Vacation in the air

Dedicating this article to the summer season, we have prepared a series of photos from our collection. 

The concept of vacation is relatively new. The education at the Jewish schools of the Alliance Israélite Universelle was often enriched by the addition of summer camps. It was an opportunity, especially for children from lower–income families, to get some fresh air and to escape the stifling atmosphere of the Mellah or Hara. During these vacation days, many students got to swim in the ocean or hike in the mountains for the very first time. As the editor of a report on the Œuvres des colonies de Vacances de Meknes said in 1951: The beneficial action of these initiatives extends to certain particularly unfortunate communities, therefore also helping and preventing health problems. 

This statement does not only apply to North Africa, as we can see in this description of the summer camps written in Metz by the Jeunesse Israélite.

The benefits of Vacation have been known for a long time. This exhortation by Rabbi Edouard Kohn to the students of the Israelite consistory schools in 1891 attests to this:

My dear children, starting tomorrow the month of uncontrolled recreation will begin. It is up to your parents to provide you with recreational vacation days that improve your health. Doctors, and they know what they are talking about, say that exercise, sun and fresh air are the most effective medications, so do what the doctors say. All I wish for is that you all come back strong, resilient, cheerful and blessed with physical and mental strengh. 

Elias Harrus, head of the AIU schools in Morocco, spent many summers running summer camps for his students in Marrakech. Muslim officials took a keen interest in these achievements.

Read the special vacation edition of La voix de l'Orient, an Egyptian newspaper published in 1953.