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…