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Old Alliance Israelite School, Meknes, Morocco

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More information regarding Meknes specifically located after the AIU History.

Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) History: The Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) was a Jewish philanthropic organization founded in 1860 by six Jewish intellectuals in Paris, including Adolphe Crémieux, a French Jewish statesman. The Alliance established a network of schools throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Asia Minor, and the Balkans, with the goal to protect and improve the lives of Jews around the world. The organization promotes the values of Jewish self-defense and self-sufficiency through education and professional development. AIU’s mission was constructed upon two pillars — “the Jewish tradition and the values ​​of the French school”¹ — which informed their aim of aiding Jewish emancipation, enfranchisement, protection of rights, and modernization, in order to facilitate their integration into their home countries.² However, it was at times the case that, instead of being integrated, they became detached, with some Alliance students feeling disconnected from their non-Alliance Jewish and Muslim communities, as well as the French and European world. The Alliance established schools for both boys and girls, with the first school being constructed in 1862 in Tetouan, Morocco. By 1895, there were seventy schools with 17,000 students enrolled.³ Aside from the primary school system, the Alliance also established vocational schools, agricultural schools, apprenticeship programs, rabbinical seminaries, and teaching schools where they would train the next generation of Alliance teachers and directors. At AIU’s peak in 1913, there were 183 active schools with 43,700 students.⁴ The Alliance created an entire generation of educated Jews who were able to enter the workforce and experience upward social mobility, many of whom had previously not received a formal education, especially girls and young women. In the middle of the 20th century, with the mass exodus of Jews from their home countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Alliance schools began to close their doors. The organization, however, is still active. Known as “Alliance - Kol Israel Haverim” in Israel, it “works towards two main goals: 1) Advance educational excellence for all children regardless of socio-economic status or geographic location that in turn will lead to increased social mobility. 2) Offer a Jewish education that emphasizes social responsibility and involvement, while cultivating Jewish leadership committed to social activists."⁵

Meknes History: Meknes is a city located in the north-central region of Morocco, which was founded in the tenth century. The Jewish community of Meknes can be traced back to late antiquity, since the destruction of either the First or Second Temple of Jerusalem, but there is little knowledge about the community until the seventeenth century. However, it is known that the makeup of the Jewish community is comprised of Jews who fled from the Iberian peninsula, as well as migrated from other Moroccan cities. The third mellah (an established Jewish quarter, named after the salt marsh area in Fez where the first mellah was created⁶), in all of Morocco was built in Meknes in 1682. During years of unrest, there was an increase in Jews moving into the mellah, which sometimes caused tension between the new residents and the older ones. A second mellah was built next to the old one in the 1920s, but without the commonly built wall. Before Rabat became Morocco’s capital in 1912, the city of Meknes held that title; as it was a center for Moroccan Jewry and was well known for its merchants and scholars. In 1936 the Jewish population was approximately 10,855, in 1950 it was between 15,000-18,000, and by 1960 it was under 11,000. Much like other cities in Morocco, the Jewish community of Meknes diminished in the mid to late twentieth century, with Jews migrating to Casablanca, or outside of Morocco to France and Israel. Meknes’ mellahs and synagogues were still in use in the 1980s and 1990s, but on a much different scale than when Meknes was at its height. As of 2007, there are as few as 125-250 Jews left in the city.⁷

AIU in Meknes: Traditional education, rabbinic training, and talmudic learning were the main forms of Jewish education in Meknes, prior to the influence of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. The AIU established an all boys school in 1901/1902, and then built two separate schools for boys and girls in the late 1940s.⁸ Jewish orthodoxy and traditionalism filled Meknes, causing the AIU to face criticism from the community; both from the rabbis’ disapproval of the curriculum and the overall communities’ unwillingness to support the AIU financially. These reasons caused the first AIU school in Meknes to close its doors in 1912, but was then reopened upon the community’s request.⁹ In 1901 there were 61 students enrolled in the AIU, in 1912 there were 224 students, in 1913 there were 184 students, in 1936 there were 1,428 students, and in 1951 there were 2,384 students.¹⁰

Meknes, Morocco

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