ABSTRACT
The Declaration of the Rights of Man had already held out the promise that henceforth all citizens would share equal rights to freedom of conscience and the external practice of their faith. By the end of 1789 full citizenship had been granted to Protestants and, the following January, to the Sephardic Jews of Bordeaux and Avignon (but only by 374 votes to 280). The Assembly hesitated to grant equality to Ashkenazim Jews of eastern France in the face of the anti-Semitism of deputies from Alsace, such as Jean-François Reubell from Colmar, who opposed citizenship for eastern Jews at the same time as he campaigned for the rights of slaves. This prompted this spirited reminder from eastern Jews in January 1790. Only during the final sessions of the National Assembly in September 1791 were the eastern Jews granted full equality and the right to stand for election.
We remember that the National Assembly, in granting to non-Catholics who fulfil the conditions of eligibility the right to be chosen for all grades of administration, and to possess civil and military positions like other citizens, declared in the same decree that it did not mean to make any premature judgement on the Jews, on whom it would decide later. It is on this indefinite adjournment, which left the fate of 50,000 Jews established in France in suspense, that their deputies come, in their name, to present this petition to the National Assembly. The Jews of Bordeaux have asked, at the same time, to enjoy the active rights of citizens, for which they possess the statement declared in the letters patent. Their petition was presented to the Assembly by a prelate as distinguished for his wisdom as for his patriotism, and who, thanks to his good principles and good example, has the good fortune to be honoured in the same degree, both in the esteem of good citizens, and the hatred of the enemies of the public good. Despite the prejudicial cries and tumultuous movements of one section of the hall, which for several hours violated the sanctuary of its deliberations, the National Assembly proclaimed the great act of justice that was asked of it, by admitting to the enjoyment of the rights of active citizenship all the Portuguese, Spanish and Avignonnais Jews. The other part of the Jews established in France is thus in the same state as it was on 24 December. Their rights are in the same state of uncertainty. The time when these rights are to be discussed is not even set, in spite of the request for adjournment to a set day, made on 28 January by the Abbé Grégoire, one of the first and most eloquent defenders of the Jews. Whatever may be the time for a discussion that the imperious law of justice does not allow to be much delayed, its success can hardly be seen as doubtful. It could be believed, as it is by the authors of this petition, that it is not the intention of the National Assembly that men whose religion and principles are the same have a different existence in France, because they do not live in the same province. …
Thus the Jews prove that France must, from justice and interest, grant them the rights of citizenship, in that their home is in this empire, that they live there as subjects, that they serve their fatherland through all the means that are in their power, that they contribute to the maintenance of the public force like all the other citizens of the kingdom, independently of the onerous, degrading, arbitrary taxes that ancient injustices, ancient prejudices, supported by the old regime, accumulated on their head: that is, they say, there can only be two classes of men in a State: citizens and foreigners; to prove that we are not foreigners is to prove that we are citizens.
… The same objections that are made at the moment against the Jews were made, two years ago, against the Protestants, and it can be remembered with what success. Then, like today, it was said, printed, pronounced, with most imposing gravity, that any innovation of this type would be a sign of general subversion. Catholic blood and Protestant blood were already seen to be flowing from the daggers of fanaticism in all parts of France. Tender and timid souls, stirred up by vigorous souls, moaned in advance about so many horrible calamities, and beseeched heaven not to punish with such a vengeance the crimes of modern philosophy. Meanwhile the tolerance law (as it was then called) was proclaimed: it was peacefully enacted from one end of France to the other; the terrors were in vain, the manoeuvres remained powerless; and these same men, for whom the right of tolerance was disputed in 1787, in 1789 received all civil rights with no type of contradiction.
In this paper, the Jews respond to all the objections that are made to them regarding their religion. They prove that the vices of some among them, far from being inspired by their religious principles, are the work of the people who gave them sanctuary, and that the degrading of the others is the fruit of the institutions that surrounded them; that the usury for which all the Jews are reproached is practised only by a few among them, and that it is so because all means of living are refused them; that even, for a great number of years, the courts have resounded only rarely with complaints of usury against Jews; that their religion authorises neither deception nor dishonesty; that far from ordering that foreigners be hated, it stipulates that they love them, that they be offered consolation and help; that the law of Moses is full of these principles of love and charity, etc. They respond again in a very decisive manner to other less specious objections, raised against them in the National Assembly and in public, and end their petition by stating the right and the interest they have to be admitted, without restriction and without delay, to the enjoyment of the station of citizen.
Source: Gazette nationale ou le Moniteur universel, no. 46, 15 February 1790, vol. 2, pp. 368–9.https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781032618814/e9ac31eb-0a68-4fdc-b417-e6e5b1e67c6c/content/fig4_Unfig_001.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>