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AIU School at El Jedeida, Tunisia

AIU school at El Jedeida, Tunisia. This school, along with the other AIU schools, transformed the culture of Tunisian Jews from traditional to modern. Women gained more opportunities, and as the culture became more westernized, the younger generation was severed from their traditional roots. 

Description

Until the Nineteenth Century, the Jewish community in Tunisia was subject to the Bey, who forced the Jews to pay a special tax and kept them as lower-class citizens. The Jewish community’s houses and synagogues were required to be smaller than those of their Arabic neighbors. The economy was terrible, and commercial exchanges were rare. The Jews endured discrimination. Surviving on a day-to-day basis, the Jews were permitted to work only a few occupations, such as tailoring, shoemaking, ironworking, jeweling, and butchering. Most of the Jews lived in La Hara, a walled ghetto with doors closed at night. Often, families lived in a small, unventilated room, and share a bathroom and kitchen with other families. The bathroom was merely a hole in the ground. No public sanitation services were provided, and water came in once in a while from a public fountain. The sewer ran in the open in the middle of the street, spreading diseases. Education was traditional and controlled by rabbis. Most Tunisian Jews were very devout and financially poor, and they rarely interacted with the Arabs in the area.

What permanently altered this society? The modern school system. Change occurred when a modern school was opened in Tunisia in 1831. The rabbis were against this. Traditionally, the rabbis had controlled Jewish education, teaching the boys Hebraic texts in the original language. But the modern school included humanities, mathematics, and the sciences all taught in a European language. Modern schools also led to the education of women. The teachers of the AIU school were men and women, and the women were the Middle East’s first group of Jewish professional women. The AIU schools accepted both men and women. The AIU’s female teachers often married at older ages or remained single. A researcher has claimed that women educators in their correspondences were more likely to discuss pedagogy, rather than politics. These women were expected to show morals to their impressionable pupils. Thus, the women teachers gained an important societal position impacting the coming generation.

In 1881, the French forced the Bey to sign the Bardo treaty, which turned Tunisia into a protectorate. The Jews welcomed the French and hoped they would bring prosperity. Many people were impressed by the French culture. Tens of thousands of French people arrived, building roads and bridges, and growing wheat and grapes. The AIU schools especially targeted the poor Jews, increasing their job choices. As much commerce commenced, the people—including the Jews—enjoyed economic prosperity.

Along with helping bring economic prosperity, the advent of modern education transformed Jewish life, from traditional to modern. As women of lower classes needed to earn an income, it was important that education brought them more earning opportunities. Students began to learn European languages, and knowledge of European languages gave them prestige and allowed for more earning opportunities. The schools also caused different cultures, especially the Jews and Arabs, to interact with one another. Traditional Jewish life was being replaced by the French lifestyle enjoyed by the younger generation of Tunisian Jews. The Tunisian Jews, especially the younger generation, rejected traditional ways of dress and began to enjoy French apparel. The Jews left La Hara to move to comfortable apartments. Little by little, the Jews became much less religious. They began opening their stores on the Sabbath, eating non-kosher foods, and enjoying French music, literature, theatre, and movies. The only people left speaking traditional Judeo-Arabic were the older generation, thus making it harder for the old and young to communicate and understand each other. In Tunis, the Jewish community shifted to mainly speaking French rather than Judeo-Arabic. The Tunisian Jews mingled with the French and wanted to speak only French. Even the names of the Jews started to change, from traditional to westernized ones. Soon, even some French natives began to think the Tunisian Jews were fully French. The Jews started to believe they were from this French culture. Their embrace of French culture won them prestige and more economic opportunity. This French culture contrasted with the traditional Jewish culture, and with the Arabic culture of the land where Tunisian Jews had lived for centuries.

However, this situation changed during the Second World War. Nazi troops forced the Tunisian Jews to labor, imposed rationing, and attracted bombing from allied forces. The Nazi commander fined the Jews, blaming them for the war. After six months of terrible Nazi occupation, American and British troops ended the war and made the Nazi troops leave. Next, a new French government arrived. As postwar reconstruction began, so did an economic boom that benefitted the Jews.

Meanwhile, Arabic nationalist movements that sought independence from France grew. The Jews chose the side of the French, rather than unstable nationalist movement. The Jews were then attacked by the Arabs, causing many Jews to flee. After the main Jewish synagogue was burned, masses of Jews fled.

Today, Tunisian Jews are a small minority. They continue to reflect the influence of French culture, and mixed marriages of Jews and Arabs are common. The Jews continue to be empowered through their important societal roles.

 

El Jedeida, Tunisia

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