Messody Pariente was born in 1877 in Tetouan into an aristocratic Jewish family. Her uncle Shemtob (Semtob) Pariente played an important part in extending the influence of the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Turkey. After attending the local Alliance school, Messody left Tetouan for Paris to train as an Alliance teacher. Returning to North Africa in 1895, she became an assistant teacher in the Alliance schools in Tangier and Tetouan (1897–1902) and married Amran Elmaleh (born in Tangier in 1879), a fellow teacher. In 1903 Messody and her husband left for Beirut. Three years later (…