. The
temporary union of Portugal and Spain in 1580 facilitated the
return of some descendants of the Castilian refugees to Castile.
In 1635 a large group of Portuguese Marranos was discovered
in Badajoz and was relentlessly pursued by the Inquisition.
In 1639 some members of the Acosta family, one of the most
important families in the city – two sisters and their sister-inlaw
– were accused by the Inquisition in nearby Llerena of remaining
loyal to Judaism. The family’s Jewish origin was well
known in the city. The family had arrived from Portugal at the
end of the 16th century. The scandal that the trial of members
of a very wealthy and influential family caused was devastating.
The three women, Isabel, Beatriz, and Clara, belonged to
a family that had originally left Castile for Portugal in 1492
because they wanted to remain Jewish but soon found themselves
trapped in Portugal and forcibly converted in 1497. The
three were thrown into prison. The trial was the consequence
of a love affair between a female member of the family and an
employee of the family business who was of Morisco origin.
During the trial the differences between the members of the
same New Christian family became clear: Some were Crypto-
Jews, others wished to integrate within Christian society, while
a few wished to maintain the family link at all costs.
Bibliography: M. Ramón Martínez, Historia del reino
de Badajoz durante la dominación española (1905), 80–81; J. Lucio
d’Azevedo, Evolução do Sebastianismo (1918), 194ff.; H.C. Lea, History
of the Inquisition of Spain (1922), index; Suárez Fernández, Documentos,
index; Rodríguez- Moñino, in: REJ, 115 (1956), 73–86; Baer,
Urkunden, index; A.Z. Aescoly, Ha-Tenu’ot ha-Meshiḥiyyot be-Yisrael
(1956), 372; Ashtor, Korot, 2 (1966), 128–366. Add. Bibliography:
P. Huerga Criado, in Sefarad, 49 (1989), 97–121
[Haim Beinart / Yom Tov Assis (2nd ed.)]
42 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3