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AIU Hafsia Boys School at Tunis, Tunisia

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History of Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) Schools for Boys

In May 1860, the Alliance Israélite Universelle was founded in Paris by Jewish statesman and intellectual Adolphe Crémieux to uphold the human rights and improve the welfare of the Jewish populations of the Middle East and North Africa who were being oppressed and discriminated against. The program stressed the need to combat disease, poverty, and “ignorance” through the education of Jews in the tradition of French secular schooling [6]. This organized school system introduced a modern education aimed at Jewish emancipation, but made an effort not to depart from the traditional Jewish values held by the local populations (which proved successful in most cases) and to work in cooperation with local Jewish leadership [7]. This process of Jewish emancipation was based on intellectual regeneration geared toward diversifying careers and creating pathways to secondary/ higher education, opportunities for girls to attend school for the first time, the inclusion of Jewish unity and solidarity, and the encouragement of religious toleration through education (Judeo-Muslim and Judeo-Christian) [8]. Ultimately, the AIU schools became “the most influential agents of change within the Jewish communities” of the Middle East and North Africa [9].

From the mid-nineteenth century, the AIU established a far-reaching network of schools in the Ottoman Empire, its Arab provinces in the Middle East, and in North Africa. By the early twentieth century, there were more than 100 schools with over 26,000 students. The first AIU School was founded in 1862 in Tetouan, Morocco, and served as a model for other schools throughout the Middle East and North Africa. In Tunisia, an AIU school for boys opened in 1878 and an AIU school for girls followed in 1882. The establishment of the School for Boys in Tunis (near ancient Carthage) directly preceded the French occupation of Tunisia in 1881 and the subsequent establishment of a Protectorate in 1883. What was especially unique about the Alliance schools was that they accepted rich and poor, males and females, Jews and non-Jews. By 1895, the non-Jewish student population of about 280 students included 95 Catholics, 43 Protestants, 39 Greek Orthodox, 21 Armenians, and 37 Muslims. At that time there were 59 AIU schools with a total enrollment of 12,050. The teachers of Tunis were also multi-ethnic and multi-religious: European and North African, Jewish and non-Jewish [10].

The AIU established other education institutions for boys in Tunisia. Additional primary schools, a school for commerce which operated from 1899-1902, and a rabbinical school which operated from 1907-1914 were all established, but they were short-lived. In other parts of Tunisia, the AIU founded additional schools for boys. This included a farm school, established in 1895, whose goal was to teach farming to Jewish urban youth and facilitate a “return to the soil,” central to the “regeneration” of Jewish people. The farm school closed briefly during World War I (1917) and in the following years due to low enrollment [11]. Additional AIU schools for boys were founded in Sfax (1905-1963) and Sousse (1885-1965) [12].

In the wake of World War I there was a major financial crisis in the organization that made AIU’s goal of education en masse financially burdensome. The financial backing by the French government after 1918, which motivated the organization to become a supporter of French interests abroad, and the support of American Jewry through the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee since 1945, enabled the organization to combat mass illiteracy and expand its networks. In Tunisia, however, subsidies from the government of the local French Protectorate, la Régence, were received beginning in 1891 [13].

Teachers of the AIU

Male and female teachers of the Alliance led the creation of an educated urban elite—large-scale merchants, administrative and banking employees, journalists, and vocational-agricultural specialists—who promoted cultural and social activities within their communities [14]. These elites raised funds to expand AIU schools, provided additional Jewish education for Jews attending non-Jewish schools, and organized intellectual circles in which women became involved participants. Thus, the achievements of the AIU were made possible through the teachers who came from North African and Middle Eastern communities. 

Education at the AIU School for Boys in Tunis

The boys’ curriculum focused on fluency in the French language, which aimed to give them a strong French cultural identity and facilitate economic links with the West which were important for upward social mobility [15]. Once French was mastered, the boys focused on French literature and history [16]. Much of the AIU boy schools’ curriculum was “geared to French commercial and business activity after graduation,” helping Jewish boys and men pursue commercial, professional, or administrative careers in French-dominated society [17]. Jewish boys were taught their “future duties as a man, husband, and father” and made into “honest workers” [18]. Jewish men were made into the European model. European ideals of masculinity promoted by the AIU rejected the model of male “timidity and gentleness” traditional in rabbinic Jewish culture, fighting against fear and cowardice [19].

History of Tunis

Known in Antiquity as Tunes (from Berber, encampment), Tunes was originally a Berber settlement whose existence is attested to by sources dating from the 4th century BCE [20]. It served as an elevated lookout post for the nearby city of Carthage, and was one of the first towns in the region to fall under Carthaginian control. Both Tunes and Carthage were destroyed by the Romans in 146 BCE during the Third Punic War, but Tunes was rebuilt under Augustus and became an important Roman town and center of agricultural industry [21]. Arab Muslim troops conquered the region in the late 7th century and ancient Tunes quickly became the city of Tunis, taking on considerable military importance which led to a booming population. It became the provincial capital under the Aghlabids (800-900 CE) and reached its greatest prosperity under the Hafsid dynasty (1236-1574) [22]. The Ottoman Empire took control of Tunis in 1535, and in 1539 it passed into the hands of the Turks. Tunis was retaken by the Spaniards, who held it from 1573 to 1574, but yielded it to the Ottoman Empire, under whose control it remained until the French protectorate (1881- 1956). Tunis was occupied by the Germans in 1942 and liberated by British forces and Allied troops in 1943. In 1956, Tunis became the capital of independent Tunisia [23]. 

History of Jews in the Region 

There is no record of a Jewish presence in Tunisia before the second century, however, Jews claim a very old implantation on the territory of Tunisia dating back to the Babylonian exile of Judean/ Israeli Jews following the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE which many scholars believe led to the establishment of Jewish communities in the Maghreb, including the one at Carthage/ Tunis [24]. They were most likely joined by the Jews who fled Jerusalem following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE [25]. Although it is difficult to determine the exact origins of the Jewish community in Tunisia, the first documents attesting to the presence of Jews in Tunisia date from the second century, and the presence of Jews in Tunis itself was first documented by the ruins of a synagogue and a Jewish cemetery that may date to the third century CE during the Roman era.

Living and economic conditions of Jewish communities both in Tunis and Tunisia at large during the Roman era prior to its Christianization were prosperous [26]. After the time of Constantine when Christianity took hold and became persecutor in Africa, the situation of the Jews changed considerably. The edicts of 535 applied by Justinian I following the overthrow of the Vandals excluded Jews from public office, their worship was outlawed, all meetings were prohibited, and their synagogues were transformed into Christian churches. Towards the end of the sixth century CE through the Byzantine administration eased the strictness of these rules [27]. In the seventh century, the Jewish population of Tunisia was augmented by Spanish immigrants fleeing persecution by the Visigoth king Sisebut, and when Tunisia came under the control of the Arabian Caliphate of Baghdad, an influx of Arab Jews from the Levant occurred [28]. During the Arab conquest of North Africa beginning in 643 Jews coexisted peacefully with the Muslim masses. The Almohad conquest of Tunis that followed in 1159 forced Jews to convert to Islam or face death, leading to mass conversions while others fled the area or chose to die as martyrs.[29] In 1236 CE the governor of Ifrīqiya, Abu Zakariya, proclaimed himself emir and chose Tunis as his capital, allowing Jews forced to convert to Islam the ability to return to Judaism and live free of constant threat. The anti-Jewish persecution that broke out in Spain in 1391 affected North African Jewry during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. As a result of these harsh conditions Tunisian Jewish communities, especially those on the coast, were depleted of members with many of them leaving for the Orient or Italy [30]. In 1855 Mohammed Bey executed a Jew named Batto Sfoz, leading to negotiations with the French government who ultimately responded by granting Jews equal rights in the region, making the Tunisian government wary of interfering with the Jewish population [31]. The French protectorate of Tunisia was established in 1881, after which the Jewish community once again improved as all the laws which discriminated against them were repealed. Many Tunisian Jews were receptive to the opportunity to become French citizens and shifted their identity to French-European from Moslem-Arab. The situation dramatically changed in 1940 during World War II when France’s anti-Semitic Vichy regime came to power and implemented anti-Jewish legislation. Tunisia was the only Arab country that was directly under Nazi occupation. Community leaders were imprisoned and more than 5,000 Jews were sent to forced labor camps, with an additional 160 Tunisian Jews in France sent to European death camps. After Tunisia’s independence in 1956, Tunisia’s Jewish Community Council was abolished by the newly independent government, with many Jewish areas and buildings destroyed for urban renewal purposes. Several Jewish shops and damage to the Great Synagogue in Tunis occurred due to anti-Jewish rioting during the Six Day War in 1967. Currently, attacks on Jews and Jewish property in Tunisia have occasionally recurred, including the destruction of two synagogues, one in Djerba in 1979 and one in 1983 in Zaris [32].

Demography of Jews in Tunisia

By the time of Nazi occupation in 1942, Tunisia was home to a Jewish population of roughly 100,000. During the 1950s, roughly half this population left to Israel and the other half to France. Following the destruction of the Six Day War in 1967, despite government apologies and attempts to ease the anxieties of the remaining Jewish community, 7,000 of Tunisia’s remaining 20,000 Jews immigrated to France to escape the violence. Today, the Jewish population of Tunis is roughly 700. The current Jewish population on the island of Djerba is 1,000, comprising Tunisia’s largest indigenous religious minority [33].  

Tunis, Tunisia

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