L'alliance Israelite Universelle and the Politics of Modern Jewish Education in Baghdad: 1864-1914
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L'ALLIANCE ISRAELITE UNIVERSELLE AND THE POLITICS OF MODERN JEWISH EDUCATION IN BAGHDAD: 1864-1914 Derek Angus Frenette B.A., Simon Fraser University 2003 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS In the Department of History O Derek Angus Frenette 2005 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Summer 2005 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL NAME: Derek Frenette DEGREE: Master of Arts, History TITLE: "L'Alliance Israelite Universelle and the Politics of Modem Jewish Education in Baghdad, 1864- 1914." EXAMINING COMMITTEE: William Cleveland Senior Supervisor Professor of History Derryl MacLean Supervisor Associate Professor of History Thomas Kuhn Supervisor Instructor of History Jerry Zaslove External Examiner Professor Emeritus, Departments of Humanities and English Date Approved: May 24,2005 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENCE The author, whose copyright is declared on the title page of this work, has granted to Simon Fraser University the right to lend this thesis, project or extended essay to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. The author has further granted permission to Simon Fraser University to keep or make a digital copy for use in its circulating collection. 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Bennett Library Simon Fraser University Burnaby, BC, Canada ABSTRACT Baghdad was home to the largest and one of the most wealthy and influential Jewish communities in the late-era Ottoman Empire. The community was heavily involved in regional trade, politics and the social life of the city, and comprised a significant percentage of its population. This thesis examines the many changes that affected this community between 1860- 1914. The Tanzimat reform period, growing European interest and economic penetration in the region, and economic growth drastically changed the way Jews in Baghdad viewed themselves, their place in the Empire, and the way their communities were governed. In particular, the establishment of a French Alliance Israelite Universelle school in Baghdad in 1864 created new opportunities for young Jews, opening pathways to commercial and political success and offering modem educational methods and European culture and languages. The attitudes of the French Jews who opened the school, and the response of the community leadership to this new institution is the focus of this study. The examination of this interaction not only provides illustrations of the larger processes of change and reform that are detailed in the secondary literature on this period of Ottoman history, but also an opportunity to study the interaction of European and Middle Eastern individuals during a crucial point in the history of the world and this region. The Jewish community at Baghdad is the subject of valuable case studies of Ottoman Jewish life in the late 19'~and early 2oth centuries, as well as the growth of modernity and the negotiation of reform within a matrix of political, social and economic change. DEDICATION To Angus and Lydia MacFarlane ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my parents, family and friends, for their support throughout the course of this project. Special thanks to Dr. William Cleveland and Dr. Deny1 MacLean for their guidance, and to Dr. Thomas Kuhn for his direction and advice. TABLE OF CONTENTS .. Approval .............................................................................................................................11 ... Abstract .............................................................................................................................. 111 Dedication ..........................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgements ..............................................................................................................v Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... vi Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: The AIU's Mission in Baghdad ........................................................................12 Chapter 2: The AIU and Baghdad's Jewish Leadership ....................................................37 Chapter 3: The Changing World of Baghdad's Jews ......................................................... 60 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................-80 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................84 Archival Sources ...........................................................................................................34 Archives of the Alliance IsraClite Universelle: Paris. France ..................................... 84 Files on Iraq ................................................................................................................84 AIU Publications ........................................................................................................84 Secondary Sources .......................................................................................................-34 A . Books 84 B . Articles & Book Chapters: ..................................................................................... 86 INTRODUCTION When the founders of L'Alliance Israe'lite Universelle began their mission to expose the Jews of the Orient to the methods of liberal French education in 1860, their intent was to raise the moral and material living standards of their coreligionists in the Middle East and North Africa. A series of schools were opened beginning in 1862, and by 1900 a cumculum centered on the French language and modem European educational methods was offered to some 26,000 Jews in over 100 schools from Morocco to Persia, a number which reached 48,000 children in 188 schools by 1914.' Tetuan, Morocco was the site of the first AIU school opening in late 1862, followed soon thereafter by Damascus and Baghdad. From the beginning, Ottoman Jews were a focus of the AIU founders' efforts to ameliorate the situation of their coreligionists in the Middle East. The organization eventually opened schools in most of the major urban centres of the empire. The AIU opened schools in six different Istanbul neighbourhoods alone, making the Ottoman capital the leading recipient of its educational work. The AIU kept immaculate records of its activities throughout the Jewish world in the archive of its headquarters in Paris. These consist of personal communications, figures and accounting statements, photographs, meeting minutes, and other minutiae of daily life in the AIU school that help to reconstruct a picture of Jewish life in the Middle East in the 19" and 20" centuries. For a student of Ottoman Jewry who does not read Hebrew or Arabic, the archive offers a rare and valuable glimpse into the lives of students and administrators, as well as the changing pattern of life for Ottoman Jews during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Among the letters from administrators and teachers from all over the world, the AIU archive '~ndreChouraqui, Cent Ans &Histoire. L'Alliance Israklite Universelle et la Renaissance Juive Contemvoraine (Paris, 1965), 16 1. houses a particular group of sources that allow rare insight into life in Ottoman-era Baghdad. Baghdad was chosen as the subject of this study for several reasons. Sources of information on Baghdad during the Ottoman era are relatively rare and the AIU archive presents the researcher with an opportunity to explore the politics, society, and culture of Iraq's capital in the days when it was the hub of the Ottoman-Iraqi fr~ntier.~This opportunity is especially valuable because the nature of the sources allows for the exploration of this history from a Jewish point of view, one that is significant given the fact that the AIU opened its first school in the city in 1864, in the midst of the Tanzimat reform period. The history of the AIU's activity in Baghdad is therefore a history of an ancient Jewish community that disappeared in the mid-2oth century and also a history of the process of reform and development during a period of unprecedented political, social and cultural change in Ottoman lands. The modem education that the AIU wished to disseminate amongst