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AIU School at Mazagan, Morocco

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Since ancient times, Jewish people have lived in Morocco. During World War II, 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.³

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 2,500.⁴

Some primary sources note the difficulties of teaching at an AIU School in Mazagan; as a result, they underscore the courage of the people who left their homes to teach in Morocco. Indeed, these people were dedicated to a noble service. One letter written by Messody Pariente, a teacher in Mazagan, expresses the difficult situation faced by the AIU teachers. Some people were afraid of sending their daughters to teach in Mazagan. To the President of the AIU who was relunctant to send a young teacher to Mazagan, Pariente boldly replied: “You express fear for the security of a young girl who would come all alone to Morocco. She would not be alone. She would be with me, staying with me if it is necessary…. This lack of tranquility could last for years. Is it because of this that you are going to suspend your work in Morocco? We must continue to work there, now more than ever; it will not be difficult to find in your personnel a young girl courageous enough to accept the post in Mazagan”.⁵ Pariente’s message reveals the moral importance the teachers saw in their work. The “lack of tranquility” in Morocco challenged the AIU administration to respect and see the moral importance of teaching there.⁶ Teaching in an area that faced turmoil, the teachers had to be courageous. If these people left their homes to go to Morocco, they must have seen the importance of their work, that motivated them to make such a sacrifice.

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.⁷ 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.⁸ 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.⁹ 

Women's Education AIU schools were the first mass education system for girls in the Middle East.¹⁰ 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.¹¹ 

Mazagan, Morocco

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