Napoleon and the Jews
He also implemented a series of consistories, which served as an effective channel utilised by the French government to regulate Jewish religious life.
The 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen guaranteed freedom of religion and free exercise of worship, provided that it did not contradict public order.
Starting in 1806, Napoleon passed a number of measures enhancing the position of the Jews in the French Empire[citation needed].
In 1808 Napoleon rolled back a number of reforms (under the so-called décret infâme, or Infamous Decree, of 17 March 1808), declaring all debts with Jews to be annulled, reduced or postponed.
Similarly, Jews who were in subservient positions—such as a Jewish servant, military officer, or wife—were unable to engage in any kind of money-lending activity without the explicit consent of their superiors.
Napoleon sought to integrate the Jewish people more fully into French society by establishing the guidelines they were required to follow in adopting names.
Both aspects of his thinking can be seen in an 1818 response to physician Barry O'Meara, his physician during his exile on St. Helena, asking why he pressed for the emancipation of the Jews: However, in a private letter to his brother Jérôme, dated 6 March 1808, Napoleon wrote the following: During Napoleon's siege of Acre in 1799, Gazette Nationale, the main French newspaper during the French Revolution, published on 3 Prairial, (French Republican Calendar Year 7, equivalent to 22 May 1799) a short statement that: "Bonaparte has published a proclamation in which he invites all the Jews of Asia and Africa to gather under his flag in order to re-establish the ancient Jerusalem.
"[8]The French campaign in Egypt and Syria was eventually defeated by a combined Anglo-Ottoman force and he never carried out his alleged plan.
[9] The proclamation might have been intended to gain support from Haim Farhi, the Jewish advisor to Ahmed al Jazzar, the Muslim ruler of Acre, and to bring him over to Napoleon's side.
[citation needed] The idea itself may have originated from Thomas Corbet (1773–1804), an Anglo-Irish Protestant emigree who, as a member of the Society of United Irishmen, was an ally of the Republican regime, engaged in revolutionary activities against the Dublin Castle administration and served in the French Army.
[10] In the letter he stated "I recommend you, Napoleon, to call on the Jewish people to join your conquest in the East, to your mission to conquer the land of Israel" saying, "Their riches do not console them for their hardships.
"[11] Dr. Milka Levy-Rubin, a curator at the National Library of Israel, has attributed Corbert's motivation to a Protestant Zionism based on premillennialist themes.
[14] Historians such as Henry Laurens, Ronald Schechter, and Jeremy Popkin believe that the German document, which has never been found, was a forgery, as Simon Schwarzfuchs asserted in his 1979 book.
[15][16][17][18][19] Rabbi Aharon Ben-Levi of Jerusalem also added his voice to the proclamation, calling on the Jews to enlist in Napoleon's army "to return to Zion as in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah" and rebuild the Temple.
According to Mordechai Gichon, a military historian and archaeologist from Tel Aviv University, who summarised 40 years of research on the subject, Napoleon had an idea to establish a national home for the Jews in the Land of Israel, "Napoleon believed the Jews would repay his favours by serving French interests in the region," Gichon claimed.
He vehemently denounced the liberties given to Jews and demanded that the Russian Orthodox Church protest against Napoleon's tolerant religious policy.
The Holy Synod of Moscow proclaimed: "In order to destroy the foundations of the Churches of Christendom, the Emperor of the French has invited into his capital all the Judaic synagogues and he furthermore intends to found a new Hebrew Sanhedrin ― the same council that the Christian Bible states, condemned to death (by crucifixion) the revered figure, Jesus of Nazareth.
"[citation needed] Alexander persuaded Napoleon to sign a 17 March 1808 decree restricting the freedoms accorded to the Jews.
[citation needed] In Austria, Chancellor Klemens von Metternich wrote, "I fear that the Jews will believe (Napoleon) to be their promised Messiah".
By breaking up the feudal castes of mid-Europe and introducing the equality of the French Revolution, he achieved more for Jewish emancipation than had been accomplished during the three preceding centuries.
The members of the board, all Jews, were appointed by the prefect, thus allowing the French government to regulate the system of consistories and, in turn, various aspects of Jewish life.
When the government required Jews to select surnames according to the mainstream model, some are said to have taken the name of Schöntheil, a translation of "Bonaparte.
