Ozar Hatorah

The Encyclopaedia Judaica entry dates the nonprofit's founding to 1945 and names Isaac Shalom of New York, Joseph Shamah of Jerusalem and Ezra Teubal of Buenos Aires. It describes their concern about the loss of religious learning among יהודים YEHUDIM and their response through:

schools, teaching both religious and secular subjects²

The same entry identifies support from private donors, local communities and the Joint Distribution Committee. It presents education together with food, facilities and medical care: sustaining learning among יהודים YEHUDIM required institutions able to meet children's material needs as well as teach them.³

Contemporary reporting supplies a separate witness to the network's established work. JTA's August 1968 account of a memorial for Isaac Shalom identifies him as its president and describes religious and secular education for thousands of children from communities of יהודים YEHUDIM. The meeting brought together figures from a Syrian community of יהודים YEHUDIM, the Joint and Ozar Hatorah's leadership. This documents its public standing by 1968; it does not establish an exact founding day.⁴

The reference entry's 1945 date differs from the French network's website, which identifies Ozar Hatorah International with 1947 and dates the French association to 1968. These statements should not be silently combined into one founding date. The French association is a distinct organizational stage, while the difference between the two international dates still needs an early institutional record.⁵

The National Library of Israel catalogs an Ozar Hatorah series in the Sassoon Family Archive, describing correspondence, reports and other material concerning Solomon David Sassoon's work with the network. Its description mentions activity in Morocco and Iran from 1946, but the series' listed dates are 1948–1999. A catalog description identifies a research path; it does not substitute for reading an early report or a founding document.⁶

The French network's website describes its curriculum through:

ᴏʀɪɢɪɴᴀʟ:

un enseignement en Hol et Kodech

TJD translation:

ᴛʀᴀɴꜱʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ:

teaching in general and sacred subjects.⁷

This is the institution's own presentation of its teaching, rather than an independent assessment of classroom results. It shows how general studies and religious learning among יהודים YEHUDIM remain joined in the institution’s stated purpose. The earlier reference account and later institutional statement describe that combination across different periods, without proving that every school used an identical curriculum.

• Why would food, medical care and school facilities matter to an effort to sustain religious learning among יהודים YEHUDIM?
• Which evidence could distinguish an international network's founding from the later formation of a national association?
• What can an institution's statement about general and sacred subjects establish, and what would evaluating its classrooms require?