The French Revolution
 |
Image: The School of Athens.
Raphael, 1509. Fresco. Vaticano, Stanza della Segnatura, Rome. |
The
philosophes—Enlightenment thinkers of the eighteenth
century—sought
to create a world in which reason prevailed and all people enjoyed
equal civil rights and religious freedom. People were to be free of
past restraints
and superstitions to develop a life of reason. The situation for
Jews became one of the topics considered by the philosophes. On the
other
hand, the leading philosophe, Voltaire, distrusted Jews
because of their involvement in money lending and did not see any
reason to allow
them
freedom to assimilate with the rest of society. For Voltaire, Judaism
was incompatible with the principles of human reason and progress.
An example of Voltaire’s anti-Judaism is seen
in the following entry for “Juifs” in his Dictionnaire
philosophique: |
 |
In short, we find in them only an ignorant and barbarous people,
who have long united the most sordid avarice with the most detestable
superstition and the most invincible hatred of every people by
whom they are tolerated and enriched.
|
Image: Painting of Voltaire, 1718 born
Francois Marie Arouet (1694-1778) One of the greatest literary
and philosophical
figures of the eighteenth century enlightenment. |
 |
On the other hand, there were philosophes who argued
for Jews to have equal civil rights. Unlike Voltaire, these thinkers
believed that if Jews gave up their separate ways among the advocates
of Jewish emancipation, there was the underlying assumption that
the only way that Jews could be acceptable to the rest of society
would be to give up their separate Jewish ways and Judaism.
|
Image: Painting of Diderot. |
 |
During the French Revolution, which began in 1789, the Jewish
Question was debated.
Conservatives, who opposed the liberal tenets of the Revolution,
maintained that Jews should remain separate and not be given equal
civil status with French citizens. The liberal and radical leaders,
however, argued that all people, including Jews, should be entitled
to the rights of citizenship. In 1791, the National Assembly
voted for the rights of citizenship to be extended to Jews. A year
later, a Jew was elected to the National Assembly. Thus, the Revolution
emancipated Jews in France. |
Image: Fall of the Bastille. |
|
