4/7/11
How did the Enlightenment change the conditions for the Jews?
v Enlightenment ideas of science, reason, natural law, secular attitude can be expected to help Jews gain tolerance
¨ Jews gained more tolerance as individuals
Ø Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (NOT a Jews) was a playwright who wrote the first pro-Jewish plays
Why?
¶ His character Nathan, in Nathan the Wise, was based on a Jewish friend who he admired, Moses Mendelssohn
¨ However, as a group the Jews received less tolerance
Ø Clermont-Tonnerre- he said that since everyone has to be a citizen, so do Jews. But if they do not want to be citizens, they had to get out of France. When Jews become citizens, they lose their group rights (right for a Beit Din, collect taxes for a shul)
Ø Fichte- anti-Semitic Zionist. Said that you will never be able to get a Jew’s identity out of a Jew’s head, so we should conquer Israel for them and send them there
Ø Voltaire (Mr. tolerance)- don’t burn Jews, but he still had a strong anti-Semitic attitude. He said the Jews are “misers” “revolting superstition”
Ø Deists attacked the Jews
Safer than attacking the Church. They wanted to attack any religion, because they believed it was superstition, so they attacked the Jews because it was safer than attacking the Church
They believed that the problems with the Church rooted from Tanach
¨ Moses Mendelssohn
Ø Wanted the Jews to get ready to participate in the secular world (wanted to reform the Jews, not Judaism)
Ø Jews should learn the language of the land (German)
Translated the Torah into German so the Jews would have something very familiar to them so they could learn high level German. This Torah was not used to learn Torah, it was used to teach German
Ø Into the Enlightenment, and created the “Jewish Enlightenment”, also known as the “Haskala”
He was still an orthodox Jew- he accepted the divine origin of the Torah and kept the laws of the Torah
¶ Jewish laws were closer to “natural religion” (which was a good thing)
¶ Keeping mitzvoth were just a symbol of the fact that you are a Jew
¶ Jewish obligations are practical commandments, but beliefs and opinions are open to discussion
Ø Argued for separation of Church (Shul) and state à weakened the authority of the rabbis and community
Ø Opened a school that was secular and Torah
Ø Mendelssohn probably stressed to his children that fitting in in the secular world is very important- only 2 of his children stayed Jewish, and only 1 of his grandchildren stayed Jewish. Even his followers put fitting in above all, and became Christians. Clearly, there was something wrong in that house
Ø Haskala wasn’t really so good, except for the revival of Hebrew and the creation of modern Hebrew
4/11/11
How did the French revolution bring both new freedom from the ghetto and new problems?
v Count Mirabeau and his friends spoke up for giving Jews civil rights
¨ Jews of Bordeaux were wine makers, assimilated, spoke fluent French, and had good relationships with their neighbors. The Jews of Strasburg on the other hand, spoke Yiddish, dressed differently, and kept to themselves. So, the Jews of Bordeaux asked for “separate consideration” for citizenship
Ø What are these Jews of Bordeaux really up to?
Either they were just being selfish, or maybe there was a plan…?
It could be that if they gave some Jews citizenship first, and then it would be irrational to deny other Jews of citizenship
Ø Bordeaux Jews got citizenship, and shortly thereafter in 1791, all French Jews got citizenship
v Problems for the Jews because of the French Revolution
¨ Revolutionaries were anti-clerical (opposed the Catholic Church), and this affected the Jews as well
Ø Revolutionary calendar
This calendar had 12 months, with 3 weeks, 10 days each. This made Shabbat complicated, because it fell out on different days every week and month, and sometimes, there was Shabbat twice in one week
Ø Secularism
Church schools were closed, and so were the Yeshivas
Churches were closed, and so were shuls
Ø Ceremonies honoring the goddess of reason were considered to be idol worship
v Outside of France
¨ Holland
Ø Split among the Jews
Most Jews were conservative and loyal to the Dutch government that treated them well
Younger Jews wanted citizenship and were willing to give up their communal status to get citizenship
¨ Rome
Ø 1793 uprising to copy the French revolution was blamed on the Jews à attack on the ghetto
Ø 1798 French army “liberated” Rome but eventually lost à Jews were first freed from the ghetto but them forced to move back into it and suffered from fines and riots
v Napoleon
¨ Outside of France (in territories he conquered)
Ø Appalled at the discrimination the Jews suffered
Ø Liberator of Jews
Physically tore down ghetto walls
¨ Inside of France
Ø Jews were already citizens, but Napoleon questioned their loyalty
Ø 1806 Assembly of Notables- purposely held on Shabbat. Questions such as are you a Frenchmen? Do you consider Frenchmen your brothers? Will you intermarry? To the last question, they answered no. But they still “passed the test”
Ø Grand Sanhedrin- 71 leading Jews with the “authority” to interpret Jewish law and lead the Jews. Napoleon used them to limit Jewish rights and retreat from the concept of equal citizenship
Ø Consistones in charge of Jews like a va’ad. Still exist today- give the Jews some organization
¨ Congress of Vienna
Ø “undid” the FR, took away Jewish rights because they were given by Napoleon, undid Napoleonic changes
Ø Jewish rights were lost (except in France)
Ø Ideas of freedom persisted and came back later in the 19th century
¨ Reaction
Ø 1819 HEP HEP riots- broke into ghettos
**missing something…
4/13/11
How did the Jews benefit from liberalism and nationalism?
v France
¨ Jewish politician Adolphe Cremvieux
Ø Liberal who wanted freedom for all
Ø He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies under Louis Phillipe. Member of the Provisional Government of 1848. He opposed Napoleon III. Member of the provisional government 1870
¨ As liberals came to power, Jews tended to get citizenship and rights
v England
¨ Sir Moses Monterfiore- knighted by Queen Victoria
¨ Rothschild elected to Commons, repeatedly, but was not allowed to take his seat
v Germany- nationalism without liberalism
¨ Germany: Bismarck allowed Jews almost full rights as of 1868
¨ Austria-Hungary: gave Jews rights in the constitution of 1867
v Italy
¨ A little hesitant to give Jews rights, but when Italy became unified in 1870 Jews got rights
v Even though Jews gained legal rights, there was still anti-Semitism
How did anti-Semitism persist and develop in the 19th century?
v Damascus Affair 1840 in Syria
¨ Blood libel
¨ Jews were accused of killing a missionary monk in Damascus. The Christians couldn’t accuse the Muslims because they were Christian missionaries in a Muslim country, so they made up a blood libel against the Jews instead
¨ Muslim authorities investigated, couldn’t find any evidence, so they took some Jewish children as hostages and said they will torture the children until someone confesses. However, no one confessed because no one committed the murder
¨ The French consul agreed with the monks. This event became a worldwide scandal!
¨ Help
Ø Adolphe Cremieux and Sir Moses Montefoire came to help. They went to Egypt to Mehmet Ali and talked into freeing the survivors
Ø The US also sent a memo saying the libel was absurd
Ø Russia, the most anti-Semitic place on earth, also sent a message telling Ali to let the hostages go
v Mortara Affair
¨ Edgar Mortara was a wealthy Jewish child. He was always sick, and it tortured his Christian nanny that if he would go to hell if he died because he was not baptized. So one day, she secretly took Edgar to Church to baptize him just in case he died. But he got healthy and grew up. But one day, the police came and took him away for being a Christian in a Jewish home, and brought him to be raised by the Church. This caused a lot of upheaval among the Jewish community- so many people appealed to the Church, but they wouldn’t do anything about it. When he was 11, he was allowed to see his parents and told them to leave him alone. He grew up to become a priest, and there was nothing anyone could do about it
¨ This story shows that people felt Jews were inferior- old fashioned religion anti-Semitism
v 2 affairs à creation of the Alliance Israelite Universelle
¨ Defend Jewish rights
¨ Also helped Jews in poor countries get an education
v
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