A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism (30 page)

So strong is the force of prejudice that I know a person, no fool in other instances, who labored to persuade, contrary to the evidence of his own eye and my eyes… that every Jew in the world had one eye [that was remarkably smaller] than the other, which silly notion he took from the mob. Others will gravely tell you, that [Jews] may be distinguished by a peculiar sort of smell, that they have a mark of blood on one shoulder, and they cannot spit to any distance.
¹¹

Yet as long as no one stirred up those prejudices, Jews in England had more rights and freedom than Jews in almost any European country in the 1700s. They were also more assimilated than Jews in other countries. And it was the question of assimilation that took center stage as the French considered the status of Jews in their country in the late 1700s.

Like England, France had expelled its Jews centuries earlier—most recently in 1394. Nevertheless, in the 1700s, more than 40,000 Jews lived in France (which had a population of about 28 million). Most of these Jews lived in two areas: Alsace and Lorraine, in the northeastern part of the country, and Bordeaux, Bayonne, and neighboring towns in southwestern France. The southwest was a region that France had acquired over the years from various popes and foreign kings.

The approximately 5,000 Jews who lived in the southwest were Sephardic Jews. A much larger group—about 35,000 Ashkenazi Jews—lived in Alsace and Lorraine, which France had acquired from Germany in the 1600s.

The two groups of Jews were not treated alike. In many ways France was still a feudal country, with a king and thousands of wealthy nobles at the top and millions of peasant farmers at the bottom. As a result, every Jewish community had its own charter that defined its particular rights and responsibilities. Charters for Jews in southern France generally allowed more freedom than did charters granted in the north. Sephardic Jews were rarely confined to ghettos, and a wider variety of occupations was open to them. In contrast, Jews in Alsace and Lorraine lived much the way they had when the region was still part of Germany. Most were very poor and earned their living as peddlers or pawnbrokers.

In the late 1700s, King Louis XVI paid little attention to either group of Jews. He was more focused on the fact that France was deeply in debt.
To find a solution, in May of 1789, Louis brought together representatives of the three estates, or social classes, in France—nobles, clergy, and commoners. He hoped they would help him deal with the nation’s financial problems. Instead the delegates put into motion a series of changes that reduced the king’s power and, eventually, led to his overthrow. By summer, representatives from local assemblies throughout France had formed the National Assembly. Its aim was to eliminate the privileges enjoyed by the king and his nobles. Its members also began work on a constitution that would set out the basic principles and laws of a new government. It was inspired by the Constitution of the United States, new at that time, and the ideals of the Enlightenment.

Even before this constitution was written, the National Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. It stated that all men “are born and remain free and equal in rights.” The document also said, “No person shall be molested for his opinions, even such as are religious, provided that the manifestation of these opinions does not disturb the public order established by the law.”

The Declaration raised important questions: Were women included? Did the document include non-Catholics? The assembly largely ignored the first question, but the second became the focus of heated debate. Three years earlier, a royal commission had proposed that the king grant equal citizenship to Protestants. The king did not object. However, when the commission recommended citizenship for Jews, he vetoed the idea. Now the French National Assembly debated whether to overrule the king and make Jews eligible for citizenship. The count of Clermont-Tonnerre told the deputies:

The Jews should be denied everything as a nation, but granted everything as individuals. They must be citizens…. It is intolerable that the Jews should become a separate political formation or class in the country. Every one of them must individually become a citizen; if they do not want to do this, they must inform us and we shall then be compelled to expel them. The existence of a nation within a nation is unacceptable in our country.
¹²

Some of the ideas in the count’s statement echo those of many German scholars. He, too, insisted that Jews assimilate or face expulsion. The bishop of Nancy, a city in Lorraine, responded to the count. Although the bishop acknowledged that “the Jews certainly have grievances which require redress,” he wondered if France was obliged to “admit into the family a
tribe that is a stranger to oneself.”
¹³
In other words, he was doubtful that Jews were capable of assimilation.

Even as the assembly debated whether to grant equal rights to Jews, anti-Jewish riots were taking place in Alsace. The leaders were local farmers who were in debt to Jewish moneylenders. In October 1789, the growing violence prompted the National Assembly to invite six prominent Jews from Alsace and Lorraine to Paris to discuss their situation. Berr Isaac Cerfberr, the owner of a tobacco company, headed the group. He asked the lawmakers to remove some restrictions that forced Jewish lenders to charge borrowers high interest rates. For example, many taxes applied only to Jews. Alsace farmers sent their own representatives to Paris to protest “Jewish usury.”

In the end, the National Assembly reaffirmed equal rights for Protestants but ignored the issue of rights for Jews. When Sephardic Jews in the southwest heard the news, they protested vigorously. As a result, the National Assembly voted on January 28, 1790, more than a year later, to give equal rights to Jews—but only to Sephardic Jews.

Now it was the Ashkenazi Jews who were outraged. They decided to take action. Aware that power was shifting from the National Assembly to the Paris Commune—a city government that was led by middle-class and working-class citizens—Ashkenazi Jews decided to plead their case that all Jews deserved the rights of citizenship before the Commune. On January 29, 1791, the six men who had been chosen as their representatives wore their National Guard uniforms to emphasize their loyalty to the state. Members of the Commune were impressed and voted to approve their petition.

Even though the Paris Commune supported the petition, the National Assembly moved slowly. In April, it placed Jews and their property under “protection of the law.” In July, it ended all taxes that applied solely to Jews. Finally, on September 27, the assembly granted all Jews in France the right of citizenship. However, Jews had to give up their right to be governed by a
kehillah
and judged in rabbinical courts. Jewish representatives tried to persuade the delegates to allow a special exemption for the rabbinical courts but were not successful.

In a letter to the Jews of Alsace and Lorraine, Cerfberr urged that they fulfill their duties as citizens “guided only by a true patriotism and by the general good of the nation.” Jews did, in fact, volunteer in large numbers for the National Guard and the army. Some also contributed money to revolutionary militias. And Jews suffered along with their Catholic and Protestant neighbors when the revolution turned against all religions in 1793. Synagogues and churches alike were looted and then closed.

Other aspects of Jewish life did not change much. For example, many in France expected Jews to give up peddling or money lending now that more occupations were open to them. In fact, very few did so. After all, why would someone who is successful at one trade abandon it for another for which he is less qualified? But many French Christians looked at that decision from a different perspective. They saw the failure of Jews to change occupations as proof that being a Jew was an obstacle to French citizenship. Although neither peddling nor money lending was illegal, such occupations were considered shady, even dishonest.

In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte took power in France, and in 1804 he proclaimed himself emperor. Within six years, he directly or indirectly controlled Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, western Germany, northeastern Italy, the Kingdom of Naples, and the Grand Duchy of Warsaw (all that was left of Poland).

Every time the French army took over a new country, Napoleon called on that country’s people to “break their chains.” For most Europeans, that meant an end to privileges and rigid social rules based on class. For Jews, it meant the end of the ghettos. When the French army entered Ancona in what is now Italy (see
Chapter 7
), Jewish soldiers led the march. Entering the ghetto, they tore off the yellow badges worn by Jews in the city and offered them tricolor rosettes, symbols of the French Revolution.

Despite the patriotism of these and other Jews in France, Napoleon continued to question their loyalty. Therefore, when French farmers in Alsace complained of usury, he decided to take action not against individual Jews who charged high interest rates but against Jews as a group or community. In May 1806, he signed a decree suspending for one year all loan repayments to Jewish lenders in Alsace. At the same time, he called for an assembly of 80 Jewish “notables.” They were to answer such questions as “In the eyes of Jews, are Frenchmen considered as their brethren?” and “Do Jews born in France, and treated by the laws as French citizens, consider France their country? Are they bound to defend it?”

The Assembly of Jewish Notables expressed its loyalty to France. The group reminded the emperor that Jewish soldiers had fought bravely in the French army against Jewish soldiers in the English army. Soon after Napoleon received their written responses, he called for a Great Sanhedrin, a modern version of the ancient Jewish high court. It would include representatives from the Assembly of Jewish Notables and rabbis from various parts of France’s empire.

An 1802 poster entitled “A wise government protects all religions.” It shows Napoleon Bonaparte proclaiming freedom of worship to all Frenchmen, including Jews.

The emperor asked the Sanhedrin to confirm the answers given by the assembly. He also ordered them to condemn “Jewish money lending.” The group assured him that Jews were as patriotic as anyone else in France. Nevertheless, they encouraged Jews to participate in a wider variety of
professions and occupations and, with some reluctance, condemned money lending at high rates of interest.

On March 17, 1808, Napoleon signed three decrees. One declared Judaism a “state-recognized religion.” The second organized Jewish institutions into a
consistoire
, or consistory, a religious governing body similar to the one the government created for Protestants. Modeled after the organization of the Roman Catholic Church, the Consistoire Central des Israelites (Central Consistory of French Jews) was based in Paris and headed by a chief rabbi and a council of laymen from each of the nation’s regional
consistoires
.

In theory, Napoleon was treating Jews in much the way he treated Roman Catholics and Protestants. There were, however, important distinctions. The French government used tax money to pay the expenses of Protestant and Catholic religious institutions but not Jewish ones. Instead, Jews had to pay special taxes to support synagogues and schools in addition to the taxes they and everyone else paid in support of Christian institutions. Jewish organizations were also expected to ensure the “good behavior” of the nation’s Jews. They were required to reprimand Jews who engaged in usury and other “antisocial behavior.” They were also supposed to promote patriotism and encourage young Jews to join the army. No other religious group had similar requirements.

The third decree, known among Jews as the “Infamous Decree,” imposed restrictions on Jewish moneylenders, shopkeepers, and dealers in secondhand goods. They had to have government permits, and only a limited number would be issued. These laws were to remain in effect for ten years in the hope that by then, Jews would be assimilated. In fact, by the time the laws expired, the emperor had been defeated on the battlefield, and France once again had a king.

As Napoleon built his empire, he unknowingly promoted nationalism. Between 1799 and 1815, England, Russia, Austria, and the various German states fought a series of wars against France. During those wars, many people in the German states began to think of themselves as Germans rather than as Prussians, Bavarians, or members of some other state. Before long, they were debating what it meant to be a German—and who belonged in Germany and who did not. In 1819, that debate turned violent.

That year, a professor at the University of Wurzburg in Bavaria urged an end to discrimination against Jews. His outraged students physically attacked him and then took to the streets, where they were joined by local shopkeepers, artisans, and other workers. For several days the mob ran through the city, destroying Jewish homes and businesses and shouting,
“Hep! Hep!
Death to all Jews!” The letters
h, e
, and
p
together form an acronym for the Latin phrase
Hieroslyma est perdita
—”Jerusalem is lost.” This was believed to have been the battle cry of the crusaders who had attacked Jews as they made their way to the Holy Land more than 500 years earlier (see
Chapter 4
).