In her latest book, "The Jewelers of the Ummah," historian and political theorist Ariella Aïsha Azoulay investigates her Algerian roots, which were suppressed by her father due to his assimilation into the colonial framework. Through a posthumous correspondence, she confronts the legacy of colonial identity politics that stripped her of her heritage. Azoulay argues against the traditional historical view that separates Jews and Muslims in North Africa, asserting that this division is an artificial outcome of colonial policies designed to fragment society through forced secularization. By focusing on material culture and traditional trades, she illustrates the historical depth of the shared lives, languages, and rituals between the communities. Ultimately, she calls for a reclamation of this shared memory to resist current exclusionary ideologies.