Founded in Paris in 1860, the aim of the Alliance Israélite Universelle was to provide support and assistance to the less fortunate Jews of the Middle East, Balkans and North Africa, mostly through an educational program based in French secular schooling. In 1873, the Alliance inaugurated the first French school for boys, where Electra Palace Hotel currently is, which offered a combination of religious and secular education in Thessaloniki. Between 1873 and 1910, the Alliance founded 9 schools of all educational levels in the city, while 6 of them were for girls. The schools were supported by the community which had imposed a special tax on commerce, by the Alliance, and the Anglo Jewish Association, while there was a tuition fee for the students of wealthy families. Poor Jewish students were accepted, as well as non-Jewish in an effort to stop antisemitism.