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AIU Benosillo at Fez, Morocco
Although there is little information available about the AIU Benosillo School at Fez, the Alliance Israélite Universelle did open a number of schools throughout Fez [1]. After facing initial challenges--from without (tribal unrest) and within (opposition to female education)--the Alliance Israélite Universelle opened a boys school in Fez in 1883, under the supervision of Salomon Benoliel [2]. The AIU first founded schools in the "mellah" (Jewish quarter), including the boys school and then a girls school in 1899, but also founded a coeducational school in the new city in 1934. The AIU Boys School's enrollment gradually increased from several hundred students each year to over 2,000 by the early 1950s. The last AIU school in Fez closed in 1989 [3].
Description
Throughout the medieval period, Fez was home to the largest Jewish community of the Maghreb. Although Fez Westernized throughout the twentieth century, it remained an important center of Judaism. While Fez had a substantial Jewish community of 18,020 in 1948, a large portion of the Jewish population emigrated to Israel--reducing the number of Jews in Fez to 13,111 by 1951. Eventually, Fez's Jewish population dropped to around 100 as Jews emigrated to Israel and France following the Arab-Israeli wars in 1967 and 1973 [4].
Fez, Morocco
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Sources
[1] Joseph Tedghi, "Fez," Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman, Brill Online, 2014, Reference, Wellesley College, 20 June 2014 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-world/fez-COM_0007720>.
[2] Michael M. Laskier, The Alliance Israelite Universelle and the Jewish Communities of Morocco, 1862-1962 (New York: SUNY UP, 1983), p. 65.
[3] Tedghi, "Fez."
[4] Ibid.