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The Concept of OZAR HATORAH

photo6.gif (17531 octets) Ozar Hatorah played a brief but vital Orole in Tripoli, Libya. In 1950-1 the entire Jewish population of 29,000 migrated to Israel, thereby escaping the clutches of Muammer El Quaddafi.

We now come to Ozar Hatorah, Morocco. In Morocco, as in Iran, free lunches and medical services were provided by the JDC. Here, the partnership between the two organizations proved its effectiveness with Ozar Hatorah exercising the initiative and the joint supplying the financial wherewithal once the project became a functioning reality.

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Thus, within a few years of its inception, Ozar Hatorah was nourishing a far flung educational network serving some 17,000 students. These ranged from first grade youngsters to learned students preparing to enter the rabbinate. In Tangiers, a teachers' training school for girls was established. This was on the initiative of the young Paul Reichmann whose family lived in Tangiers at the time, prior to immigrating to Canada.

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During the 1950's there was, of course, a sharp reduction in the number of Jews living in Moslem countries. Consequently, enrollment at Ozar Hatorah schools declined. But the schools continue to function to this day where they were established, though they are serving a great y reduced Jewish population. In Morocco, where the population has shrunk from 180,000 in 1948 to less than 1096 of that figure today, there are schools still operating with a total enrollment of over 500.

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