III. Generation Alliance 2. Social ascension - ENIO
Raphael Calderon and Méir Papo left for Paris in the fall of 1905 to become teachers. The example of R. Calderon is unprecedented and influential: he began his deputy mandate in Beirut in October 1908 while Papo, who had been struck by the disappearance of his mother, did not finish his studies. R. Calderon's appointment to the Beirut school made him the one of the few Monastirian pupils identified in the AIU photographs, next to his classmate in the promotion to ENIO, Juda Camhi from Adrianople. After three years of sharing the dormitories, refectories, gardens and classrooms of the ENIO, the lives of these two comrades crossed again in Beirut as teachers and flat mates.
According to the reports of YD Sémach, the director of the School of Beirut, the teaching capacity of R. Calderon was considered weak compared to that of his Andrinopolitan colleague. This explains his early appointment to the post of assistant in Tangier and the separation of the two young colleagues, since J. Camhi would later go to Argentina as a teacher. However, the peculiarity of R. Calderon lies in the fact that he is the pioneer of a monastirian generation, built by the Alliance of yesterday, and that he is the first to be immortalized by the Alliance of today.
In this regard, it would be legitimate to say that the identification of the photos of J. Camhi and R. Caldéron was based on both objective and subjective data. First of all, it is obvious that the photos in question date from 1909 when both young graduates of ENIO were in Beirut. Then, J. Camhi (20) was older than Calderon (18) and the teaching ability was strong for the former to the point that he could hold a class on his own. In short, we were convinced that taking into account his visible and supposed maturity, J. Camhi would have been on the photo at "middle course” on which he is seated on the right on a chair while R. Caldéron appears on the following photo “upper course”. The director of the Beirut School would have placed him to develop his skills with the two teachers, on the left in the photo, who held the upper class.
Next is the photo of Méir Nahoum of Magnesia, who had obtained his Hebrew certificate in 1909 with Eliezer Cohen. It is less certain, if the person on the picture beside M. Nahoum is Eliezer Cohen. We do not know the date of the photo but is it possible that E. Cohen appears in this photo? If you find out, we invite our dear readers to let us know any information on these photos: biblio@aiu.org