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Pietro Verri School, Tripoli, Libya

The founder of the Pietro Verri school, Gainnetto Paggi, came to Tripoli, Libya in 1876, as a teacher and was convinced by the Jews of Tripoli to start an Italian school for boys. The school was located in the Old City on Sciara Espagnol Street near the Corso Italiano. It taught not only Jews, but Muslims and Italians as well.

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Pietro Verri

Pietro Verri (b. 1728, d. 1797) was a Milan born scholar. He studied in Monzi, Milan, Rome, and Parma, completing his education in 1747. He then joined the Austrian army as a captain during the Seven Years War. After his return from the army, he founded the Societa dei Pugni in 1961, a society of Milanese intellectuals. He also was the director of the Il caffe (“The coffeehouse”), the society's journal focused on Enlightenment ideas (1). He became president of the Chamber of Counts in Milan in 1780 (2). Two of his political accomplishments were the ending of “tax farming” – the ability of private individuals to buy tax-collecting franchises -- and the simplification and reduction of taxes (3). He passed away in Milan on June 28, 1797 (4).

History of the School

Originally the Pietro Verri School was called the Le Scuole Italiane di Tripoli. It started out as a small Italian school set up to give young Jews skills they needed to obtain a higher profession. The founder of the school, Gainnetto Paggi, came to Tripoli, Libya in 1876, as a teacher and was convinced by the Jews of Tripoli to start an Italian school for boys. The school was located in the Old City on Sciara Espagnol Street near the Corso Italiano (5). At the time the school was right in the Jewish Quarter (6). After three years, the school had amassed around 27 young boys, and two years later a girl’s school was started. In 1882, the Italian government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, made the school an Italian state school, taking over control from Paggi. By 1883 the school taught around 90 students. The school was renamed the Pietro Verri school in 1912 (7). 

Unlike most schools in Libya, boys and girls were taught separately (8). The boys’ school had around 13 teachers, while the girls’ school had 12. The school taught not only Jews, but Muslims and Italians as well. It even had two Muslims classes with Muslim teachers. Due to a large number of Jewish students at the school, the Italian government began providing after school classes taught by a rabbi (9). By the 1950’s there were around 6 schools for Jewish children in Tripoli. Most young children attended the “Alliance” Elementary school, and until the age of 15 they studied Hebrew and Italian at the Pietro Verri School. By the end of 1950 there were over 1,200 students studying at the Pietro Verri School, with 31 classes for all of them, and around 19 teachers (10). 

The school provided meals and a health center for the students as well (11). Sponsored by the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), a Jewish humanitarian assistance organization, and coordinated with doctors, children received hot milk and a spoonful of cod liver oil for breakfast, and soup, a sandwich, nuts and an orange for lunch. Moreover, each child was examined by a doctor during the school year (12). 

As the situation for Jews in Libya became dire, schools began shutting down, until the Pietro Verri was one of the last schools in Tripoli for Jews (13). Eventually, as all the Jews left Libya, the school closed down as well.

Tripoli, Libya

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