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King George V School for Boys in Aden, Yemen

The King George V School for Boys was built by commnity leader Judah Menachem Messa to commemorate the 1911 royal visit to Aden.1  (عدن ,עדן) The school provided a Jewish education to local Jewish boys, including Hebrew and English instruction. In December 1947, during several days of brutal anti-Jewish riots, the King George School was burned and completely gutted by fire. The school was forced to close, but the edifice and essential structure of the building were preserved - and today the building houses the Aden Military Museum.2

Description

Located on the northern edge of the Hai Al-Ahli quarter, where most of Aden's Jewish community lived, the King George V School for Boys was the first modern Jewish day school in Aden. First constructed in 1910 and then renamed after the British royal visited the school, the school's identity expressed the Aden Jewish community's gratitude for the British proctectorate that governed the region at the time.3 With a grand edifice and large footprint, the building featured several prominent Jewish stars surrounding the main entrance.

Before this formal boys school was established, most Jewish boys in Aden attended small religious schools. By some estimates there were 30-40 such "cheders" in Aden, some with as many as 50 pupils.4 At these cheders, a teacher would lead young boys through a reading of the weekly torah portion. The King George V School, by contrast, offered a European style education, including English as well as Hebrew. 

On December 2, 1947, the day after the United Nations voted to accept the partition of Palestine, a large crowd of Arabs beseiged Aden's Jewish quarter. Police were unable to control the mobs, as rioters began to destroy shops, burn cars, and attach civilians. British authorities called in the Aden Protectorate Levy, a military force of Arab soldiers under British commanders--yet these soldiers also turned their guns on the Jewish community. Final after four days a contingent of Royal Navy Marines arrived to end the riot. The Jewish quarter was cordoned off with barbed wire, and Jews did not venture out of their streets for several months.5

The King George School, located just outside the Jewish quarter, was completely destroyed by rioters. Flames swept through the building, burning the entire interior. When the riots ended, all that was left of the building was a stone shell. The school would never be rebuilt.

After the British withdrew from Aden in 1971, the facade was used to construct the Aden Military Museum.6 The museum's roots, however, are not acknowledged. As one blogger who visited the museum notes, "The museum is house [sic] in a very eye-catching building. I have tried to find out what it was originally used for, but nobody seems to know".7

Aden, Yemen

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