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AIU School at Demnate, Morocco

Description

Demnate was a town in the mountains of Morocco. Many Muslims lived here, but a Jewish community settled early in the 12th century. The Jewry here were farmers, craftsemen, and artisans.  The Muslims and Jews happily coexisted in Demnate from the early 12th century until the mid-nineteenth century.

From the 1860s until the 1880s, a local governor started abuses and humiliation toward the Jews. More Muslims began abusing the Jews. However, the AIU schools’ endeavors helped the Jews. Some of the schools contacted a French government authority who then contacted the sultan of Demnate, requesting a cease in abuses. As a result, the sultan sent out a law demanding a stop to the abuse.

Despite the schools' efforts, writings show that, since 1885, the Muslims had forced the Jews to buy goods against their will, had forced the Jews to work for free, had forced the Jews to give up their farm animals, and had forced the Jews to give up their valuable goods, including leather. However, under French rule, the condition of the Jewry improved. Still, many Jews have fled Morocco; few live there today.

Since ancient times, Jewish people have lived in Morocco. During World War 2, they endured much discrimination. However, after the war, the king of Morocco tried to encourage the people living in Morocco to be more tolerant toward Jews. The Jews in Morocco did face much discrimination and abuse, and some suicide bombers even tried to attack them. In response, the king has recently tried to encourage people to respect the Jews, and has even punished the attackers. Today, Morocco is one of the safest countries for Jews in the Arab world.

Our worldwide-connected human culture has impacted Jews in Morocco today. Many of the younger Jews study at universities outside of Morocco and do not return. As a result, the population of Jews in Morocco is decreasing, and there is a separation of the older and younger generations. In fact, the population of Jews in Morocco just before World War Two was 265,000, but the population of Jews in Morocco in 2006 was 2,500.

AIU Schools The Alliance Israélite Universelle, founded in Paris in 1860, became a major force in modern Jewish education through its goal of fighting for Jewish rights and emancipation. In the heyday of the AIU in the early 1900s, it operated 183 schools with 43,700 students in an area that stretched from Iran to Morocco. In addition to providing a modern French primary and secondary education, many schools had apprenticeship programs to teach agricultural, artisanal, and commercial skills. The schools also emphasized modern Jewish learning: religion, Jewish history, and Hebrew. In most cases, the AIU received a request from the local community to establish a school; while the communities were expected to pay for the school’s upkeep, this was not always possible, and in many schools the majority of the students did not pay tuition. The AIU is active in Jewish education to this day, but most of its schools are now located in France, Canada, and Israel.

Women's Education AIU schools were the first mass education system for girls in the Middle East. Initially the curricula at girls’ schools differed from the boys’ schools (featuring sewing, embroidery, and knitting) but by the end of the 19th century the curricula became more similar, driven by a trend of coeducational schools. The AIU heavily emphasized moral education for girls, hoping to instill principles that the students would eventually pass on to their children. 

Demnate, Morocco

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