The Israelite High School was a school of the Jewish community of Timișoara. The high school operated between 1919 and 1948, with a number of about 700 students. It had four middle school classes for girls, eight theoretical high school classes for boys and eight commercial high school classes for boys. After 1948, the Sports High School and the High School of Fine Arts operated in its premises.
In 2003, the high school buildings were returned to Caritatea Foundation, which in 2014 sold them as land. The current owner wants an urban development that involves the demolition of buildings, which has caused much controversy, both regarding the preservation of the historical heritage of Timișoara, and about what is to be built in place.
History
Beginnings of Jewish education
The first mention of Jewish education in Timișoara comes from the tombstone of Azriel Assad (d. 1636), rabbi and surgeon, in Timișoara's Sephardic cemetery. Children were taught to read, write and count in cheder in Talmud.
With the development of the city and as a result of the gradual liberalization of the political regime in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Jewish community in Timișoara also evolved, reaching almost 7,000 people during World War I (about 10% of the population). Although large, the community did not even have its own primary school. In the 18th and 19th centuries until 1867, education was based on the German language. In the middle of the 19th century, in addition to the traditional religious schools, there were intermittently several Jewish primary schools with German language in Timișoara. Since 1867, the Law of Nationalities (Law XLIV) has considered Jews to be Hungarian citizens of Mosaic faith, and the Education Law (Law XXXVIII) provided for compulsory education, but with Hungarian as the official language of instruction, which led to their rapid assimilation. The desire to avoid complete assimilation and some anti-Semitic manifestations led to the need to establish their own secular schools, but in which the Hebrew language, Judaism and the tradition of the Jewish holidays were taught. But the Jewish society was divided, there were three currents, which had different positions: the Neolog faction (modernist – which recognized the decisions of the Congress of Jewish Communities in Hungary and Transylvania, held in Pest in 1868–1869), the Orthodox one (traditionalist – which rejected these decisions) and the status quo ante one, which ruled in favor of maintaining the pre-congress situation. The teaching of specific subjects, especially religion, differed, so that the schools of each community could only be confessional, which deprived them of the support that state schools received. However, in 1917, on the initiative of teacher Marmorek and with the support of the Hatikva Society, the first Jewish kindergarten was established, and in the following year, the first Israelite primary school (the one in the Iosefin district), under the direction of .
Establishment of Israelite high schools
At the end of World War I, the Jews of Banat and Transylvania organized themselves into the National Union of Jews of Banat and Transylvania, a body aimed at recognizing Jews as a national minority. This, based on the , created the premise of training in one's own language, in this case Hebrew. At the request addressed to the Resort of Cults and Instruction within the Governing Council by the president of the community, Adolf Vértes, and on the basis of an oral authorization (written approval – authorization no. 23527/1919 – will come only on 2 January 1920), on 4 October 1919, the Israelite Confessional High School began its activity, with 650 students, 401 boys and 249 girls (in mixed classes, co-education system). Of these, 70 were non-Jews. As the mother tongue of all the students was Hungarian, it was designated as the language of instruction, and there were also Hebrew classes. The director of the high school was Victor Déznai. Not yet having its own premises, the courses were held in various places: Lloyd Palace, the headquarters of the Jewish community in Cetate, the Politehnica building on Carol Telbisz Street and other schools. From the beginning there were discussions, the rabbis demanded separate religious classes for the three communities, a requirement that was rejected, but a single program was adopted.