A Sephardi Life In Southeastern Europe: The Autobiography And Journals Of Gabriel Arié, 1863-1939 (samuel And Althea Stroum Books)

Preface to the English EditionThis is a slightly revised version, in translation, of a book that appearedin Paris in 1992 under the title Un vie judéo-espagnole à l’Est: Gabriel Arié(1863–1939). It contains the autobiography, journal, and selections fromthe correspondence of Gabriel Arié. Arié was born in Bulgaria in the lastyears of Ottoman rule, was educated by and became a teacher and majoractor in the Alliance Israélite Universelle, the foremost Jewish organizationof the time, and created and directed important Jewish schools andinstitutions in Ottoman Turkey. Upon his return to Bulgaria after endinghis teaching career because of tuberculosis, Arié went on to become asuccessful businessman and an important notable and participant in Jewishpolitics. He also wrote most of the two volumes of the official history ofthe Alliance, Cinquante ans d’histoire, which appeared in print under theauthorship of the organization’s president, Narcisse Leven, and which wasuntil recently the definitive history of the diplomatic and educational workof the institution. He also published a history of the Jews, Histoire juivedepuis les origines jusqu’à nos jours (1923), which was adopted as a textbookfor Jewish schools in France until World War II.The public work and activities of this Sephardi figure became familiarto us as we conducted research in the archives of the Alliance for a varietyof projects over the years. It was by chance that Aron Rodrigue’s Del’instruction à l’émancipation caught the eye of Gabriel Arié’s grandson Dr.Elie Arié of Paris, who contacted him to reveal that he was in possession ofhis grandfather’s autobiographical manuscripts. Writings of this kind arequite rare in the Judeo-Spanish world, and this provided us with a uniqueopportunity to publish and to analyze both the public and the private livesof one of its important personalities. Together with selections from hisletters to the Alliance Central Committee about a variety of political andeducational...