The False Promise
of Emancipation
Isaac Cohen
The emancipation of Jews in
To French Jews, Napoleon's enforcement of the 1791 law of
emancipation meant
liberation from legal restrictions as well as political and
social disabilities. For the first time
in European history, Jews were recognized as equal under the Law and were given
the rights and duties of citizenship. This emancipation was a significant
turning point in Jewish history, although it would later result in grave
repercussions for both Jews and non-Jews alike. With this newfound emancipation, Jews faced many
challenges while non-Jews struggled with the concept of Jews as equals.
The path to emancipation began years before Napoleon with the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (Déclaration
des droits de l'homme et du citoyen), which was approved
by the National Assembly of France in August 26, 1789, and paved the way for
emancipation with its central theme being that "Men are born and remain
free and equal in rights." The Declaration
was founded on the belief that power resided neither in tradition nor in any
social-political order or the Church, but in individual freedom – freedom which
extended to all persons, including Jews.
However, it would not be for another two years that the National
Assembly's “Law Relating to Jews,” was passed on
In a profound sense, Jewish emancipation was a natural consequence
of the well known motto of the French revolution -- Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité. Liberté, meant
that Jews, like all human beings, possessed inalienable, natural rights, such as the right of free
expression or religious beliefs. It became the duty of the government to
safeguard and promote these natural rights.
Egalité, meant equality of economic, educational,
and political opportunity. Above all, equality called for equality of all under
the law. All people, including Jews, should have access to justice. Fraternité, implied nationalism, a love of la patrie, the nation. It
required that all citizens give their loyalty not to a class or a church, not
to a monarch or to a guild, but rather to the nation. The ideals of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité proved their authenticity powerfully
in its inclusion of Jews who had been the pariah people of
Yet, in relation to Jews, the dark side of this idealism would
become evident. In order to achieve fraternity, the idea of corporatism had to
end. The existence of special privileged
bodies within the nation could no longer be tolerated. This included the
existence of a separate Jewish community. In the case of Jews, this new
"civic virtue" assumed the renunciation of Jewish
"nationhood" as if, after two thousand years of forced separation,
Jewish identity could be reduced to a "mere" religion with Jewish
culture being nothing more than lighting candles on Shabbat evening and
circumcising male newborns. As one deputy of the National Assembly declared:
"To the Jew as an individual - everything, to the Jews as a nation -
nothing." In other words, while
Jews were equal to all other citizens, their Judaism had to be diluted. Another member of the Assembly declared:
"Let us begin by destroying all the humiliating signs which designate them
as Jews, so that their garb, their outward appearance, shows us that they are
full citizens."
The structure of the Jewish kinship system, rooted in the biblical
idea of people hood
and reinforced by two thousand years of exclusion, was a mystery
to the outside World. Jewish religion,
in fact, was attached to Jewish "nationhood" like flesh to bone, like
soul to body. The attachment to the Land and the return to Jerusalem/Zion is cited hundreds of times in the liturgy and the Hebrew
Bible, referred to by Christians as the Old Testament. However, the fathers of the French Revolution
had a different framework, Christianity, which had evolved differently. Judaism would become solely a religion which
would be far too thin to contain the multifaceted complexity of Jewish
life. Therefore, there was a fuse
attached to the concept of emancipation as it applied to Jews. Nonetheless, the new system offered high
hopes to Jews, real opportunities appeared, and Jews moved to fill them. There is little doubt that Jews were the
greatest beneficiaries of the Revolution, while at the same time, the Roman
Catholic Church, may have been its greatest casualty.
On
Beginning in the summer of 1789, deputies within the National
Assembly debated about whether Jews should be entitled to the same rights as
Christians. At this time, French Jewry
numbered less than 40,000 in a nation of 20 million, the vast majority of whom
had never seen a Jew and knew little about Judaism other than the general
concept of suspicion imbibed from traditional Christian teachings.
Most of the viewpoints concerning Jews in French society at large
were influenced by the negative stereotypes of Jews which started early in the
common era for religious reasons and which were later transformed into secular
anti-Semitism. Certain deputies within
the National Assembly, the Comte de Mirabeau, the
Comte de Clermont-Tonnere, and l'abbé
Gregoire, acknowledged that the faults ascribed to Jews
had been occasioned by discrimination and persecution. L’abbé Gregoire believed that once the harmful influences were
removed, the Jews would show themselves to be good citizens, stating that
"If the Jews have faults, it is the Christian society which is
responsible. In their place would we not be worse?" The Count de Clermont Tonnere
was the most positive on behalf of the Jews, arguing: "Leave man's conscience free, that
sentiments or thoughts guided in one manner or another towards the heavens will
not be crimes that society punishes with the loss of social rights. Or else,
create a national religion, arm yourself with a sword, and tear up your
Declaration of Rights. But there is justice, there is reason."
Negative views concerning the Jews could be found in clerical and
traditionalist circles unfavorable to the Enlightenment. Defenders of orthodox
catholic thinking on the Jews viewed them as hopelessly fanatic, blind,
stubborn and deceitful. The views of Luther in his anti-Semitic pamphlet "On
the Jews and their Lies" were still shared by the people in the street
over 200 years later. The following views prevailed: The Jews had murdered the
Savior of mankind and 18 centuries later were still in league with the Devil.
Therefore, the Jews should be allowed to exist but in a degraded and second
class position and should justifiably remain in their ghettos as decreed by the
Popes. Their debasement would show true believers how unbelievers and deicides should suffer.
The Jewish religion, moreover, would make it impossible for them to be
artisans or farmers. Their religion would always separate them from society at
large so that their emancipation would not be in the best interests of the
nation. Declared Monsieur de la Fare, bishop of Nancy: "Must one admit
into the family a tribe that is a stranger to oneself, that constantly turns
its eyes toward another homeland… a tribe that, be faithful to its law, must
forbid to the individuals who constitute it entrance into armies, the
mechanical and liberal arts, and into the employ of the civil courts and
municipalities; a tribe that, in obeying both its own law and the national law,
has 108 valueless holy days in the year?"
Ironically, some proponents of the Enlightenment ideals, like the famous Voltaire, were
blatant anti-Semites. Voltaire drew his inspiration from the secular culture of
The main opposition to Jewish emancipation, however, came from the
Alsatian delegation. The overwhelming majority of French Jewry, some 40,000,
resided in
Rewbell further asserted that he was not
religiously intolerant, but that the Jewish religion was particularly obnoxious
because it taught separatism and contempt for the others. It created in its
adherents an odious character which was both repellent and dangerous. The Jews
were aliens, foreigners and could never be true Europeans. Rewbell's thoughts
reflected those of Voltaire.
The only organized group in Eastern France to argue for enlarging
the rights of the Jews was the Société des Amis de la Constitution in Strasbourg, the capital of
Alsace. This moderate revolutionary group maintained that the peasants of the
region were being artificially enflamed and that eventually their enmity toward
the Jews would cool. With equality of opportunity, the Jews would enter into a
variety of occupations and would contribute to the wealth of the entire region.
Economic opportunity would make them less clan-minded and more French. They
would ultimately become productive and loyal citizens.
It was this moderate mainstream of deputies who finally carried
the day in favor of Jewish emancipation. The Jews, though, were granted equal
rights in two stages. First, on
These arguments proved most telling and finally prevailed over the
opposition. By granting emancipation to the Sefardic
Jews, the Assembly gave full rights of citizenship to some 3 to 4,000
individuals. Their principal communities were located in the cities of
Even though the National Assembly had recognized only a specific
category of Jews for full citizenship, the act set an important precedent.
On the very day that the decree emancipating the Jews of Southern
France was being passed, the major political body of Paris, La Commune, heard
an eloquent plea on behalf of emancipation for all French Jews. Jacques
Goddard, a spokesman for a deputation of Parisian Jews, argued that full Jewish
emancipation had to come in France, because, "Equality for all men was a
principle which conformed to the laws of reason and humanity, and that such a
decision would help remake the Jews so they, as individuals would reflect
virtues which reason and love of mankind taught." Members of the Paris
Commune were in agreement with these contentions and strove to bring about Jewish
emancipation even though there were only some 800 Jews in
On
These provisions of the new constitution along with the persistent
and compelling arguments of the proponents of the emancipation finally set the
stage for the full extension of the rights of citizens to all the Jews of
France.
Finally, on
There is little doubt that the winds of enlightenment blew back
and forth on both sides of the
The decree granting full citizenship to all the Jews of France was
one of the first decrees of the newly elected Legislative Assembly. However,
this legislative body did little to implement this new freedom for the Jews. A
year later, deputies of a new body called the Convention were elected. This
body was derided by Victor Hugo during a period characterized by mayhem and
political turbulence. During this time, synagogues were closed and the
Convention forbid the use of the Hebrew language which
was considered linked to Jewish sovereignty. Could it be that they wanted to
force the Jews to pray their G-d in Latin? The promise of Emancipation really
started to sound hollow to Jews.
Granting freedom to Jews in the name
of enlightenment while at the same time restricting their Jewish culture
happened in other parts of
Back to
It was during this period that we see the emergence of this
brilliant young Corsican officer, Buonaparte (as he
was called then) who rose through the ranks to become one of the youngest
brilliant French generals and a champion of the persecuted Jewish and
Protestant causes. In March 1796, two days after marrying Josephine de Beauharnais, the brilliant military strategist Buonaparte, the Man on the Horseback, took the command of the army that
invaded
The liberation of the Roman ghetto, within sight of the
A declaration was issued in Padova on
Napoleon scorned the Directory and intended to continue building
his reputation as a military genius in foreign lands and at the same time avoid
being tainted at home by the Directory. He probably was already scheming the Coup d'Etat that
would eventually crown him Emperor of the French people (not Emperor of France)
in 1804. In 1798 he directed his ambition towards
Unfortunately for the Jews, the British thwarted Napoleon's
intentions, and his attempt to capture
Interestingly, in 1806, Emperor Napoleon I, convened a Grand
Sanhedrin in
One has to mention, however, that Napoleon, under pressure from
different quarters, enforced some restrictions following the spirit of the
Enlightenment project in regard to Jews. Clermont-Tonnerre,
a deputy of the French Assembly had indeed declared: "One must refuse
everything to the Jews as a nation, but one must give them everything as
individuals. If they do not want this, they must inform us, and we shall be
compelled to expel them. The existence of a nation within a nation is
unacceptable to our country." Jews
could be "Frenchmen of the Mosaic persuasion". They had to give up
communal autonomy and merge with the great French nation. They had to abandon
all notions of Jewish peoplehood because in the eyes
of even many of their supporters, this identity carried along with it
egregious, harmful traits and ideas. Of course, they had to give up all notions
for the eventual restoration of
Most Jews were willing to pay this price. In fact, Napoleon, the
demolisher of the ghetto's walls, and his armies were greeted by Jews as
liberators throughout
For the Jews, it was a dream come true.
The potential for Jewish emancipation in the Declaration of the Rights of Man
and the Citizen had been realized. The Jews would no longer be excluded from
full participation in the political, economic, and social life of the country.
For the first time in modern history, all Jews would be united with their
fellow citizens as equals before the Law.
However, dream is one thing and reality is another. The objective
of the Emancipation was to create "new men" out of the Jews. The
framers of the Declaration wanted in fact to create a new Jew tailored to their
ideal who would not be too Jewish.
Arthur Hertzberg, the author of "The French Enlightenment and the
Jews" wrote: "Whatever the Jew did, there was someone to say that the
Revolution had intended him to do something else, that was more regenerative of
his nature and more useful to the society…
The emancipation allowed the Jews in
These "new Jews" entered a society in which the seeds of
a new secular anti- Semitism, grown from centuries of religious brain-washing,
had been planted by such thinkers as Voltaire. According to these thinkers, the
Jew was hopelessly "the other". No matter what the Jews did, it was
not enough and they could not escape the odious stain of their Jewishness. The words of Voltaire to the Jews contained a
self-fulfilling prophecy: "You seem to me the maddest of the lot. The
Kaffirs, the Hottentots and the Negroes of Guinea are much more reasonable and
more honest people than your ancestors, the Jews. You have surpassed all
nations in impertinent fables, in bad conduct, and in barbarism. You deserve to
be punished for this is your destiny." Interestingly, when I was a High
School student at the Lyçée Français,
not a word about this negative aspect of Voltaire was pronounced. It was
probably unimportant.
This secular anti-Semitism combined with the powerful negative
stereotypes and teachings of traditional Christian anti-Semitism posed an
ongoing threat to Jewish emancipation. The Revolution itself provided
anti-Semites with a powerful new stereotype. Since the Jews benefited from the
Revolution they must have instigated it. They had used the Revolution to
further their own ends and to attack the sacred traditions, values, and
institutions of Christian society. This was exactly the same argument which was
made after the Bolchevik revolution in 1917, though
Stalin' s treatment of Jews was nothing to envy, to say the least. The Jews had
instigated the Revolution and would instigate other upheavals and disorders in an attempt to gain
control of
Nonetheless, the Jews of France were overwhelmed with gratitude
for the precious gift of emancipation. One prominent Alsatian Jew, Berr Isaac Berr wrote in a letter
to his fellow Jews: "G-d has chosen the generous French nation to
reinstate us in our rights… How glorious it is for that nation, who has in so
short a time made so many people happy… And what bounds can there be to our
gratitude for the happy event. From being vile slaves, mere serfs, a species of
men merely tolerated and suffered in the empire, liable to heavy and arbitrary
taxes, we are, of a sudden, become the children of the country, to bear its
common charges, and share in its common rights".
Through countless patriotic actions, French Jewry dramatically
demonstrated that they had indeed become, "children of the country".
They joined the National Guard and served with distinction in the French army.
They made generous contributions to the nation. French Jews began to occupy
public offices and sent their children to public schools. By 1810, the town
council of the city of Metz could proclaim: "Many followers of the Law of
Moses each day make laudable efforts to draw closer to our customs, usages, our
civilization, our special practice to escape at last from the state of
abjection to which our old laws and perhaps our prejudices have condemned them."
Although not all French Jews assimilated so rapidly, enough did to
make a positive impression on their fellow citizens.
The Jews had been emancipated during the French Revolution by the
power and logic of the ideas of Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité. But emancipation did not necessarily mean a
basic shift in attitudes towards the Jews. The consensus even among the
revolutionaries was that Jews would have to prove themselves worthy of
citizenship. But for many Frenchmen, no proof would ever be sufficient.
In conclusion, the promise of emancipation for the Jews remained a
promise for a long time. Some scholars, like Hannah Arendt,
even attribute the origin of modern secular anti-Semitism to the enlightenment.
The balance, however,
undoubtedly tilts in favor of the emancipation laws promulgated
by the French Revolution which gave Jews a legal arm to fight for their rights.
While Napoleon the First is often remembered as being a
dictatorial negative leader, his treatment of Jews is rarely if ever discussed.
In retrospect, he only wanted to impose what was right.
I was raised in the Lyçée Français and not a word about Napoleon freeing the Jews
from their ghettos was pronounced in the history classes. I discovered this
aspect of Napoleon, as well as Voltaire’s anti-Semitism, through my research
for this paper. Undoubtedly, Napoleon is the champion of Jewish emancipation
not only in
1. H. Arendt. Origins of Totalitarianism. Anti-Semitism.
2. A.
Hertzberg, The French Enlightenment and the Jews.
3. M. Hay, The Roots of Christian anti-Semitism.
4. Elliott Lefkowitz. Emancipation of Jews. Alliance Francaise, 1989 (lecture for the 200th
anniversary of the French Revolution - in collaboration with Isaac Cohen).
5. McKay, John, P.,
Hill, B.D., Buckler, J.A. History of
Western Society.
6. B. Weider. Napoleon and the Jews. www.napoleon1er.com, 1998
7. James Carroll.
8. S. Kadri.
9. M. Zarzecny. Religion in Napoleonic