Emancipation Lecture 6 I Emancipation a Complete freedom a k a citizenship b Toleration vs emancipation i Civil vs political ii Partial vs total a Limited economically by guilds b Three groups II Pre Emancipatory French Jewry Jews before the revolution there status is always debateable and they shared certain features i Southwest Sephardim New Christians sephardic Jews had partial control over themselves many of these people were raised as Christian but there is the question of whether they stay as so or live as Jews it depends on where they are living is there an advantage these are the NEW CHRISTIANS 1 Lettres patents as Jews by 1723 openly acknowledged to be Jews engaged primarily in colonial commerce wealthier present themselves as members of society International commerce supposedly traders of cocoa 2 3 Mostly being given privileges of toleration ii Provence Avignon iii Ashkenazim in Alsace borders between French and German speakers land constantly being fought over governed by France under military law and it has a growing Jewish community 1784 4 000 Jewish families with roughly 25K total 1 Charter in Metz 2 Peddling loan banking smuggling make living in medial ways government doesn t prosecute this behavior because they need the Jews to provide this service but they do tax the Jews heavily community in debt faces high taxes there are a few families that are wealthy a Strasbourg has a charter that doesn t have to allow Jews in 3 Hell Affair 1777 Francois Joseph Antoine Hell his is a financial notary and people come to him so he can write down debts and then they come back to him to get a document that says the debt has been paid off He essentially destroys the entire credit system of Alsace by flooding the market with fake notarized receipts Hell bankrupted the Jews and took a lot of money away from noblemen who had been lending the money in the first place All of this goes to the newspapers a The government says the receipts are not valid but they don t give a criterion for which is valid and which is not So every receipt has to go to court to be judged for validity b Yes you have to pay the money back but they re going to reduce the actual amount on the receipt III Rise of Liberal Spirit philosophes a Montesquieu b Voltaire negative in his views of the Jews c Gu n e Catholic priest who responds to Voltaires article where he bashes Judaism for being a disgusting religion but he did so as a way to attack Christianity writes long defense for the Jews but he s mostly defending the old Testament a 1795 Dutch Revolution with French military backing Batavian d Dohm e Mirabeau f Metz essay contest i 3 prizes ii l Abb de Gregoire IV Holland Republic Jews an House of Orange b c Religious fears V Italy a Ghettos are target of French army b Ambivalent Jewish Italian context c Ancona miracle Purim of the bombs d e Reaction to withdrawal f Emancipation as anti Catholic Jews seen as fifth column VI Germany a Varies from place to place b Frankfurt on Main have to pay c Prussia general reforms make some changes without the French d Bavaria retains old rules