CULTURAL ENLIGHTENMENT AND POLITICAL EMANCIPATION: THE JEWS AND MODERNITY IN WESTERN EUROPE
Emancipation: Germany: Edict of Tolerance Joseph II
France: Declaration of Human Rights
Historical background
Middle Ages: Jews excluded from European society.
17th and 18th centuries: Westward migration of Jews from Eastern Europe.
Reformation and rise of nationalism: breakup of monolithic church authority; Discovery of the New World – encounter with new peoples, classification of races, comparison of cultures
Questions:
Is emancipation for the group or the individual?
What did the Jew have to do to gain entrance into European Society?
How would the Jews integrate themselves into the general population?
Could the Jews retain their religion and still be productive members of society?
Text 1 – Joseph II – Edict of Tolerance. Political emancipation
State must be responsible for well-being of all its citizens- national rather than religious identity.
Joseph aimed to “to make the Jewish nation useful and serviceable to the State.” Every religion will be tolerated as long as it contributes to the good of the State.
Jews are “almost equal”. Beginning of emancipation- yet many restrictions remain.
Texts 2 and 3– Declaration of Rights debate- Emancipation
Declaration of rights....all are equal. What about the Jews? Debate in the French National Assembly: Jews should receive nothing as a nation but given everything as individuals. Notion that Judaism could be reduced to a matter of religion and individual conscience, stripped of culture, community and ethnic Jewish tradition.
Counter argument: Jews are not Frenchmen- they owe their allegiance to another homeland and allow their religious laws to supersede their duties to the state.
HOW DID THE JEWS RESPOND TO EMANCIPATION?
Text 4- iSaac Berr- Letter of a citizen to his Fellow Jews
Emancipation as Divine Redemption.
Now Jews called on to give up their autonomous Jewish civil and political social structures immediately. Only by dismantling the Jewish communal structure and accepting French law could the Jews prove themselves worthy of being Frenchmen.
Text 5- Chasidic rabbis react to Napoleon
Napoleon as harbinger of the long awaited redemption, or yet another trap for assimilation? Rejection of emancipation.
Text 6-The Paulus-Riesser Debate, 1831
Paulus: Jews are a separate nation and therefore cannot have civil rights
Riesser: Being Jewish is a matter of religion. Jews are no longer a nation:
"There is only one baptism that can initiate one into a nationality, and that is the baptism of blood in the common struggle for a fatherland and for freedom."
Summary
Enlightenment and emancipation heralded the beginning of a new era, but led to ambivalence and crisis of identity. For the first time, Jews were welcomed into the majority society, with the caveat that they relinquish their separate nationality.
TEXT 7- Emancipation in Bavaria 1871
Emancipation achieved at last- but some restrictions remain.
Emancipation: Germany: Edict of Tolerance Joseph II
France: Declaration of Human Rights
Historical background
Middle Ages: Jews excluded from European society.
17th and 18th centuries: Westward migration of Jews from Eastern Europe.
Reformation and rise of nationalism: breakup of monolithic church authority; Discovery of the New World – encounter with new peoples, classification of races, comparison of cultures
Questions:
Is emancipation for the group or the individual?
What did the Jew have to do to gain entrance into European Society?
How would the Jews integrate themselves into the general population?
Could the Jews retain their religion and still be productive members of society?
Text 1 – Joseph II – Edict of Tolerance. Political emancipation
State must be responsible for well-being of all its citizens- national rather than religious identity.
Joseph aimed to “to make the Jewish nation useful and serviceable to the State.” Every religion will be tolerated as long as it contributes to the good of the State.
Jews are “almost equal”. Beginning of emancipation- yet many restrictions remain.
Texts 2 and 3– Declaration of Rights debate- Emancipation
Declaration of rights....all are equal. What about the Jews? Debate in the French National Assembly: Jews should receive nothing as a nation but given everything as individuals. Notion that Judaism could be reduced to a matter of religion and individual conscience, stripped of culture, community and ethnic Jewish tradition.
Counter argument: Jews are not Frenchmen- they owe their allegiance to another homeland and allow their religious laws to supersede their duties to the state.
HOW DID THE JEWS RESPOND TO EMANCIPATION?
Text 4- iSaac Berr- Letter of a citizen to his Fellow Jews
Emancipation as Divine Redemption.
Now Jews called on to give up their autonomous Jewish civil and political social structures immediately. Only by dismantling the Jewish communal structure and accepting French law could the Jews prove themselves worthy of being Frenchmen.
Text 5- Chasidic rabbis react to Napoleon
Napoleon as harbinger of the long awaited redemption, or yet another trap for assimilation? Rejection of emancipation.
Text 6-The Paulus-Riesser Debate, 1831
Paulus: Jews are a separate nation and therefore cannot have civil rights
Riesser: Being Jewish is a matter of religion. Jews are no longer a nation:
"There is only one baptism that can initiate one into a nationality, and that is the baptism of blood in the common struggle for a fatherland and for freedom."
Summary
Enlightenment and emancipation heralded the beginning of a new era, but led to ambivalence and crisis of identity. For the first time, Jews were welcomed into the majority society, with the caveat that they relinquish their separate nationality.
TEXT 7- Emancipation in Bavaria 1871
Emancipation achieved at last- but some restrictions remain.