Secrets of the “Hidden” School in Talaat Harb

Many people do not know that Talaat Harb Square in Cairo includes a school whose founding dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century and which is still operating today. The school’s first features appear when someone walking along Talaat Harb Street toward the square looks right, into the small street about 20 meters after Radio Cinema, and discovers an old building blocking it with a gate. If they continue around the square to Mahmoud Bassiouny Street, enter it, and look right into the first small street, they will find the same old building blocking the street with another gate bearing a sign identifying it as Talaat Harb Girls’ Industrial Secondary School.

The school building undoubtedly gives you the impression that it has been squeezed into this location, with only a small part opening onto the surrounding streets. Perhaps there is a reason or secret behind this.
The school’s old name, “Qatrat al-Laban,” which was built in 1920, may arouse your curiosity because of its eloquence and poetry, making you want to know the secret behind it.
The reason the school building was “squeezed” into this location is that it was intended to be situated in the same area as the language schools spread throughout the surrounding district, from Bab El Louk to Abdel Moneim Riyad Square, and this was the only available location.

The secret behind the name “Qatrat al-Laban” is that the school was committed to providing its male and female students with a daily breakfast consisting of a cup of warm milk and bread. This was part of the activities of the “Qatrat al-Laban Charity,” which helped poor and orphaned Jews. It was a charitable association founded by Isaac Ben Arroya and his wife, with the participation of wealthy members of the Jewish community, to provide students with free education and training. They studied subjects in French, as was the case in similar schools at the time, in addition to Hebrew.
As waves of Jews left Egypt and their numbers declined significantly, the school’s activities ceased. The Cairo Jewish community, which still owns the building, rented it to the Egyptian government so that it could operate within the government school system under the name Talaat Harb Boys’ Secondary School. It was later converted into Talaat Harb Girls’ Industrial Secondary School.

The association’s current charitable activities focus on caring for the remaining Egyptian Jewish women and providing them with financial assistance, medical expenses, and, finally, burial expenses. Its activities have also expanded to include preserving Egypt’s Jewish heritage.