Conclusion
Although two AIU school buildings were damaged during the First World War, restoration work for that of the Girls’ School only began under the direction of director Mordecai Toussié in 1921. Repairs to the premises of the Girls’ School should have ended under David Lévy’s Mandate in 1922 despite a funding problem. Proof is a photograph in Mark Cohen’s book illustrating the HaTehiya Society in front of the Girls’ School in 1930. This means, that the building continued to be a cultural meeting place for the community even after the departure of the AIU.
The school activities of the AIU remained until 1923 and the departure of David Lévy in December 1922 ended the history of the AIU in Monastir, which had begun with Lévy’s mandate in 1895. Under the Serbian regime, the directors of the School continued to propose candidates for ENIO, Mikveh Israel or the Jerusalem Vocational School but we did not find any admitted candidates who became historical figures, the way Léon Kamhi did, who was s rejected by the Central Committee for ENIO in June 1914.
As a result, L. Kamhi’s youth spent in Monastir was marked by the departure of the Jews following political upheavals. After the Serbian occupation, within a few months one-eighth of the Jewish community, around 600 people, left the city. According to the census made by the director J. Bensimhon the Jewish population accounted for 4647 souls in 1914 while having been 6000 people by the beginning of the 20th century. Aware of the growing phenomenon of demographic erosion, L. Kamhi is convinced that there would be no future for the Jews in Monastir. Thus, he organized throughout the 1920s and 1930s with a Zionist conviction a Jewish immigration wave from Monastir to Palestine. Despite this organized immigration, the number of Jews in Bitola remained above 3000 and by 1943, when the Nazis exterminated them, the Jewish population size had reached 3276.