Draft of Rabbi Shimon Agassi’s Letter Concerning the Alliance School

Hakham Rabbi Shimon Agassi (1852–1914), a leading Baghdadi rabbi, relates in this letter to the negative influence of the Alliance school on young Jewish men and women. According to him, the students in this school study only secular subjects, absorb reformative ideas, and do not know how to read a Hebrew verse properly. He specifically complains about the head of school, who, he claims, sets a poor example for the students – for instance, by publicly smoking and boiling coffee on Shabbat. The rabbi, who addressed the letter to a Zionist organization, argued that the harm caused by the Alliance Israelite Universelle outweighs the benefits it brings – and asks the organization to establish an alternative school in the city.
Courtesy of the Agassi Family, in memory of Hakham Rabbi Shimon Agassi