Questions posed by Napolean to Jews:
The wish of His Majesty is that you should be Frenchmen; it remains with you to accept the proffered title...You will hear the questions submitted to you, your duty is to answer the whole truth on every one of them...Is divorce valid, when not pronounced by courts of justice, and by virtue of laws in contradiction with the French code? Can a Jewess marry a Christian, or a Jew a Christian women?...In the eyes of Jews are Frenchmen considered as brethren or as strangers? Do the Jews born in France, and treated by the law as French citizens consider France as their country...What kind of police-jurisdiction have the Rabbis among the Jews?
--July 26, 1806
1. This is the first European national leader investigating Jewish emancipation. In your own works, what concerns does he have?
2. How do the concerns from above connect to the Enlightenment and early Modern thought?
3. What aspects are rooted in Medieval thought?
Jewish Communal Response:
The only marriages expressly forbidden by the law, are those with the seven Canaanite nations, with Ammon and Moab, and with Egyptians...The prohibition in general applies only to nations in idolatry The Talmud declares formally that modern nations are not to be considered as such, since they worship, like us, the God of heaven and earth. And, accordingly, there have been, at several periods, intermarriage between Jew and Christians in France, in Spain, and in Germany...but we cannot deny that the opinion of the Rabbis is against these marriages.
1. The Jewish community is trying to balance two competing claims. What are they?
2. Knowing what you know of Jewish history, how would you have answered Napolean's questions?
"My primary desire was to liberate the Jews and make them full citizens. I wanted to confer upon them all the legal rights of equality, liberty and fraternity as was enjoyed by the Catholics and Protestants. It is my wish that the Jews be treated like brothers as if we were all part of Judaism. As an added benefit, I thought that this would bring to France many riches because the Jews are numerous and they would come in large numbers to our country where they would enjoy more privileges than in any other nation. Without the events of 1814, most of the Jews of Europe would have come to France where equality, fraternity and liberty awaited them and where they can serve the country like everyone else."
The above is an excerpt from Napolean's reflection of France's military loss to Russia.
1. What does it say about his approach to religious liberty, in general, and Jews in particular?
2. Do these ideas reflect a change from medieval to modern thinking? Why or why not?