In
many nations, “enlightenment” and the potential for integration were
prerequisites to equal rights and citizenship.
By Shmuel Ettinger
“Emancipation” was a
social contract that granted equal rights to Jews who, in turn, pledged to
reshape themselves and their religion in ways that would make them “worthy” of
citizenship, acculturating themselves to the society in which they lived. The
following article details the Enlightenment ideals that created the potential
for Jewish citizenship and the integrationist ideology that affected Jews the
world over as they followed a variety of routes to emancipation. It is
reprinted with permission from A History of the Jewish People, edited by H.H. Ben-Sasson and published by
Dvir Publishing House
The spread of the ideals of the Enlightenment in the
countries of Western and Central Europe throughout the eighteenth century
brought about a profound change in the attitude of the educated class of
Europeans toward the Jews. But this new approach was not lacking in
ambivalence. Though ready to recognize the equal value of each individual as a
“human being,” whatever his origin or religious affiliation, it was totally
unwilling to accept the existence of historical groups that sought, for whatever
reason, to preserve their separate identity within the state. Furthermore, the
demand of certain Jews to be accepted into European society while belonging to
the “separate” Jewish group was regarded as hypocritical.
As a young man, the well-known German writer Gotthold
Ephraim Lessing wrote a play entitled The
Jews (1749) with the sole purpose of proving that even among the Jews there
were decent and honest people worthy of esteem. In Nathan the Wise (1779), he depicted the Jew as a proponent of
natural religion, opposed to positive religions both in theory and practice. To
the accusation leveled against the Jews that they had introduced the religious
split between human beings and were the first to regard themselves as the
“chosen people,” Nathan replies, “I did not choose my people nor you your
people…I am a man first and a Jew second and you are a man first and a
Christian second.”
The philosopher Herder, on the other hand, after defining
the Jews as “a parasitic plant, clinging to almost all the European nations and
sucking their marrow to a lesser or greater extent,” envisaged the day “when it
will no longer be asked in Europe who is a Jew and who is a Christian, since
the Jew will also live according to European laws and will contribute his share
to the good of the state.”
A substantial section of the
educated class in the eighteenth century nevertheless believed that it was
possible to find ways of improving the Jews so that they could be absorbed and
integrated into European society, even without altering their religion and
beliefs. The Jews, it was argued, had many flaws and were infinitely inferior
to the Christians. Yet it was the duty of Europeans to help reform them, as
the laws of mediaeval Christian rulers and the persecutions by the church were
what led to the Jews' isolation and their preoccupation with trade and
money-lending, which were the causes of their moral corruption.
The plans put forward included far‑reaching changes in
the economic occupations of the Jews, their way of life and their communal
organization. In his book on the Civil
Reforms of the Jews (1781),C. W. Dohm proposed that they be
granted equal rights and complete freedom in choice of occupation, although,
above all, they should be encouraged to engage in crafts. He also proposed
freedom of worship and the opening of synagogues, the abolition of special
Jewish quarters (ghettos), admittance into schools, and permission to engage in
science and the arts. At the same time, he advocated the prohibition of
commercial bookkeeping in Hebrew in order to increase mutual trust and prevent deception.
He also favoured supervision to ensure that Jewish schools
should not be infiltrated, “by anti‑social attitudes towards those who
think differently…(and that) some of the pure and holy truths of the religion
and moral theory of rationalism (benurtured),
in particular the respect of all citizens for the state and acknowledgement of
their obligations towards it.” Dohm also warned that Jews should not be
encouraged to train for state service and suggested that if a Jew were equal in
qualifications to a Christian, the latter should be preferred. His point of
departure was, naturally, the belief that Jews had a tendency to be dishonest
and were afflicted with greed, and that their religious tradition was imbued
with hatred of Christians and of the state. A new educational method was
required, therefore, under efficient government supervision “to prepare the
coming generations, at least, for a more moderate attitude toward those with
different views.”
Dohm's book greatly influenced enlightened writers in other
countries in their discussion of the Jewish question and their proposals for
the reform of the Jews. These proposals differed in detail. The French cleric
Abbe Henri Gregoire, who was awarded a prize by the Society of Sciences and
Arts in Metz for his “Essay in the Physical, Moral, and Political Renaissance
of the Jew” (1789), proposed the dissolution of Jewish communities and their
transformation into private associations, occupied only with questions of
religious worship and not with political or social matters. All Jewish
gatherings would be chaired by a government representative and all
deliberations would be conducted in the language of the country. Abbe Gregoire
was the sworn enemy of all local dialects, but especially of the “German-Hebrew-Rabbinical
jargon which the Jews of Germany employ and which only they understand, the
main aim of which is to increase their ignorance or camouflage their lust.” In
short, Gregoire wanted to restrict to the minimum all those factors
differentiating Jews from their surroundings. In 1785 a Polish author had
proposed that the Jews be forbidden to use their language in any document
whatsoever, so that it would die out naturally. They should also be prohibited
from wearing special clothing, from selling alcohol, and above all, in order to
reform them completely, they should be conscripted for military service.
Historian Shmuel Ettinger was the head of
the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History at The Hebrew University
Jerusalem until his death in 1988.
