Educational Oases in the Desert: The Alliance Israelite Universelle’s Girls’ Schools in Ottoman Iraq, 1895–1915

228 Pages·2017·2.06 MB·English

by  Jonathan Sciarcon

E
ducational
OaSes
in The deSert

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SUNY
P R E S S
Cover image: The Alliance Israélite Universelle Girls’ School in
Baghdad, late nineteenth century
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2017 State University of New York
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Printed in the United States of America
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Production, Jenn Bennett
Marketing, Fran Keneston
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Sciarcon, Jonathan, author.
Title: Educational oases in the desert : the Alliance israélite universelle’s girls’ schools
in Ottoman Iraq, 1895–1915 / Jonathan Sciarcon.
Description: Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, 2017. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016035405 (print) | LCCN 2016059181 (ebook) | ISBN
9781438465852 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438465869 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Alliance israélite universelle. | Girls’ schools—Iraq—History. |
Girls—Education—Iraq. | Jewish day schools—Iraq—History.
Classification: LCC LC2410.3 .S35 2017 (print) | LCC LC2410.3 (ebook) | DDC
371.82209567—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016035405
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Tables vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xiii
Chapter 1 Pioneering Female Jewish Education: The AIU in Baghdad,
1864–1895 1
Chapter 2 From Danon to Sutton: The Baghdad Girls’ School,
1896–1899 37
Chapter 3 Making Adjustments: Oro Sémach’s Tenure in Baghdad,
1899–1904 59
Chapter 4 From the Baghdad Girls’ School to the Laura Kadoorie
School for Girls, 1905–1915 87
Chapter 5 The AIU Girls’ Schools in Hilla, Mosul, and Basra, 1911–1915 113
Conclusion 135
Notes 143
Bibliography 179
Index 191

List of Tables
1.1 Total numbers of paying and non-paying students in select
AIU girls’ schools in the Arab world in December 1895 23
2.1 Enrollment growth at the AIU Girls’ School in Baghdad, 1895–1899 38
2.2 Comparison of paying and non-paying students at the
AIU girls’ schools in Baghdad and Jaffa, 1894–1899 40
3.1 Enrollment growth and breakdown of paying and non-paying
students at the AIU Girls’ School in Baghdad, 1900–1904 62
4.1 Enrollment growth and breakdown of paying and non-paying students
at the AIU Girls’ School/Laura Kadoorie School for Girls in Baghdad,
1905–1913 98

Acknowledgments
I am pleased to have the opportunity to thank the people and institutions
whose assistance made this book possible. My graduate school mentor Nancy
Gallagher introduced me to the Alliance Israélite Universelle and the study
of Iraqi Jewry during my time at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Her support has been essential to my professional work as a researcher and
educator.
I am profoundly grateful to Jean-Claude Kuperminc for granting me access
to the Alliance Israélite Universelle’s archive in Paris in 2013. The archive’s staff
was kind, helpful, and efficient in assisting me. I would also like to thank Vardit
Samuels and her colleagues at Harvard University’s Widener Library’s Judaica
Division for allowing me to use Harvard’s microfilmed Alliance archive in 2010
and 2012. Although I did not ultimately use the material I consulted there, I
am grateful to Sarah Maspero and her colleagues in Archives and Special
Collections at the University of Southampton’s Hartley Library for allowing me
to consult the Anglo-Jewish Association’s archives. Sarah did, however, inform
me that the organization’s nineteenth- and early twentieth-century archival files
are available online through Hartley Library’s website. I did make use of these
files. Finally, I would like to thank the staff of the British National Archives for
their assistance in both 2011 and 2013.
My research has been funded by two main sources. The University of Denver
provided me with initial research funds upon my arrival as a faculty member
in 2010, which allowed me to conduct preliminary research in London and
in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I later received a Faculty Research Fund grant
from the university’s division of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, which
allowed me to conduct my research in Paris and Southampton.