On January 26, 2023, a lecture by Professor Alex Grab was held at the Kibbutzim Seminar, which dealt with Napoleon's complicated relationship with the Jews of France. Below you will find a video of the lecture itself and below it the lecture summary. If you are interested in participating in the next lectures of the Napoleonic Heritage Center, you are invited to enter this link , check which lectures are going to take place and sign up for the newsletter.

historical background

Jews arrived in France as early as the days of ancient Rome, but were expelled from there in the late 14th century. Although Jews were forbidden to live in France, during the 17th and 18th centuries Jews slowly began to settle back in France. The two main communities:

The Spanish community – Consists mainly of Jews who came from Portugal and settled inBordeaux But also inParisThis is a wealthy and well-established community that is mainly engaged in trade and has good relations with the government in France.
The Ashkenazi community – is mainly found inToo bad AlsaceThis is a more traditional and closed community, which deals in interest-based lending, which makes it very hated by the local population.

After the outbreak of the French Revolution, there was a demand from the Jews of Paris to receive equal rights, similar to the equality enjoyed by Protestants. The National Assembly held a serious debate on the subject, with some members of the Assembly, including Maximilien Robespierre, supporting equal rights for Jews, in order to make them “useful citizens.” However, they were opposed by other members of the Assembly, who argued that Jews would never assimilate and blend in and therefore did not deserve equal rights.

Ultimately, it was decided to grant immediate equal rights to Sephardic Jews, while Ashkenazi Jews received equal rights a little later, in 1791.

Napoleon and the Jews

Napoleon first encountered Jews during 1796, when he conquered all of northern Italy. One of the results of this campaign was the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto of Venice and the granting of civil rights to the community. However, it was not until a decade later, after he had seized power in France and later crowned himself emperor, that Napoleon decided to seriously address the Jewish question.

After Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz in late 1805, he passed through Alsace , where he heard many complaints about the Jews, especially about them taking cut interest from the peasants and taking their land. As a result, Napoleon decided to try to turn the Jews into "good Frenchmen."

The first result of this was a decree by Napoleon in 1806, preventing the collection of debts of peasants by Jews, which caused extraordinary damage to Jews who had lent at interest. On July 29, an assembly of dignitaries convened, to which a delegation of Jews arrived, headed by Abraham Fortado, one of the leaders of Portuguese Jewry, who also gave a very impressive speech.

During the assembly, Napoleon's representative, Minister of the Interior Louis-Mathieu Molé, posed 12 questions to the Jewish representatives, such as whether they considered the French to be brothers, or whether they were willing to intermarry. These questions sought to examine the relationship between Jewish law and French law, as well as the degree of loyalty of the Jews to France.

Fortado gives a response speech in which he declares absolute loyalty to the Emperor and promises that the Jews will try to correct some of the injustices attributed to them. The Jewish representatives took Napoleon's questions and returned with answers, which were worked on by rabbis and secular representatives of French Jewry.

Their answer was a very big compromise, because they claimed that they were not a separate nation and that they were loyal to French law. The only thing they did not agree to compromise on was the issue of mixed marriages. Napoleon liked the answers, but since the Jewish delegation had a majority of secularists, he decided to convene another assembly in which the rabbis would have a majority, in order to receive a religious seal.

The assembly was called the “Great Sanhedrin” and it convened in February 1807. Following the discussions in this committee, three decrees concerning the Jews were published in 1808.

The first two orders speak of the establishment of new leadership bodies for the Jewish community. One of them is the Consistoire, a body found in various districts and still in existence today. These orders detail the rules by which this body will operate and who will compose it.

The third decree stated that Jews would be required to enlist in the army and engage in “useful” trades rather than borrow money at interest. Later, another decree was issued, in July 1807, requiring Jews to adopt family names and stop using Jewish names. In addition, restrictions were imposed on Jewish freedom of occupation, especially in the field of commerce. All of this severely affected the livelihoods of some French Jews.

All of these laws were limited to ten years, but Napoleon, as is well known, lost his power permanently, and Louis XVIII abolished the law and the restrictions against the Jews.

Was Napoleon anti-Semitic? Some people, like historian Dubnov, would argue that the restrictions he imposed on Jews were anti-Semitic. However, others have argued that he was the one who brought the message of emancipation to European Jews and that he intended to repeal his anti-Jewish laws anyway.

So what do you think? Was Napoleon a philo-Semitic or an anti-Semitic?