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The Alliance Israélite Universelle was founded in 1860 in Paris to fight for Jewish rights and combat anti-Jewish prejudice wherever manifested. Organized by a group of younger Jewish activists, it soon came to encompass much of the French Jewish elite in its leadership. The AIU lobbied actively for Jewish emancipation and represented world Jewry on the international stage—at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, for instance and the Paris Peace Conference after World War I. It continued its political activities during the interwar period, especial…

1. Medieval PeriodThe education of the young in the medieval society documented in the Cairo Geniza was basically aimed at preparing them to integrate as early and efficiently as possible into the world of adults. This is clearly reflected in some eleventh- and twelfth-century halakhic monographs that discuss the passage from childhood to maturity. They present the early years of human life as a prolonged ascent toward the peak of full adulthood; the stages preceding adulthood are only important as  preparatory steps toward the goal. Religious studies, however, were lifelong and…