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Sylvain Lévi School at Fez, Morocco
The Sylvain Levi school was named in honor of the noted French historian and orientalist and president of the Alliance Israelite Universelle.[1] After facing initial challenges--from without (tribal unrest) and within (opposition to female education)--the Alliance Israélite Universelle opened a school for boys in 1883, to be followed by a girls school 16 years later, in 1899. Combined 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 [2].
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 [3].
Sources
[1] "Prof. Sylvain Levi Dies in Paris," JTA archive (Nov. 1, 1935), accessed August 11, 2014, http://www.jta.org/1935/11/01/archive/prof-sylvain-levi-dies-in-paris-at-72#ixzz3A614JgUA
[2] 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>.
[3] Ibid.