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Conclusion The history of Jewish education in Morocco deserves to be recorded in great detail. It is "a glorious chapter, a real success story in recent times. When the Jewish world faces such an enormous crisis of Jewish education in the West, Morocco can serve as an example of concrete and impressive achievements in spite of difficult conditions .... The [reason) lies in the calibre of the people who directed the program. Stanley Abramovitch, 1973. In the period ranging from the early 1860s until 1962, the AIU maintained the lead in educating several important components of the modernized elite. The expansion of the schools into the cours compiementaire system and the contribution of the protectorates' schools, Iycees in particular, enhanced the process of modernization. In assessing how the AIU contributed to change in these communities during this one hundred year period, we shall consider the following: 1. The significance of AIU education and activities during the protectorate era. 2. The shortcomings of AIU activities since 1912. 3. The activities of the AIU in Morocco as compared with its activities in other parts of the Muslim and Mediterranean world. 1. Significance of AIU Activities 1. There is no doubt that prior to 1912 the activities of the AIU in Morocco were significant, for its schools were the most effective causes for reform. They were perhaps the first serious French-type schools in the Sherifian Empire and they attracted Jews and non-Jews. Though it is true that since 1912 AIU activities were supplemented by protectorate schools and, since 1945, by other organizations, the AIU was still in the forefront of reforms, in the struggle against illiteracy, and in Jewish educational development. Moreover, there 347 348 Conclusion were important distinctions between AIU teachers and those employed by the protectorates. The personnel of the AIU were a devoted force throughout this period despite their desire after 1956 to become unionized. Well-informed educational representatives in Morocco concluded that the AIU teachers were not merely models of first-rate educators but that they surpassed the zeal of the public schools' teachers. It certainly appears that the teachers were most adequately prepared to meet the challenges presented by community problems. Besides carrying on works begun in 1862, they were gradually entrusted with teaching responsibilities in community-sponsored schools, at the OH and ORT institutions. Furthermore, they worked overtime to improve their own credentials and often received secondary technical and vocational training in order to promote the modern vocations among their students. l Indeed, unlike their protectorate school counterparts, the AIU teachers were social workers, family counselors, reformists, and educators of the community. And if the ENIO was a secular training school, the two AIU normal schools (ENIO and ENH) strongly enforced the idea of Jewish solidarity among the future teachers, and that "all of Israel is responsible for each other." The colonial authorities did not recruit or train teachers in this spirit. One would not have expected them to do so in light of political considerations. 2. The significance of the AIU was also reflected through the ENH in Casablanca. Although the OH schools emphasized Hebrew and Jewish studies, their program rested more on religious education and rabbinic Hebrew whereas the ENH concentrated mainly on spoken Hebrew, an area of study which served a practical purpose since 1948. 3. The significance of the AIU schools in the Spanish zone and Tangier reflected the distinction between these schools and other institutions. In Spanish Morocco the AIU schools were among the very few educational institutions representing French culture. And although the Spaniards set up schools for Jews and in fact taught some French, the AIU counterparts were more popular and offered a solid program in French and Spanish. In Tangier, on the other hand, European schools sponsored by the various powers offered mostly their national languages and cultures, the only exception being Lycee Regnault, which offered, alongside French, English, Spanish, and Arabic. Yet the AIU schools were the only primary-level institutions that offered a multilingual program. 4. The AIU's major contributions were to expand secondary and vocational training. This is seen in the creation of cours compiementaires in the major towns and iin the collaboration with ORT. Not only were several thousand youths attending the secondary and semisecondary schools of the AIU, but there we:re as many as 3,000 attending the ORT-AIU in 1960, where AIU teachers were responsible for secondary-level French, Jewish, and general education. [3.15.174.76] Project MUSE...

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