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Introduction
- State University of New York Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Introduction The purposes of this study are (a) to analyze and document the educational , cultural, social, and political activities of the Alliance Israelite Universelle (AIU) in the Moroccan Jewish communities from the creation of the organization's first school (Tetuan 1862) until 1962, when after one hundred years of activity, despite emigration to Israel, France, and the Americas, its schools were still quite active under the arabized title, Ittihod Maroc. These activities underwent considerable evolution in various stages between 1862 and 1912 (the precolonial period), between 1913 to 1945, and during the period since, when the work of the AIU was supplemented by a variety of European and American Jewish organizations. I have recorded and analyzed these changes in order to explore the implications of reform within the communities; (b) to document as much as possible the history of modernization within the communities in these critical years; and (c) to relate the subject to the broader issues of government during the protectorate and immediate postindependence periods, as well as to JewishMuslim relations in the colonial process. The activities of the AIU in the Jewish communities of the Middle East and North Africa is a subject that began to attract scholars in the recent past. To this point (1982) some recent scholarly studies on the AIU's political, educational, and extraeducational activities are Paul Dumont, "La condition juive en Turquie ala fin du xixe siecle," Les Nouveaux Cahiers 57 (1979), pp. 25-38; Joan Gardner Roland, The Alliance Israelite Universelle andFrench Policy in North Africa: 1860-1918, Ph.D dissertation, and Paul Silberman, An Investigation into the Schools of the Alliance Israelite Universelle: 1862-1940, Ph.D dissertation, New York University 1973. To these may be added the interesting theoretical study written recently by Georges Weill on the aims of the AIU: "Emancipation et humanisme: Le discours ide610gique de l'Alliance Israelite Universelle," Les Nouveaux Cahiers 52 (1978), pp. 1-20. Of these, Roland's analysis on the political ties of the AIU with the French political establishment, as well as with the French administration in Algeria and Tunisia, and later in Morocco, is 2 Introduction especially interesting and thorough, relying extensively on the archives of the AIU and of the Quai d'Orsay. This study provides excellent groundwork for additional studies on North Africa and on Middle Eastern countries, for the understanding of the mutual aspirations of France and the AIU to promote French cultural and political values among the Jews until the end of the First World War. It also provides sufficient background to assess the changes in French policy after 1918 when the colonial functionaries carefully sought to alter their policy vis-a-vis the Jews in accordance with the political realities on local scenes. Finally, though a solid study on Franco-AIU relations , Roland's thesis, based on a variety of political considerations, could not possibly concentrate on social, educational, and political factors influencing the Jews in the three Maghrib countries, a considerable subject that must be researched separately. Less recent studies that placed emphasis on the AIU and its work in the Jewish communities of the Muslim world which, are also noteworthy, include : Andre Chouraqui, L'alliance israelite universelle et la renaissance juive contemporaine: 1860-1960 (Presses Universitaires de France, 1965); Doris Bensimon Donath, L 'evolution de la femme israelite aFes (Faculte des Lettres no. 25, Aix-en-Provence, 1%2) and Evolution dujudaisme marocain sous Ie protectoratfranrais: 1912-1956 (Paris: Mouton and Co., 1968); Narcisse Leven, Cil'lquante ans d'histoire: ralliance israelite universelle (Paris, Librarie Fellix Alcan, 1911-1920, two volumes); and Rabaud, "L'Alliance Israelite: au Maroc," (Bordeaux, Faculte d'Histoire et de Geographie 1953. [unpublished manuscript)). Donath's works are excellent sociological and theoretical studies. They are not historical studies, nor are they based on archival work. They are indispensable for historians specializing in the comparative social and cultural evolution of Jews and Muslims. On the other hand, both Chouraqui's and Leven's works are based more on inside information rather than on scholarly research, for both men were closely affiliated with the AIU, the latter having been one of its founders. Chouraqui's book is somewhat general, though it outlines some of the main aspects of the AIU's ideological orientations and its relationship with other Jewish organizations in the Mediterranean-basin communities. Leven's study is far more instructive to the historian, well written, and truly interesting. Neverth,eless, it covers too much ground, surveying all the organization's...