Mardochée Smadja (Mardoché Smaja)was born into a traditional Jewish family in Tunis in 1864 and was named for his grandfather, who was chief rabbi of Tunisia from 1898 to 1900. After taking an accelerated course at the Alliance Israélite Universelle school in Tunis when he was fifteen, Smadja subsequently continued his education on his own.

Attracted by French culture and the ideals of the French Revolution, Smadja concluded that assimilation to French institutions and ways was the path to Jewish social and political emancipation. He became a leading advocate of …