Jewish Schools and the New National System of Education in Iran

Iran’s Nineteenth century is to be regarded as the age of major reforms including educational reform. In that century, Iran’s defeat by Russian made the European presence in Iran possible; Europeans intended to reform Iranian educational system. These powerful countries supported the missionary activities in Iran and in particular backed the development of minorities’ educational system. Under the circumstances, Jews in 1898 established a school named Alliance and followed a rigorous program of reform in their own educational system. The planned a rather independent curriculum. But the Pahlavi Government enforced a national unified system of education that created problems for this independent agenda. The present essay intends to study how the development of the Jewish schools’ curriculum became possible in spite of the state system. The hypothesis will consider that the maximum compliance of the Jewish schools with the state program made secured their continuity.