Born in Essaouira (Mogador) in 1922, where he received his basic Jewish education, Haïm Zafrani became a member of the Royal Commission for Educational Reform in the early years of independent Morocco (1956–1961). Employed also by the Alliance Israélite Universelle (the Moroccan branch of which was renamed Ittihad-Maroc a few years after independence), he was instrumental in integrating an Arabic curriculum into the Jewish day schools in independent Morocco. He then pursed an academic career in France, first appointed in 1962 to the position of chair in Hebrew at the…