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Albert (Abraham) Saguès (1883–1956) was born in Constantinople-Hasköy (Istanbul) to Moïse Nissim and Sarah Sarfati. He was educated at the École Normale Israélite Orientale in Paris, where he earned the brevet supérieur (teaching certification granted upon graduation from four years of normal school) and brevet d'hébreu (diploma for Hebrew, entailing a salary increase). His teaching career with the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) began in Cairo in February 1903 and continued in Hamadan, Iran, in October 1903, and Seneh, Iran in 1904.Saguès became head of the school in …

Hortense Cohen Gelbmann (Guelbmann) was an educator in the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) school system. She was born in Hagueneau, province of Alsace, France, in 1861, and died in 1932. After earning the diploma of brevet supérieur (teaching certificate granted after four years of normal school), she was appointed to a teaching post in Tangier, where she remained from 1878 to 1881. She married in 1882, and served as principal of the AIU School for Girls in Tunis from 1896 to 1900, when she was transferred to Salonica as principal of the School for Girls there. She retired in 1918.Gelbm…

Albert Confino (1866–1958) was a teacher, principal, and school inspector in the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) educational network. Born in Carnabat (Karnabat), Bulgaria, Confino was sent along with his brothers to attend the Alliance school in Edirne (Adrianople), in Ottoman Turkey. The principal, Abraham Cazès (1854–1924), was the younger brother of the prominent AIU educator David Cazès (1850–1913). From Edirne Confino went to the Springer Institute in Paris, a Jewish boarding school sometimes used for future AIU teachers. His studies, begun in 188…

Shemtob (Semtob, S.T.; J.) Pariente (1849–1907) was an educator in the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) network and director of colonies for the Jewish Colonization Association in Asia Minor and Syria. Born in Tetouan, Morocco, he trained at the École Normale Israélite Orientale in Paris and received the diplôme de capacité (basic teaching certificate for primary schools) in 1870. That same year he became director of the school in Choumla, and in 1873 of the school in Roustchouk (Ruschuk, modern Rousse), both in Bulgaria. In 1877 he served…

Mathilde Twersky Alhalel, born in Kovno, Russia, in 1867, was a teacher and principal in the school system of the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU). She held the brevet elémentaire diploma, a teaching certificate granted after three years of study at a normal school. In 1891 she began her career as teacher in the AIU School for Girls in Tunis. In 1893 she married Aron (Aaron) Alhalel, a teacher at the AIU School for Boys on Malta Srira Street, Tunis. From 1894 to 1896 she was provisional co-principal of the AIU …

Albert Haim Navon, an educator employed by the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) in North Africa, the Ottoman Empire, and France, rose to become the principal of the AIU teacher-training school for boys in Paris, the Ecole Normale Israélite Universelle (ENIO Auteuil), a post in which he continued for more than twenty years, starting in 1911.Born in Edirne (Adrianople) in 1864, Navon obtained his brevet de capacité (basic teaching certificate) from the AIU’s normal school in Paris, originally located on the rue des Rosiers. He began teaching in Tunis in 188…

Rachel Béhar Stein, an outstanding principal in the Alliance Israélite Universelle educational network, was born in Jerusalem in 1859 during the Ottoman period. Her father was an itinerant rabbi with a mystical bent; her mother was a descendant of the eighteenth-century kabbalist Isaac Luria of Safed.Along with her brother Nissim (1848–1930) and her sister Fortunée (Fortuna; 1860–1929), she was one of the first Sephardi students to enroll in the teacher-training program of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. In 1872, Rachel Béhar and her sister began their studies at the Institut B…

Julie Cohen-Scali Saguès, born in Oran, Algeria, in 1876, held a brevet élémentaire (teaching certification granted after three years of normal school) and brevet supérieur (certification granted after four years of normal school). From 1900 to 1904, she taught in the Alliance Israélite Universelle School for Girls in Tunis. In 1904 she was appointed principal of the AIU school in Fez, the following year she became the principal of the school in Tangier, and in 1911 she returned to the school where she had begun her career as the first…

Henriette Salomon Antébi was born in 1873 in the town of Château-Salins in the province of Lorraine, France, and died in 1954. With her sister, Lucie Salomon (Navon), she attended the Raucourt boarding school in Châlons-sur-Marne and went on to continue her education in Paris, graduating from the Collège Sévigné secondary school and L’Haÿ-les-Roses. Her studies culminated with the brevet supérieur, a teaching certificate granted after four years of study at a normal school. She and her sister began their educational careers at the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) School for…

Louise Bornstein (Bernstein) Guéron was a teacher and principal in the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) network of schools. She was born in Paris in 1876 and graduated from the AIU teacher-training school there in 1894 with a brevet supérieur (teaching certificate granted after four years of study at a normal school). Her teaching career began in Tunis during the 1894-95 academic year. In 1896 she transferred to Salonica as a teacher and in 1897 became principal. From 1900 to 1911, Bornstein was the principal of the School for Girls in Tunis. In 1905 she married Lazare Guéron, a teach…

David Cazès, (1850–1913), viewed as the doyen of Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) principals, established apprenticeships and workshops in the schools he directed. These enterprises were emulated throughout the AIU system and justified the AIU’s role in promoting the “ régéneration” of Jews in its domain.David Cazès (1850–1913), born in Tetouan, Morocco, ranks as one of the outstanding teachers and directors of the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) educational network. He was among the first students to attend the Ecole Normale Isr…

Sara Ungar (1849–1911), an educator of the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) school network, had the unusual distinction of being born in Bonn, Germany, whereas many of her colleagues hailed from France. She attended the Institut Bischoffsheim, one of the AIU teacher-training schools for women in Paris, where she earned the diploma of brevet supérieur (teaching certification granted after four years at a normal school). In 1882, she founded the AIU School for Girls in Tunis and continued as its principal through 1887. In this capacity she emphasized the teachi…

When theAlliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) was established in Paris in 1860, one of its goals was to support the emancipation and “moral progress” of the Jewish people. To accomplish this mission, the AIU established a network of schools in the Balkans, the Middle East, and North Africa, and a teacher-training college in Paris for young men (1867) and held classes for young women (1872). The school, the École Normale Israélite Orientale (ENIO), recruited the best students from the AIU schools in “Oriental” lands at ages fourteen or fifteen and brought them to…

Myriam Voley (Woley) Da Costa Chimènes was born in the Sephardi community of Bordeaux in southwestern France in 1862. Her husband, Moyse-Gaston Chimènes, a member of the same community, was employed by the Compagnie Génèrale Transatlantique. Among her diplomas was the brevet supérieur (teaching certificate awarded after four years of study at a normal school). She served as principal of the Alliance Israélite Universelle School for Girls in Tunis from 1887 until her dismissal from the AIU school system in 1894.During her years as principal, Chimènes focused on preparing her…

Clément (Raḥamim) Ouziel (1867–1955), born in Tatar-Bazardik, Bulgaria, began teaching at the Alliance Israélite Universelle School for Boys in Tunis in 1887. From 1892 he headed the AIU boys school in Haifa and founded the AIU girls’ school there. In 1895 he became principal in Damascus, and in 1898 in Jerusalem. In 1900 he was appointed director of the AIU School for Boys in Tunis, a post which he retained until 1935. In 1905 he opened two AIU schools in Sfax, one for boys and the other for girls, both of which continued to function until around 1963. As director of the School for Boys in Tuni…

Juliette Smadja (Smaja) was born in Tunis in 1890 to Elise and Mardochée Smadja and became the first woman lawyer and the first Jewish female lawyer in Tunisia. Her great-grandfather, also Mardochée Smadja, served as chief rabbi of the community and her father was named in his honor, following Sephardi/Mizraḥi custom. Juliette grew up in a four-generation household, dominated by the senior Mardochée who conducted bi-weekly proceedings of the rabbinical court at home, observed first hand by Juliette.Both of Juliette’s parents briefly attended Alliance Israélite Universell…