Piper,
Perhaps the following will help your argument, with which I certainly agree.
Regarding the Jews in France with the above 1791 decree, it should be noted that it provided for the emancipation of the French Jews and not full citizenship.
Joseph II of Austria had done something along the same lines regarding Austrian Jews.
The 1791 decree did not address the state payment of Jewish clergy, which was denied (unlike the Catholic and Protestant clergy in France). They were free to practice their religion freely, but they were not considered as Frenchmen and did not assimilate into French society, though the Jews had many French sympathizers who wished for the Jews to be accepted as Frenchman with all the rights and privileges that came with that right.
Napoleon changed that situation with the summons in 1806 to convene the Assembly of Jewish Notables which was to begin to transform the Jews into French citizens. Napoleon demanded that they demonstrate 'their worthiness for citizenship' which was done. Napoleon's goal was the economic, social, and political assimilation of French Jewry which made them full citizens of France.
Theh 1791 decree was a first step, but it was incomplete and Napoleon's actions, some helpful some not, established a 'blueprint' for the successful emergence and acceptance as French citizens.
It should be noted that many actions, administrative and legal, were begun during the Revolution but were many times ignored or rendered incomplete by incompetent revolutionary governments and it took the efficiency of the consular and imperial governments to complete them satisfactorily.
Additionally, Napoleon ensured the 'civic emancipation' of the Jews of western and central Europe in addition to his work for the French Jewish community.
Decree of 30 May 1806:
‘These circumstances [regarding the alleged conditions in Alsace] have acquainted Us with the urgent need to revive, among those Our subjects who profess the Jewish religion, that sense of civic morality which unfortunately has been blunted in too many of them by the degraded status in which they have always been kept. To maintain or restore that status does not enter into Our intentions.'
‘In order to accomplish this purpose, We have resolved to call an assembly of the foremost Jews and to communicate Our intentions to them through commissioners whom We shall nominate to that end. These commissioners will at the same time receive the Jews' proposals concerning the most expedient methods of reviving the exercise of useful arts and professions among their brethren, so that the shameful practices by which many of them have earned their livelihood through the generations may be replaced by honorable industriousness.'
-Napoleon
Note to the Minister of the Interior, 23 August 1806:
‘Not since the capture of Jerusalem by Titus have so many enlightened men belonging to the religion of Moses been able to assemble in one place. Dispersed and persecuted, the Jews have been subjected either to punitive taxation, or to enforced abjuration of their faith, or to other obligations and concessions equally opposed to their interests and religion. Present circumstances are in all respects unlike those prevailing in any earlier age. The Jews are not expected to abandon their religion or to submit to any change that would violate it either in the letter or the spirit.'
‘During the persecution of the Jews and during the periods when they went into hiding in order to escape persecution, various kinds of doctrines and customs came into existence. The rabbis took it upon themselves to interpret the principles of their faith whenever there was need for clarification. But the right to religious legislation cannot be exercised by individuals; it must be exercised by a general congress of Jews legally and freely assembled, including members of the Spanish and Portuguese, Italian, German, and French communities and representing the Jews of more than three-fourths of Europe.'
‘Consequently, it appears that the first thing to be done is to constitute the assembly now meeting in Paris into a Great Sanhedrin whose acts will take their place alongside the Talmud as articles of faith and as principles of religious legislation.'
‘When this has been accomplished, all Jews of whatever nation are to be invited to send representatives to Paris and to put their wisdom at the disposal of the deliberations of the Great Sanhedrin. Accordingly, all the synagogues of Europe are to be notified by some form of proclamation. This notification shall be officially addressed to the synagogues of France. The replies that will be made to the questions put before the Great Sanhedrin shall be converted into theological rulings or precepts in such a manner that they shall have the authority of ecclesiastic and religious law and shall constitute a second legislation of the Jews. This second legislation, while preserving the essential character of the Mosaic Law, shall be adapted to the present situation of the Jews and to modern ways and customs.'-Napoleon
‘Acknowledging, as the assembly has done, that Frenchmen and Jews are brothers, the Sanhedrin shall lay down this principle: that the Jews are the brothers of all the inhabitants of those countries where they are afforded not merely toleration but also protection and where they are admitted to the exercise of all the privileges attached to political and civil existence. In this respect, the Sanhedrin shall stress the difference between French and Italian legislation and the legislation in other countries.'-Napoleon, 23 August 1806.
‘The Sanhedrin shall forbid usury toward Frenchmen and toward the inhabitants of any country where the Jews enjoy full civil rights. It shall put this interpretation upon the Mosaic Law by stating that the Jews must regard all places where they are citizens as they would regard Jerusalem; that they are strangers only in those places where the law of the land subjects them to persecution and vexatious treatment; and that is only in the last-named countries that their religious law may tolerate illicit gains. Once this point has been settled by the Sanhedrin, an attempt should be made to study the question whether efficacious methods can be found to restrain and repress their habitual propensity to shady deals, their organized system of usury and fraud.'
‘All this is intended merely to serve as a directive to the commissioners. They will understand what is wanted of them, and they will start out by finding the means of accomplishing it. They will confer particularly with the most influential members of the assembly. They will declare that I am pleased by the zeal that animates its members. They will impress on them that these are extraordinary circumstances and that I wish to make certain by all available means that the rights which have been restored to the Jewish people shall not prove illusory, so that they may find Jerusalem in France.-Napoleon, 23 August 1806.
Napoleon's goal was to assimilate the Jewish population in France as full citizens and to bring their business practices in line with French law.
For Napoleon's actions before he became French head of state and his experience with the Jewish people outside of France, which began with the Egyptian expedition in 1798, see Napoleon and the Jews by Franz Kobler.
Imperial decree of 17 March, 1808, prescribing measures for the execution of the regulation of 10 December, 1806, regarding the Jews:
Tuileries Palace, 17 March, 1808
Napoleon, Emperor of the French, King of Italy and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine;
Following a report by our Interior Minister;
Having heard the advice of our Conseil d'Etat,
We have decreed and now decree the following:
Art. 1: The regulations decided by the General Assembly of Jews, held in Paris on 10 December, 1806, will be executed and annexed to the present decree.
Art. 2: Our ministers of the interior and of religion are charged inasmuch as it concerns them with the execution of the present decree.
Signed NAPOLÉON
By the Emperor:
The Minister Secretary of State, signed Hugues B. Maret
REGULATIONS
The deputies comprising the assembly of Israelites, convoked by the imperial decree dated 30 May, 1806, after having heard the report of the commission of nine, which was appointed to prepare the work to be undertaken by the assembly, deliberating on the most suitable system of organisation to be given to their fellow Jews of the French Empire and the Kingdom of Italy, regarding the exercise of their worship and their internal regulation, have unanimously adopted the following project:
Art. 1: A synagogue and an Israelite consistory will be established in every department containing more than two thousand individuals propfessing the Mosaic religion.
Art. 2: In the case where two thousand Israelites are not present in a single department, the constituency of the consistorial synagogue shall encompass sufficient nearby departments necessary to make up the number. The synagogue shall always be placed in the town with the highest Israelite population.
Art. 3: Under no circumstances can there be more than one consistorial synagogue per department.
Art. 4: No individual synagogue can be established without the proposition being made by the consistorial synagogue to the relevant authority. Each individual synagogue shall be administrated by two notables and one rabbi, all three appointed by the relevant authority.
Art. 5: Each consistorial synagogue shall have one Great Rabbi.
Art. 6: The consistories will be made up of: a Great Rabbi, another rabbi if possible, and three other Israelites, two of whom shall be chosen from amongst the inhabitants of the town in which the consistory is sited.
Art. 7: The consistory shall be presided over by the oldest of its members, and he will take the title of Elder of the consistory.
Art. 8: In every consistorial constituency, the appropriate authority shall designate twenty-five notables chosen from amongst the highest tax payers and most recommendable of the Israelites.
Art. 9: these notables shall proceed to the election of the members of the consistory, and their election must be approved by the relevant authority.
Art. 10: No member of the consistory may be: 1° aged under 30, 2°have at any time gone bankrupt, unless he has been honourably rehabilitated, 3° be known to have practised usury.
Art. 11: Every Israelite wishing to move to France or the Kingdom of Italy must communicate this to the consistory nearest to his intended dwelling place, within the space of three months.
Art. 12: The consistories must:
1° Ensure that rabbis do not give teachings or explanations of the law, whether in public or in private, contrary to the replies given by the assembly and converted into doctrinal decisions by the Great Sanhedrin;
2° To maintain order within the synagogues, to oversee the administration of the individual synagogues, to manage the funds received and to use them for the pursuance of the mosaic religion, and to ensure that no prayer assembly can be founded without express authorisation, for whatever reason, religious or otherwise;
3° To encourage the Israelites in the consistorial constituency by every means possible to exercise useful professions and to inform the authorities of those who do not possess the means to live which they profess they have;
4° To communicate to the authorities, every year, the number of Israelite conscripts in the constituency.
Art. 13: There shall be a central consistory, in Paris, comprising three rabbis and two other Israelites.
Art. 14: The rabbis from the central consistory should be selected from the Great Rabbis. The other members shall be subject to the conditions of election set out in article 10.
Art. 15: Every year, one member of the central consistory will be subject to re-election. That member may always stand again.
Art. 16: The remaining members of the will organise the latter's replacement. The newly elected candidate must be approved by the relevant authority.
Art. 17: The central consistory's duties are as follows:
1° To correspond with the other consistories,
2° To ensure the complete execution of the present regulations,
3° to defer to the relevant authority all non respect of these regulations, whether by the breaking of the law or by the non observance of it,
4° to confirm the appointment of the rabbis and to propose, where necessary, to the relevant authority the dismissal of rabbis or members of the consistories.
Art. 18: The election of the Grand Rabbi shall be performed by the twenty-five notables mentioned in article 8.
Art. 19: The newly elected Great Rabbi may not take up office until his appointment has been confirmed by the central consistory.
Art. 20: No rabbi may be elected unless,
1° he is a native or naturalised Frenchman or Italian in the Kingdom of Italy;
2° he brings with him an attestation of ability, co-signed by three Great Rabbis of Italy, if he is Italian, or of France if he is French, and, dating from 1820,unless he speaks French in France or Italian in Italy; he who can add knowledge of Greek and Latin to that of Hebrew will be preferred, all other things being equal.
Art. 21: Rabbis must:
1° teach religion,
2° to uphold the doctrine present in the decisions of the Great Sanhedrin,
3° to encourage obedience to the laws, notably and in particular those related to the defence of the homeland, and also to encourage conscription, more especially every year at conscription time, from the first appeal by the authorities up to the completion of the exercise;
4° to show Israelites that military service is a sacred duty and to declare to them that the time spent consecrated to that service dispenses them from observances which are not compatible with that service;
5° to preach in the synagogues and to recite the prayers which are spoken by the whole congregation for the Emperor and the imperial family; to celebrate marriage and to perform divorces, but only when the parties requiring the service have well and duly provided the justification of the civil act of marriage or divorce.
Art. 22: The stipends of rabbi members of the central consistory are to be fixed at six thousand francs, those of the Great Rabbis in the consistorial synagogues, three thousand francs; the stipends of the rabbis of specific synagogues shall be fixed by the assembly of the Israelites demanding the creation of the synagogue – they cannot be less than one thousand francs. The Israelites of the respective constituencies may vote increases in stipends.
Art. 23: Every consistory must propose to the appropriate authority a project for the division of the costs of the stipends of the rabbis amongst the Israelites in the constituency. The other costs shall be fixed and divided up following the request of the consistories to the relevant authorities. The stipends of the rabbi members of the central consistory will be proportionally taken from the sums received from the divers constituencies.
Art. 24: Each consistory shall appoint an Israelite (not a rabbi) from outside the consistory who will receive the sums collected by the constituencies.
Art. 25: This receiver shall pay the rabbis and all other costs every quarter, using a bill signed by at least three other members of the consistory. He will present the accounts annually, on a fixed day, to assembled consistory.
Art. 26: Every rabbi who, after the promulgation of this regulation, does not find a post but who wishes to remain in France or in the Kingdom of Italy will be ordered to adhere, via a formal signed declaration, to the decisions made by the Great Sanhedrin. A copy of this declaration will be sent by the receiving consistory to the central consistory.
Art. 27: Rabbi members of the Great Sanhedrin will be preferred, as far as is possible, to all other with respect to the position of Great Rabbi.
Certified in conformity:
Minister secretary of state, signed Hugues B. Maret
Source: Bulletin des Lois 1808, (No. 3237).
The bottom line remains that the decree issued by the revolutionary government in 1791 gave emancipation to the Jews in France, but did not guarantee citizenship nor did it protect them from the pogroms against them in the 1790s. It was Napoleon who formulated, issued the decrees, and granted French Jewry full citizenship and required the assimilation of French Jewry as French citizens. The information posted makes that quite clear.
Perhaps the following might help. Again from The Dictionary of Napoleonic France, edited by Owen Connelly, et al, 266-267:
‘Jews and Napoleon:
Napoleon proclaimed the civic emancipation of the Jews as his victorious armies entered the countries of Western and Central Europe and reputedly issued a manifesto in Palestine promising the Jews return to their country. In France, however, he ignored the Jews whom the Revolutionaries had emancipated 28 January 1790 and 27 September 1791. While free to practice their religion publicly, they, unlike the Protestants and Catholics, were denied state payment of their clergy. Lacking any official organization, they were left on their own to discipline their communities and resolve any contradictions between their political status and religious commitments. Alsatian French complaints that soon all their property would be mortgaged to the enemies of the church, rather than Jewish pleas to be included with the Protestants in the decree of 1802, finally prompted Napoleon to turn his attention to the Jews of France. Influenced by the liberal Revolutionaries in his Council of State and the pragmatics of post-Revolutionary consolidation, he convened the Assembly of Jewish notables (1806) to redefine traditional Judaism and to establish an institutional body to transform the Jews into French citizens. This was followed (1807) by the Grand Sanhedrin of European rabbis.'
‘To a degree, Napoleon reversed the process by which the Revolutionaries had emancipated the Jews. He questioned their loyalty and demanded doctrinal as well as concrete economic proofs of their worthiness for citizenship. His settlements united all the Jews of France in one centrally controlled organization (the consistories) and assured the French that all Jews viewed France as their country and the French as their brethren. They were proclaimed by the Assembly of Notables and sanctioned by the Grand Sanhedrin. However, they also relieved Alsatians of much of their indebtedness to Jewish moneylenders and the north-eastern Jews of their economic freedom (enacted on 30 May 1806 and 17 March 1808).'
‘Whatever his personal feelings, Napoleon saw little value in restricting the Jews indefinitely to an inferior status. He sought to achieve, as did many Jewish sympathizers during the Revolution, the economic, social, and political assimilaltion of French Jewry. Restricted economically and discriminated against socially and politically, however, the vast majority of the Jews remained in their rural communities and retained their traditional economic and religious practices. Napoleon elicited from the Jews a blueprint for their successful emergence as citizens, but the actual transformation only followed the Napoleonic era and accompanied the industrialization and urbanization of France.'-Frances Malino.
This article certainly infers that Jews were not either considered or granted full citizenship at the beginning of the French Revolution and that Napoleon was the instigator of that process, and, therefore, was the first European ruler to grant the Jews full citizenship, whether or not that was qualified economically.
The Great Sanhedrin of France released all Jews in the French armed forces from all religious and dietary observances for the good of the service because of Napoleon's recognition of its spiritual authority. In 1812 it was decided that conscripted Jews could obtain substitutes if that substitute was another Jew.
According to Andrew Roberts in Napoleon the Great (402-404) the debt repayment in Alsace was only for a year. The anti-Semitic Alsatian laws were repealed after Austerlitz. Napoleon declared Judaism one of the three great religions of France.
The ‘Infamous Decree' had most of its restrictions lifted after a few months in many French departments but was not lifted in Alsace until 1811.
In Germany Jews under the Empire also became full citizens in 1807 and in 1811 the Jews in the Frankfurt ghetto were made full citizens, as they were in Hamburg, Lubeck, and Bremen regardless of what the local magistrates, de facto rulers, or the local citizenry thought. Although some of Napoleon's treatment of the Jews in France can today be considered harsh, it wasn't by early 19th century European standards and Napoleon's reputation in Jewry is today considered as a ‘Righteous Gentile.'
According to Michael Broers in Napoleon Soldier of Destiny, (361) Napoleon's aim was not only political inclusiveness but also culturally, legally, administratively, and religiously and that included both Protestants and Jews. ‘Napoleon forged a template for French society which it had to conform to' and that included full citizenship for Jews.
Whatever the National Assembly intended in 1790 and 1791 while not immaterial, but what it accomplished was emancipation of the Jews by decree by not full citizenship. If that had happened and the National Assembly had been able to enforce its ruling, then full citizenship was a possibility. What resulted, in effect, was little or nothing. French Jewry was not assimilated into French society, which is part of being a citizen. Further there were pogroms still carried on against the Jews, as there were against French Protestants. The consecutive French revolutionary governments were either ineffective, corrupt, or inefficient. Napoleon's government, on the other hand was not. And it was under the Empire that Jews were made full citizens, not under the governments of the Revolution.