The American Jewish world. [volume] (Minneapolis ;) 1915-current, 1921-05-20
THE AMERICAN JEWISH WORLD


ly wrote book, entitled 'Historic
Doubts Relative to Napoleon Bona
parte,' which was intended as trav-
esty on Hune's criticism by the proof
that the legends which had been
grown around the hero of the age are
evidence that Napoleon never lived.
Ten years later, in 1927, the French
man Jean Baptiste Peres, published
his "Grand Erratum," which as a
travesty on the then current method
of explaining all religion as the out
growth Of sun myth, was to prove
that Napoleon was merely sun
myth, and even his name a disguised
form of Apollo.
Far from refuting historic criti-
cism the clever travesty merely
proved that even in historic times
with the hero still living or his men,
DRY vivid in the recollection of thou
sands who knew him personally,
legends will grow around him so as to
completely pervert his true character.
This is clearly the case with Ma
poleon's attitude to the Jews. 1t is a
quite current opinion, even found
among professional historians, that
the emancipation of the Jews of
France is due to Napoleon's liberal
ideas. The truth about this often re-
peated statement is that with the
progress Of French arms, due to Ma
poleon's strategic genius, the Jews Of
parts of Italy and Germany and to
some extent of the re-established au-
tonomous Poland, directly or Indirect
ly under French control, obtained full
civic and political equality. The eman-
cipation Of the Jews of France, how
ever, with it's automatic extension to
the Jews in territories, subsequently
acquired by France, was the work of
the constituent Assembly," passed
September 27, 1871, and made law
by the signature of King Louis XVI
at a time when Napoleon, lieuten-
ant in the artillery, mad no political
influence. The alleged merit of Ma
poleon in the emancipation of the
Jews is one of the numerous legends
to which reference shall be made
later.
The we'll established facts in Ma
poleon's attitude to the Jews are the
convocation of the Assembly of Jew
ish Notables in 1906, of the subse-
quent Sanhedrin, 1907, and the rein
PRODUCTION of a civic disability of the
Jews by the law of March II, 1903.
For the understanding of the stu
alton a bird's-eye view of the history
of the Jews in France is necessary. A
royal edict of September II, 1894, had
expelled all the Jews from France,
and those who were actually found in
the country at the time of the eman-
cipation in 1871 consisted of four dis
tinct groups: 1. Fugitives from the
Spanish Inquisition who, since the be-
ginning of the sixteenth century, had
settled in various southern cities, liv-
ing, as they had done in Spain, under
the mask of Christians until due to
the progress of the spirit of tolera-
ton, they, without any legal enact
ment, felt sufficiently safe to profess
Judaism openly. 2. The Jews living
in the German territories, Alsace and
Lorraine, probably in the main, de-
scendants of the exiles Of 1894, who,
in the course of the 10th and 18th
centuries, became subjects of France
through the annexation of these ter
ritories. 3. The Jews of Avignon and
Carpentras cities which formed part
of the papal states until their annexa-
ton to France in 1871. Like in Rome,