Background In the mid-19th century, the status of
Moroccan Jews, as well as Jews of "the Orient" more broadly, became a cause for
European Jewish philanthropists, such as
Moses Montefiore. and their plight received wide coverage in the European Jewish press. It was founded by a group of French Jews including
Jules Carvallo, ,
Narcisse Leven (secretary of
Adolphe Crémieux),
Élie-Aristide Astruc, and
Eugène Manuel May 1860 in
Paris, and opened its first school in
Tétouan,
Morocco in 1862. The original members of the society were Jews, and by far the largest number of its members belong to that faith, but the association has enjoyed the sympathy and cooperation of many prominent Christians. As outlined in its prospectus, the program of the society included the emancipation of the Jews from oppressive and discriminatory laws, political disabilities, and defense of them in those countries where they were subjected to persecution. In 1870,
Charles Netter, a founding member of
Alliance israélite universelle, received a tract of land from the
Ottoman Empire as a gift and opened the
Mikveh Israel agricultural school, the first of a network of Jewish schools in
Palestine before the establishment of the
State of Israel. Over 60 Alliance schools operated in the Ottoman Middle East, Iran, and North Africa, providing Jewish children from poor families with formal elementary school and vocational training. Many of the teachers were educated at Alliance teacher training schools in Turkey and France. The Alliance founded a free school in
Jerusalem in 1868. This was followed by
Mikveh Israel near
Jaffa in 1870. In 1882 a secondary school for boys was established in Jerusalem.
Amin al-Husseini was one of their pupils. The original building on
Jaffa Road was demolished after 1967. In 1903, the
Zionist group
Bnei Moshe was to be given a grant to open a school but the funding was withdrawn due to Beni Moshe's insistence that lessons should be in the
Hebrew language. The following year the Alliance donated the property which later became
Neve Tzedek (girls) and
Gymnasia Hezliya (boys) schools. In 1906 the Alliance opened a secondary school for girls in Jerusalem. By 1900, Alliance Israélite Universelle was operating 100 schools with a combined student population of 26,000. Its greatest efforts were concentrated in Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey. In 1912 the Alliance had 71 schools for boys and 44 for girls, with schools in Baghdad, Jerusalem,
Tangier,
Istanbul,
Beirut,
Cairo,
Damascus and
Salonica. For Jews, it was the chief provider of modern education. A 1930 report found that there were 10 Jewish schools in Baghdad educating 7,182 children. Two of them were run by the Alliance israélite universelle. The boys' school had originally been the
David Sassoon school founded in 1865.
Albert Sassoon had given it to the Alliance in 1874. It contained 475 boys. Four languages were taught: Hebrew, Arabic, French and English. There were classes in the Sciences, Geography, and History. All were taught in French except for moral and religious studies which were in Hebrew. The Alliance School for Girls was established by
Elly Kadoorie with 1177 pupils and with a similar syllabus. As a result of the influence of the French-language schools,
Judaeo-Spanish acquired many neologisms from French. ==Schools by country==