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Ozar Hatorah School, Rue Des Anglais, Casablanca, Morocco
The Ozar Hatorah School:
The Ozar Hatorah School network was established by three Syrian Jewish businessmen: Isaac Shalom from New York City, Joseph Shamah from Jerusalem, and Ezra Teubal from Buenos Aires (1). After Isaac Shalom and his wife visited Israel and the Middle East in 1934, they were shocked at what they perceived to be an utter lack of religious Jewish life (2). The secularization of the Jewish identity and spirituality coupled with a decline of intellectualism sparked Shalom to establish schools in Israel, the Middle East, and North Africa, which would teach both religious and secular classes to Jewish communities (3). The organization was established in 1944, with the founders donating around $250,000 to schools in Israel. In partnership with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee the Ozar Hatorah opened the first school in Casablanca in 1947 (4).
The curriculum of the school was ultra-Orthodox, combining traditional religious education with secular, general education. The teachers at the school were graduates of a teacher-training yeshivot, a religious Jewish university in France that focused studying on Ashkenazi Orthodoxy (Eastern European) (5). However, sometimes teachers from the neighboring Alliance Israelite Universelle (AIU) schools were hired to teach French. Students at the school were mainly aged six to eighteen.
By 1970, Ozar Hatorah ran around 23 schools and one summer camp throughout Morocco (6).
In the 1990’s the school was combined with a primary-secondary school, Névé Chalom. The school still continues to run to this day, serving the small population of Jews that remain in Morocco (7). The school offers some computer literacy classes for the public, and still teaches French and math to struggling students (8).
(1) Michael Berenbaum, and Fred Skolnik, eds. "Oẓar Hatorah." Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2nd ed. Gale Virtual Reference Library.
(2) "Ozar Hatorah 1934-1997." Shema Yisrael. Accessed July 20, 2016. http://www.shemayisrael.com/ozerhatorah/projects.htm.
(3) Berenbaum, "Oẓar Hatorah."
(4) Michael Laskier. "Ozar Hatorah." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Edited by Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online Reference.
(5) Ibid.
(6) Berenbaum. "Oẓar Hatorah."
(7) Andre Levy, and Daniel Shroeter. "Casablanca." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Edited by Norman A. Stillman. Brill, 2010. Brill Online Reference.
(8) "In Casablanca, Focus on Jewish Education." Joint Distribution Committee. September 10, 2014. Accessed July 20, 2016. http://www.jdc.org/news/features/in-casablanca-focus-on.html.
Description
The Alliance Israelite Universelle and Ozar Hatorah:
Relations between the Alliance Israelite Universelle schools (AIU) and the Ozar Hatorah schools were sometimes tense. Both were organizations that targeted impoverished and underrepresented Jewish communities providing education, protection, and care. The Ozar Hatorah organization was angry at what they perceived to be the secular and “de-Judaizing” system of education employed at the AIU. The AIU system, especially their emphasis on assimilation into French culture, was seen as a rejection of the Jewish identity (1). The curriculum of the two schools highlighted their different approaches toward engendering Jewish identity. The Ozar Hatorah School focused on students analyzing Talmud, as well as the Torah, alongside commentary by scholar Rashi, and texts of the Prophets and the Mishna. The AIU, on the other hand, focused on learning Hebrew with some work on Torah texts and the Misha, accompanied with commentary by Maimonides (2). Both schools taught dinim (Jewish religious law). Over the years, in part due to the relationship both organizations had with the Joint Distribution Committee, the two schools were able to coexist. The AIU and Ozar Hatorah worked together to compose and print material for their schools when Jewish books were no longer allowed to be imported from Israel or the United States (3). Problems did arise again in the 1960s and 1970s. As the Jewish population began to emigrate out of Morocco, the student population decreased, and a consolidation of the two school networks was proposed. However, Ozar Hatorah saw such a move as an “AIU plot” to destroy their schools, and refused to join with the AIU school (4).
(1) Laskier. "Ozar Hatorah."
(2) Ibid.
(3) Ibid.
(4) Ibid.
Sources
Bibliography:
Berenbaum, Michael, and Fred Skolnik, eds. "Oẓar Hatorah." Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2nd ed. Gale Virtual Reference Library.
"In Casablanca, Focus on Jewish Education." Joint Distribution Committee. September 10, 2014. Accessed July 20, 2016. http://www.jdc.org/news/features/in-casablanca-focus-on.html.
Laskier, Michael. "Ozar Hatorah." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Edited by Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online Reference.
Levy, Andre, and Daniel Shroeter. "Casablanca." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Edited by Norman A. Stillman. Brill, 2010. Brill Online Reference.
"Ozar Hatorah 1934-1997." Shema Yisrael. Accessed July 20, 2016. http://www.shemayisrael.com/ozerhatorah/projects.htm.