Tag #125740 - Interview #97938 (Moiz Isman)

I started primary school, at the Alliance Israelite Universelle [9] at Kuledibi, Yazıcı Sokak. Our friends and teachers were all Jewish. Our language of education, which was French during the first years of our schooling, became Turkish after the foundation of the Republic [1923] There was no French after that in the Jewish schools. There were also Hebrew classes at our school. There were also two Muslims students in our class. These students were free not to attend the Hebrew classes. They were free to stay in the class, if they wanted to learn another language, because the lessons weren’t about religion. We also had Turkish teachers at our school, after the foundation of the Republic. I was a very hard-working student, and my head-master always sent congratulations home, which made my father extremely happy. Later on, the yearly fee of the school became 13 liras. 13 liras would meet the expenses of a family of three for 15 days.  My father’s business wasn’t doing very well during that time. At the suggestion and the advice of my head-master, I entered the Jewish High School with a scholarship, and graduated from there. Most of our teachers were Jewish. Miss Pardo came for literature, Mr. Natan for math, Miss Sidi for foreign language, and Mr.Goldenberg for music. I did not differentiate between the lessons, and was interested in all of them, and studied hard.

Before the foundation of the Republic [10] our school was closed on Fridays right after noon and was opened again on Sundays. After the foundation of the Republic, our school was closed late in the afternoons on Fridays. Saturday and Sunday were declared as the official holidays.