Alliance Israélite Universelle
Paris-based international Jewish organisation founded in 1860, known for its network of schools in North Africa and the Middle East
| Alliance Israélite Universelle
| |
|---|---|
| Logo | 
|
| Type | International Jewish organisation |
| Founded | May 1860 |
| Founder(s) | Charles Netter, J. Carvallo, Isidor Cahen, Narcisse Leven, A. Astruc, E. Manuel |
| Headquarters | Paris |
| Services | Jewish education; diplomatic intervention on behalf of Jewish communities |
| Key people | Adolphe Crémieux (president 1863–80); S. H. Goldschmidt (president 1881–98); Sylvain Lévi; René Cassin |
| Website | https://www.aiu.org/ |
The Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) is an international Jewish organisation founded in Paris in 1860. The Encyclopaedia Judaica calls it "the first modern international Jewish organization".[1] It was set up to defend Jews facing discrimination and to promote their emancipation, and from the 1890s it concentrated on running schools, especially in the Balkans and the Middle East.[1] It founded the Mikveh Israel agricultural school near Jaffa in 1870.[2]
The AIU was not at first a Zionist body. It opposed Zionism after the First World War, but according to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, "In 1945, however, the Alliance took up a pro-Zionist stand."[1]
Foundation
The Encyclopaedia Judaica links the AIU's founding to the Damascus Affair of 1840 and the Mortara case of 1858. The founder-members, J. Carvallo, Isidor Cahen, Narcisse Leven, A. Astruc and the poet E. Manuel, met in May 1860 in the house of Charles Netter. Their aims, as formulated by Carvallo and Netter, were "to work everywhere for the emancipation and moral progress of the Jews; to offer effective assistance to Jews suffering from antisemitism; and to encourage all publications calculated to promote this aim".[1] It was run from Paris by a central committee of 30. All its presidents have been French Jews except S. H. Goldschmidt (1881–98). Adolphe Crémieux was president from 1863 to 1880, and later presidents included Sylvain Lévi and René Cassin.[1]
Diplomacy and emigration
The AIU appealed for equal rights for the Jews of Serbia and Romania from the 1860s. At the Congress of Berlin in 1878 it worked with the Joint Foreign Committee of the Anglo-Jewish Association and the Board of Deputies for clauses guaranteeing civil rights for Jews in the Balkan states.[1] From 1869 it helped Jews emigrate from Russia and Romania, and in migration matters it worked with the Jewish Colonization Association.[1]
Schools
The Encyclopaedia Judaica says the AIU's schools were meant to improve the social and legal status of Jews through their "cultural and moral elevation", and also spread French language and culture. Its school network grew with large gifts from Baron Maurice de Hirsch: one million gold francs in 1874 and ten million in 1889.[1] In Palestine, Charles Netter opened the AIU's agricultural school at Mikveh Israel in 1870, and an elementary school followed in Jerusalem in 1882.[1] In 1960 the AIU ran 15 schools in Iran with 6,200 pupils.[1]
Zionism
At the Versailles peace conference after the First World War the AIU acted apart from the Comité des Délégations Juives, because, the Encyclopaedia Judaica says, it "opposed both the concepts of national minority rights and of Zionism". Sylvain Lévi took "a sharp anti-Zionist stand on behalf of the Alliance" at the conference.[1] In a programmatic declaration of 1945 the AIU said it would "demand for the Jews who so desired the right of entry into Palestine, under the auspices of the United Nations and on the responsibility of the Jewish Agency in Palestine".[1]
The Encyclopaedia Judaica also notes that the AIU was a target of antisemitic conspiracy theories, and that the myth of the "Elders of Zion" "crystallized around a falsified image of the Alliance".[1] In 1989 the AIU opened a new library, which the encyclopaedia describes as the largest Jewish library in Europe.[1]
See also
- Mikveh Israel
- Charles Netter
- Maurice de Hirsch
- Anglo-Jewish Association
- Jewish Colonization Association