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AIU School, Isfahan, Iran
The Alliance Israélite Universelle school in Isfahan was established in 1901. The Alliance Israélite Universelle was founded in Paris in 1860 to fight for Jewish rights and combat anti-Jewish discrimination across the world. The organization believed that obtaining political rights for Jews would require moral and social “regeneration” through education and connection to other Jewish communities, leading to the establishment of Jewish schools.1
Description
The school building was an elegant, two-storied structure with balconies and detailed columns surrounding a large inner courtyard. Its mission, in part, was to counteract the threat to the city's Jewish life by the Baha'i movement and Christian missionary societies that established schools in Jewish ghettos by 1889.2 At least two hundred students could mingle within the safety of the large courtyard. Boys and girls of many ages attended the school, which could accomodate several hundred students.
The Alliance’s Bulletin reported on the founding of the AIU school in Isfahan:
“… when Confino entered Kashan en route to Isfahan, 600 Jews went out to greet him, many of whom wept for joy. They sacrificed lambs in front of him. On the day he arrived at Isfahan, the people received him as a great savior rather than a mere schoolmaster. They said: “Now we can die in peace.”"3
As reformers seeking to westernize the city’s Jews, the Bulletin likely exaggerated the local Jews’ gratefulness, but the school was founded at a time when Jewish life in Iran was under heavy threat. Prior to the establishment of AIU schools, most Jewish students in Iran attended the local maktab that taught only religious subjects and left little possibility for social advancement.4 Alliance teachers instead sought to instill the values of the West, with religion being a secondary concern.
The activities of the Alliance schools in Iran were limited during World War I due to the schools' connection to France. During this time Alliance schools prioritized preparation of students for life in non-Jewish society and little was taught about Judaism. Instruction was held in French and textbooks were based on the French model, which taught little about Persian and Hebrew language and culture. This attracted the ire of traditional Jewish societies. After 1921, more emphasis was given to Persian, and to a lesser extent, Hebrew.5 Jewish children in Isfahan would typically speak a Judeo-Persian dialect at home rather than Farsi, but were forbidden to speak Farsi even in the schoolyard. French remained the primary language of instruction while Hebrew was used to study the Bible.6 Farsi was taught as a second language despite the lack of use most students had for French outside their lessons.
By 1927, the community pushed to increase studies in Farsi but most teachers were reluctant. Many were prejudiced against the local Jews and believed them to be backward and barbaric.7 An anecdote in The Advocate shows the clash between teachers and local Jews: When a fifteen-year-old boy who refused to part with a ball of candle wax in a sheep's eye, believing it protected him, and his parents also asked the teacher to allow him to keep it. This interaction caused his Alliance schoolteacher to descibe all Persians as superstitous.8 Yet Iranian Jews generally defended and supported the AIU for protecting the community and providing pathways for work in government or business. Elias Eshaghian, who taught at AIU schools throughout Iran (including the school in Isfahan) said that the Jews of Iran would not have become so successful if not for the AIU. According to Eshaghian, the schools helped them become educated and respected, leading to higher education and wealth.9
In 1977, 435 students, all Jewish, attended the Isfahan Alliance school.10 Today the Alliance schools are known by the name Ittihad-Maroc and no longer have the same character.11 At the beginning of the twenty-first century about 1,500 Jews lived in Isfahan, reduced from about 3,000 at the beginning of the Islamic regime in 1979.12
Sources
[1] Aron Rodrigue. "Alliance Israélite Universelle Network." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World.Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online, 2015. Reference. Wellesley College. 21 July 2015<http://0-referenceworks.brillonline.com.luna.wellesley.edu/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-world/alliance-israelite-universelle-network-COM_0001600>
[2] "Isfahan," Jewish Virtual Library, accessed July 9, 2015, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0010_0_09668.html.
[3] Habib Levy, Comprehensive History of the Jews of Iran (The Outset of the Diaspora), (Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers, 1999), 470.
[4]Avraham Cohen, “Iranian Jewry and the Educational Endeavors of the Alliance Israélite Universelle,” Jewish Social Studies vol. 48 no. 1
(Winter 1986), 17.
[5] "Alliance Israélite Universelle," Encyclopaedia Iranica, accessed July 21, 2015, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/alliance-israelite-universelle-the-first-worldwide-jewish-organization-through-which-a-number-of-jewish-schools-were-fou.
[6] Cohen, 22.
[7] Cohen, 24.
[8] Elkan N. Adler, "Some Quaint Jewish Customs," The Advocate, volume 49, Feburary 13, 1915, page 30.
[9] Karmel Melamed, “Former Iranian Jewish journalist shares his story,” Jewish Journal, November 18, 2007, http://www.jewishjournal.com/iranianamericanjews/item/former_iranian_jewish_journalist_shares_his_story.
[10] "Alliance Israélite Universelle," http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/alliance-israelite-universelle-the-first-worldwide-jewish-organization-through-which-a-number-of-jewish-schools-were-fou.
[11] "Isfahan," Jewish Virtual Library, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0010_0_09668.html.
[12] Ibid.