What Alliance Israelite Has Lone in 70 Years of Its Existence for Jewish Education.

A detailed report on the educational work conducted by the Alliance Israelite Universelle among the Jewish populations of the Orient and the Balkans during the 70 years since its foundation in 1862, has been delivered by M. Bigart, the Secretary of the Alliance, at a Congress of the Alliance which has been held here in connection with the Colonial Exhibition in Paris, with Admiral Lacaze, former Minister of the Navy, in the chair.

The Alliance opened its first school in 1862 in Tetuan, in Morocco, he said. In 1864 it opened another at Tangier; in 1865 in Baghdad, and in 1869 in Adrianople. The Alliance schools at Beyrouth, Aleppo and Choumla were established in 1869.

After the Franco-German war of 1870, the school work was extended to all Jewish communities of importance in Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece and North Africa. There were in 1870 fourteen schools. In 1880 the number had grown to 431; in 1900 it was 100, and in 1914, when the Great War broke out, there were 183 schools attended by 48,000 pupils.

The Great War, which brought about such great territorial changes, especially in the Balkan countries, the report proceeds, caused many changes also in the school system of the Alliance, but on the whole the system held its own.

Since the end of the war, in 1918, the work has again been on the upgrade, and the number of schools has been added to each year, the number being limited only by the budgetary possibilities.

In the present year, 1931, the Alliance Israelite Universelle has been conducting 38 schools in Morocco, attended by 10,500 pupils; nine schools in Greece with 2,000 pupils; ten schools in Syria with 2,900 pupils; nine schools in Palestine with 3,700 pupils; seven in Meopotamia with 5,000 pupils, fifteen in Persia with 5,200 pupils; six in Tunis with 3,300 pupils; 18 in the Balkan countries with 8,000 pupils, and two in Egypt and Tripoli with 500 pupils. In addition, the Alliance has an agricultural school in Jaffa with 190 resident pupils.

The schools are mostly of the elementary type, but in the last few years advanced or supplementary courses have been arranged in the principal schools for selected pupils, qualified and willing to proceed further with their studies.

From the beginning, the French language has been the medium of instruction in the schools of the Alliance, the report says, explaining that this is so not only because of the advantages which French has as a language of education, but also because it is in almost general use in the Lower Mediterranean, where the Alliance carries on most of its work. Experience, it adds, has long since justified the choice, showing that the instruction given through the medium of the French language has not retarded in any way the instruction in the national or local tongue, which occupies an important place in the curriculum.

The curriculum is essentially the same as that in the case of pupils attending schools in France, it is added, but it is not merely an imitation, because it takes into consideration the conditions peculiar to the particular country, and is adapted to the requirements of the national authorities.

SAME FACILITIES FOR RICH AND POOR: ALLIANCE SCHOOLS ALSO OPEN TO CHILDREN OF MOSLEMS AND CHRISTIANS AND NEVER HAS ANY CHARGE OF ATTEMPTED PROSELYTISM BEEN MADE AGAINST ALLIANCE.

A feature of the Alliance schools, it is pointed out, which makes for union between the various classes is that the children of the rich and the poor obtain the same instruction, under the same conditions, and this contact strengthens the feeling of equality among them, which the children take with them afterwards into their outside life, and thus help to build up a sense of social solidarity among the Jewish populations of these areas.

The schools of the Alliance, the report says further, are open to the children of Moslems and Christians, but these do not take part in the religious instruction, and no complaint of attempted proselytism has ever been made against the Alliance. In Persia, for instance, where the division between the different religions was till recently a frequent cause of conflict, the sons of high Persian officials have been entering the schools of the Alliance. The same thing has lately been happening also in the Alliance schools in Turkey.

The Alliance also conducts an after-care activity. In the ordinary way, when the child leaves school at the age of 13 or 14, it is liable to drop into an environment where it may lose all the advantages of the training it has received in the Alliance schools. To prevent that, the Alliance has formed old-pupils’ associations for the purpose of maintaining contacts. These associations are organised as mutual aid societies, recreation groups, study circles, etc., and it is in these associations that the intellectual activities of the Jewish communities of the particular areas are for the most part concentrated.

At the start of its school work, the Alliance thought that it would be able to find Jewish teachers in France who would be willing to go abroad to carry to the Jewish populations of these far places the light of civilisation and modern thought. Their ignorance of the local language and customs, the prejudices and hostilities which existed in many quarters, and the climatic hardships were a source of difficulty, however.

In order to overcome these difficulties, the Alliance decided in 1867, to recruit its teaching staff from its own schools in the Orient and in Africa, selecting the most capable students, and enabling them to complete their professional training in France, including the facilities afforded in the teachers’ training schools, which have been specially created for this purpose.

Experience has justified this course, the report says, and to-day all the Alliance schools are directed by men and women teachers, most of whom are natives of the areas in which they conduct their work, and who are graduates of the Alliance training schools. The training school for boys in Paris has 60 resident pupils; and that for girls, which is situated in Versailles, has 58 resident pupils.

The good results of our work, the report concludes, is due largely to this method of recruiting our teachers on the spot, so that the schools are in the charge of men and women who are familiar with the needs, the language, and the customs of the country, and who are in sympathy with the native population.