Samuel-Daniel Levy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Samuel-Daniel Lévy (4 December 1874, Tetuan–1970, Casablanca) was a businessman, organizer, and leading advocate of Zionism in Morocco.[1] He held British citizenship.[2]
Levy was born to a Sephardic family in Tetuan in 1874 and studied at that city's school of the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU).[1] He was chosen by Abraham Ribbi,[3] director of the school in Tetuan, to attend the École Normale israélite Orientale, a teachers’ training school in Paris founded by the Alliance Israélite Universelle.[1] He graduated in 1893 and became schoolmaster in Tunis.[1] He later moved to Sousse and Tangier.[1] He was made director of the Alliance school in Casablanca (1900–1902), where he established a school for girls.[1] He moved to Argentina and directed Jewish Colonisation Association schools in the province of Buenos Aires.[1]
He returned to Casablanca in 1913 and engaged in work for the Jewish communities in Morocco. His work was supported by international Jewish organizations including the Organization for Rehabilitation through Training (ORT), the Œuvre de secours aux enfants, and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.[1]
He visited Palestine in 1935 and returned with renewed commitment to Zionism.[1]
He led a number of initiatives, such as the establishment with the Council of Jewish Communities of Morocco of the Sanatorium Israélite Ben Ahmed , a sanatorium dedicated to Jewish patients in Ben Ahmed,[4] and a program to systematically diagnose tuberculosis.[1] He also established a number of Zionist and Jewish philanthropic associations and local branches of foreign associations, including Société Maghen David, ORT Moroc and OSE Maroc.[1]
