Jewish emancipation

See also: Jewish question

An 1806 French print depicts Napoleon Bonaparte emancipating the Jews

Jewish emancipation was the external and internal process in various nations of expanding the rights of Jewish people of Europe, including recognition of their rights as equal citizens, and the formal granting of citizenship as individuals; it occurred gradually between the late 18th century and the early 20th century. Jewish emancipation followed the Age of Enlightenment and the concurrent Jewish enlightenment and grew by the abolition of discriminatory laws applied specifically against Jews in their various countries. Before the emancipation, most Jews were isolated in residential areas from the rest of the society; emancipation was a major goal of European Jews of that time, who worked within their communities to achieve integration in the majority societies and broader education. Many became active politically and culturally within wider European civil society as Jews were given full citizenship. They emigrated to countries offering better opportunities, such as Britain and the Americas. Later, especially when faced with oppressive regimes such as the Russian Empire or continuing anti-Semitism, some European Jews turned to revolutionary movements such as Socialism and Zionism.

Background

Jews were subject to a wide range of restrictions throughout most of European history. Since the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215, Europeans required Jews and Muslims to wear special clothing, such as the Judenhut (which they traditionally wore by choice) and the yellow badge for Jews, to distinguish them from Christians. The practice of their religion was often restricted, and they had to swear special oaths (see Oath More Judaico). Jews were not allowed to vote, and some countries formally prohibited their entry, such as Norway, Sweden and Spain after the expulsion in the late 15th century.

During this time, the rabbi was the most influential member of the Jewish community. In addition to being a religious scholar and clergy, a rabbi acted as a civil judge in cases in which both parties were Jews. Together with the community elders, rabbis had other important administrative powers. The rabbinate was the highest goal of many young Jewish men, and the study of the Torah (first five books of the Bible) and the Talmud was the means to obtain the coveted position.

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Jewish involvement in gentile society began during the Age of Enlightenment. Haskalah, the Jewish movement supporting the adoption of enlightenment values, advocated an expansion of Jewish rights within European society. Haskalah followers advocated "coming out of the ghetto," not just physically but also mentally and spiritually.

On September 28, 1791, France became the first country of the world to emancipate its Jewish population. In 1796 and 1834, Holland granted the Jews equal rights with gentiles. Napoleon also freed the Jews in areas he conquered in Europe (see Napoleon and the Jews). But, it was not until the revolutions of the mid-19th century that Jewish political movements would begin to persuade governments in Great Britain, Central and Eastern Europe to grant equal rights to Jews.

Emancipation movements

Early stages of Jewish emancipation movements were simply part of the general popular efforts to achieve freedom and rights for minorities. The question of equal rights for Jews was tied with demands for constitutions and civil rights. Jewish statesmen and intellectuals such as Heinrich Heine, Johann Jacoby, Gabriel Riesser, Berr Isaac Berr, and Lionel Nathan Rothschild worked with the general movement toward liberty and political freedom, rather than for Jews specifically.

In the face of persistent anti-Jewish incidents and blood libels such as the Damascus affair of 1840, and the failure of many states to emancipate the Jews, Jewish organizations formed to push for the emancipation and protection of Jews. The Board of Deputies of British Jews under Moses Montefiore, the Central consistory of Paris, and the Alliance Israelite Universelle all began working to assure the freedom of Jews.

Jewish emancipation, implemented under Napoleonic rule in French occupied and annexed states, experienced a setback in many member states of the German Confederation following the decisions of the Congress of Vienna. In the final revision of the Congress on the rights of the Jews, the emissary of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Johann Smidt - unauthorised and unconsented by the other parties - altered the text from "The confessors of Jewish faith are preserved the rights already conceded to them in the confederal states", by replacing a single word, which entailed serious consequences, into: "The confessors of Jewish faith are preserved the rights already conceded to them by the confederal states." A number of German states used the altered text version as legal grounds to reverse the Napoleonic emancipation of Jewish citizens. The Prussian emissary Wilhelm von Humboldt and the Austrian Klemens von Metternich promoted the preservation of Jewish emancipation, as maintained by their own countries, but were not successful in others.

During the Revolutions of 1848, Jewish emancipation was granted by the Basic Rights of the Frankfurt Parliament (Paragraph 13), stating that civil rights were not to be conditional on religious faith. But only some German states introduced the Frankfurt parliamentary decision as state law, such as Hamburg; other states were reluctant. Important German states, such as Prussia (1812), Württemberg (1828), Electoral Hesse (1833), and Hanover (1842), had already earlier emancipated their Jews as citizens. Some early emancipated Jewish communities experienced persisting or new practical, though not legal, discrimination against those Jews trying to achieve careers in public service and education. Those few states that had refrained from Jewish emancipation were forced to do so by an act of the North German Federation on 3 July 1869 or when they acceded to the newly united Germany in 1871. The emancipation of all Jewish Germans was reversed by Nazi Germany from 1933 through World War II.

Dates of emancipation

In some countries, emancipation came with a single act. In others, limited rights were granted first in the hope of "changing" the Jews "for the better."

Years when legal equality was granted to Jews

Year	Country
1791	France
1796	Batavian Republic
1808	Grand Duchy of Hesse
1808	Kingdom of Westphalia
1811	Grand Duchy of Frankfurt
1812	Mecklenburg-Schwerin
1812	Kingdom of Prussia
1828	Kingdom of Württemberg
1830	Greece
1832	Canada
1833	Electorate of Hesse
1834	Netherlands
1835	Sweden
1839	Ottoman Empirecitation needed
1842	Kingdom of Hanover
1848	Nassau
1849	Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg
1849	Denmark
1856	Switzerland
1858	United Kingdom
1861	Italy
1862	Grand Duchy of Baden
1863	Danish Duchy of Holstein
1864	Free City of Frankfurt
1867	Habsburg Empire
1869	North German Confederation
1871	Germany
1877	United States of America
1878	Bulgaria
1878	Serbia
1890	Brazil
1910	Spaincitation needed
1911	Portugal
1917	Russia
1923	Romania

Consequences of the emancipation of the Jews

The emancipation and the practice of Judaism

The emancipation disrupted the relationship the Jews had with their religion, which could not govern any longer all the actions in their lives. Many considered a practice of Judaism more closely to the lifestyle of their non-Jewish fellow citizens. The emancipation in France, Italy, Germany, at least during the Empire, permitted many Jews to leave the ghettos and contribute, as a result of the Haskalah, to the development of the reformed and conservative Judaism at the beginning of the 19th century. The emancipation contributed moreover to the assimilation of Jews and sometimes to their cultural disappearance when Jews merged through marriage in the surrounding society. It was not until Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch defined a modern vision of orthodox Judaism, enabling orthodox Jews to participate fully in a society.

See also

• Haskalah

Bibliography

• David Feuerwerker. L'Émancipation des Juifs en France. De l'Ancien Régime à la fin du Second Empire. Paris: Albin Michel, 1976 ISBN 2-226-00316-9
• Heinrich Graetz, Geschichte der Juden von den ältesten Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart: 11 vols., Leipzig: Leiner, 1900, vol. 11: Geschichte der Juden vom Beginn der Mendelssohnschen Zeit (1750) bis in die neueste Zeit (1848), reprint of the edition of last hand; Berlin: arani, 1998, ISBN 3-7605-8673-2

External links

• History of Frankfurt (German Wikipedia)
• Jewish Emancipation, Ohio State University
• Des Juifs contre l'émancipation. De Babylone à Benny Lévy [Jews Against Emancipation: From Babylon to Benny Lévy], Labyrinthe. Atelier interdisciplinaire (in French), 2007 (Special issue)