Shemtov Pariente

Alliance Israelite Universelle opened its first school in Izmir in 1873, in Ikiçeşmelik. This school is a junior high school for boys. David Cazes was the first manager who was sent to Izmir to serve as the director of the school. After working in Izmir for a while, he was sent to Tunisia and Shemtov Pariente was assigned instead. He is one of the first graduates of the Alliance Paris teachers school and is of Morocco origin. Pariente came to Izmir in 1879, and within a few months, Alliance Girls School was opened in Ikiçeşmelik. Pariente, He worked in Izmir for 16 years and proved himself as a master politician.

He has established an extremely good relationship with every section of the Izmir Jewish Community. His pedagogical skills, prudence and farsightedness attracted the attention of the Central Committee of the Alliance, thus he became a very important person and after a while his powers and responsibilities were increased. Now, in the Western Anatolia and European provinces of the Ottoman Empire; in Bulgaria, Chios, Rhodes and Istanbul he has undertaken the task of supervising Alliance schools.

Pariente went down in history as a prominent member of the Jewish community and one of the school principals whose name is engraved in Izmir Jewish Community’s memory, as he did not limit himself to pedagogical activities.