THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
The only Jewish publication in the State of Michigan
Devoted to the interests of the Jewish people
Vol. II. No. 3
DETROIT, MICH., MARCH 16, 1917
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The Civil Emancipation of the Jews
ISRAEL, COHEN
Author of "Jewish Life in Modern Times"
The Liberating Effects of the French
Less than ohe-Ialf of the Jews in
Revolution.
the world are in possession of the
The first country in which the Jews
Note:—This article is especially timely in view of the
same civil rights as their non-Jewish
in Europe were granted coiiiplete
agitation in behalf of Jewish emancipation raised by
neighbors; the majority are still in
civil equality was France. As early
bondage. This simple statement sums
the Jewish Congress movement.
as 1748 Montesquieu had raised his
up the political status of modern
voice on behalf of the Marranos, or
Jewry, and illustrates the ethical jus-
secret Jews, in Portugal, and it was
tice of modern Christendom. "Peace
in his country that the seed of toleration, assiduously sown by the philosophers
and good will unto all" was the gladsome message of the Saviour that Chris-
of reason, first ripened into fruit. The initial stage in the process of libera-
tendom owes to Jewry, but war and were the sinister policy practiced
tion was the removal of the commercial disabilities to which the Jews of
by the nations against the Jews for eighteen centuries thereafter. The relent-
Alsace were exposed in addition to the burden of tribute that pressed heavily
less foe of the Jewish people throughout the Aliddle Ages was the Church, upon all the Jews of France alike. Confined to particular districts, restricted
which dominated the destinies of the state in almost every country in which
in the matter of trade to dealing in cattle and jewelry, the Jews of Alsace
they were settled, .and which regarded all who stood outside her fold as the were compelled to engage in money-lending, and the unwillingness or inability
fit prey of humiliating restrictions and ruinous taxation. They owed their of the Christian borrowers to repay their loans provoked a popular agitation
first breath of liberty in EurOpe not to any clemency on the part of the
against the Jews. Hence•the lattei - , in 1780, presented a petition to Louis XVI
Church, but to- a movement which swept her power away and set up in her for the removal of their trade disabilities, which was granted ;'and four years
place the goddess of Reason. It was the French Revolution which first re-
later a decree was issued for the abolition of the poll tax and the conferment
leased the children of Israel from the shackles of medievalism and endowed of free choice of domicile. But it was not until 1789 that freedom of religious
them with the rights of human beings, though this act of liberation was even worship was accorded by the National Assembly in response to the powerful •
anticipated by the United States by a few years.
advocacy of Mirabeau and Abbe Gregoire, who pleaded for the extension of
The step was too bold and revolutionary to be followed by other countries the Rights of Man to the Jew. Within the last two weeks of that memorable
immediately; most of them, after protracted internal struggles, did not admit year the question arose of admitting all citizens without distinction of creed,
their Jewish subjects to the rights of citizenship until the middle of the nine- to the public service. Again Mirabeau and Gregoire championed the cause
teenth century, the order in which they carried out this measure reflecting the of the Jews, but as the Alsatian deputies offered violent opposition a com-
march of the idea of toleration. But although we are now in the.second decade promise was agreed upon. The Portuguese Jews of Avignon, who had
of the twentieth century the principle of toleration, acclaimed as the crowning
hitherto enjoyed civil rights as naturalized Frenchmen, and against whom
virtue of modern civilization, has not yet penetrated beyond the frontiers of there was no hostility, were endowed with full political rights on January 28th,
Russia and Roumania. Six million human beings are condemned to a state
1790. Their brethren in Alsace had to content themselves for a while with a
of servitude to which the annals of history offer no parallel, their only crime law assuring them protection and the abolition of all special taxes; but on
being that they were horn Jews. Their sole escape from the medieval bar- September 27th, 1791, after an ardent appeal by Talleyrand, only a few days
barity of their modern oppressors is in emigration, and to this one hundred before the dissolution of the National Assembly, the complete rights of citi-
thousand are compelled to resort every year. Had it not been for the cease- zenship were conferred upon the sixty thousand Jews of France, who were
less persecution in Russia and Roumania the Jewish communities in'England, thus the first Jews in Europe to be placed on a political equality with their
America; and the British Colonies would still have been insignificant in num-
neighbors.
Napoleon and the Paris Sanhedrin.
bers for the Jew loves his native land and does not leave it to seek a home
The emancipation of the Jews of France was confirmed by Napoleon,
elsewhere unless he is driven by necessity. The fears and suspicions formerly
who
also brought the first taste of liberty to their brethren in Germany and
entertained by the countries that have emancipated their Jewish subjects have
long been dispelled, for the latter have universally proved a benefit to the Italy. There was, indeed, a moment in Napoleon's Egyptian campaign when
state and manifested their patriotism in abundant measure. They have con- he was fired by the ambition of restoring Palestine to its ancient owners, but
tributed to the advancement of their country's welfare in the arts of peace, this glorious prospect was made dependent upon the Jews of Africa and Asia
they have fought its battles ( repeatedly arrayed against one another), they enrolling themselves under his banner, and is today merely a theme for his-
have actively participated in its civic and political life, and they have risen toric speculation. The Jewish question in France was reopened by the guild-
to positions of eminence in its government councils. But although they are merchants and religious reactionaries in Alsace, who exploited the inability
legally endowed with civil and political rights, their enjoyment of them in of the peasants of this province to repay their debts to the Jews by petitioning
some countries is restricted by official hostility or embittered by social prej- Napoleon to abrogate the civil rights of the Jews. The conqueror resolved
udice. The complete emancipation of the Jewish people is an ideal still hid- to submit the question to the consideration of the Jews themselves. He con-
vened an Assembly of Jewish Notables of France, Germany and Italy in order
den beyond the rangs of prophetic vision.
to ascertain whether the principles of Judaism were compatible with the
Medieval Disabilities.
requirements of citizenship, as he wished to fuse the Jewish element with the
dominant population. The Assembly, consisting of 111 deputies, met in the
The first serious attempt to liberate the Jews from the civil and political
disabilities imposed upon them in the greater part of medieval Europe began Town Hall of Paris on July 25th, 1806, and was required to frame replies to
twelve questions relating mainly to the possibility of Jewish patriotism, the
in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Their disabilities varied in dif-
permissibility of intermarriage between Jew and non-Jew, and the legality of
ferent countries in kind and severity, but they all agreed insofar as the Jews usury. So pleased vas Napoleon with the pronouncements of the Assembly
were denied the Ordinary rights of citizenship. They were restricted in that he summoned a Sanhedrin after the model of the ancient council of
domicile, in trade, and in the practice of public worship; they could not own Jerusalem to convert them into the decrees of a legislative body. The San- •
land; they were excluded from schools and universities and denied any hedrin, comprising seventy-one deputies from France, Germany, Holland and
Italy, met under the presidency of Rabbi Sinzheim, of Strassburg, on Febru-
share in civil and political affairs; they were subjected to a poll tax which
ary 9th, 1807, and adopted a sort of charter which exhorted the Jews to look
was exacted whenever they passed from one province into another. and they
upon France as their fatherland, and to regard its citizens as their brethren,
were mulcted in taxes by kings and bishops in return for a protection which
and to speak its language, and which also expressed toleration of marriages
was con stantly thre atened by the populace. In short, they had no right except between Jews and Christians, while declaring that they could not be sanc-
the right to exist, and this was exposed to so many wrongs that it was felt as tioned by the Synagogue. In order to give legal effect to the decisions of the
Sanhedrin, Napoleon, by special decree (March 17th, 1808), instituted a sys-
a burden itself. Their disabilities in England were not so galling or burden-
tem of consistories for regulating the constitution of the Jewish community.
some as on the continent, for here they enjoyed liberty of domicile from their
This system remained in force'in France until the passing of the Separation
resettlement in 1655 and. were free from the humiliation of a poll tax ; but the Law in 1905, and still survives in Belgium and Alsace. The culminating of
spirit of toleration in England a hundred and sixty years ago was still in such Jewish emancipation in France was reached in 1831, when it was resolved
primitive
condition that an act for the naturalization of the Jews passed in
7
that synagogues and rabbis, like churches and priests, should be supported by
53 had to be repealed in the same year owing to a fierce storm of protest
the national treasury.
all over the Kingdom,