Zionism, Assimilation, and Antisemitism in North Africa

The Alliance Israélite Universelle was established in Paris in 1860 to improve the legal and cultural status of Jews in Asia Minor, the Middle East, and North Africa. It promoted the Gallicization and Westernization of Middle Eastern and North African Jewry across the region largely through an extensive network of elementary and vocational schools. By 1900, it was operating one hundred schools, primarily in Turkey, Tunisia, and Morocco, with a total enrollment of twenty-six thousand students. Although the organization was headquartered in Paris, each regional office had its own distinct identity, informed by local culture and politics. Alliance Israélite Universelle's programs to transform Jewish life through the establishment of schools often created communal tensions between local modernizing and traditional factions.