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Page 5 of 8 200 YEARS AGO
- The Emancipation of Jews
- Napoleon the liberator of Jews
The rationalist philosophers in England, France and America in the eighteenth century evolved the explosive doctrine of Human Rights, that is all men (and women) are born equal irrespective of birth or class, colour, race or religion. This was manifest in the constitution of the US after the American War of Independence (1776) and the French constitution following the French Revolution (1791). The French granted Jews equal citizenship which they had not had in Europe for 1500 years under the pre-Christian Romans. However in the remainder of mainland Europe it took the French Emperor Napoleon to free the Jews from the persecution by the Christian Catholics.
England
The Georgian, Victorian era. 1714-1901
Post Oliver Cromwell and Charles 2nd Jews were probably better off in England than anywhere else in Europe. For example: One of the sons of the German Jewish family, Rothschild had settled in England and managed the English branch of his famous family bank. Actually the original family name was not Rothschild but Amschel. It is instructive to note that the Rothschild name came from the red anti Jewish sign placed on the Amschel’s front door by the German authorities. (Red-sign in German is Rot-Schild.) The name stuck.
Lionel Rothschild and his international bank financed the English battles against Napoleon. Further, at the time Wellington’s defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, Belgium in 1815 it was the Rothschild’s Jewish communications network which first brought the news of the victory to the British Parliament.
1847 Lionel was elected an MP by the City of London but was unable to take his seat in the Houses of Parliament because he had to take an oath “on the true faith of a Christian”. It took eleven years and five changes of Parliament to change this.
1869 when Gladstone was Prime Minister he recommended to Queen Victoria that she should make Lionel a Lord to which she replied “I cannot bring myself to make a Jew a Peer”. Sixteen years later she relented and made Lionel’s son Nathaniel Rothschild the first Jewish English Lord.
1868 to 1880. Benjamin Disraeli was twice Prime Minister of England. Would this have been possible if he had not changed his religion from Judaism to Christianity and his name from D’Israeli to Disraeli?
During this period the English Rothschild Bank made loans to the British Government to aide:
- Emancipation of slaves
- Irish Famine 1847, (yes the British government did do something but not enough)
- Crimea War 1854
- Suez Canal construction 1875
Meanwhile in other countries in Europe the Rothschild family bank was run by the brothers of English line.
In France Baron Edmond de Rothschild contributed hugely to the costs of the early Jewish settlers in Palestine.
In Germany, Italy and Austria the family did not feel the environment was right and the Banks were closed.
Indeed with the fall of Napoleon the emancipation of European Jews had no sponsor and the movement came to a halt.
150 YEARS AGO
THE RISE OF MODERN ANTI-SEMITISM.
The Emancipation of Jews in Europe brought about by the French Revolution and spread by Napoleon unfortunately commenced the modern anti-Semitic undertones which culminated in the Holocaust of 1940-45 when 6 million Jews were annihilated by the Germans.
Italy
With the fall of Napoleon, the Catholic Church in Italy immediately re-introduced Ghettos for Jews and took away their citizenship.
Germany
Conservatives and Catholics could not get to terms with having rich middle class Jews living amongst them for the first time. The term “anti-Semitism” was first coined in Germany in 1879. Germany was only unified in 1870. The newly formed Christian Social Workers Party was formed recruiting members on a ticket that German problems were all due to the rich Jews running the financial systems and much of big business. Bismarck the new Chancellor was presented with a petition by the “National Anti-Semitic League” that all Jews should be disenfranchised. This same period in Germany saw the commencement of a mass of nationalistic literature designed to persuade the Germans that they were descended from some fair haired, blue eyed Nordic super race and that this certainly did not include German Jews.
Austria
Viennese Mayor and Christian Social Democrat leader, the formidable Karl Lueger was continuously re-elected on an anti-Semitic ticket. One of the listeners to his powerful rhetoric was a young Viennese born, Adolf Hitler.
Russia
1881-82 The liberal Tsar Alexander 2nd was assassinated to be immediately followed by a massive wave of Jewish ethnic cleansing. The so called 1881 massacres.
There was no emancipation of Jews in Russia prior to the revolution in 1917.
Palestine and the return to the Promised Land.
1881 saw the commencement of a Jewish emigration to Palestine as the disappointment of the failure of European non Jews to allow a peaceful co-existence with Jews following their emancipation becomes obvious to all Jews. The catalyst was the Russian massacres of 1881. But see also below; the Dreyfus Affair. 1894-1906
FRANCE 100 YEARS AGO
The Dreyfus Affair
Although the Jews must owe it to the Frenchman/Corsican Napoleon Bonaparte for giving them equal Human Rights in Continental Europe, the French have never really buried their anti-Semitism as was evidenced in the Second World War. However the most famous story of all is probably the Dreyfus Affair.
Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), joined the French army and in 1894 was accused of passing secrets to the Germans, was tried by a military court in camera, found guilty and shipped to Devil’s Island where he was kept permanently in chains. At the public military ceremony to degrade him the crowd chanted “death to the Jew”. Fortunately his brother was convinced there had been a set up and gained the support of two prominent French writers, Anatole France and Emile Zola, together with the vice president of the Senate and the formidable debater Clemenceau. Zola himself was imprisoned but escaped to England were he was free to carry on with his campaign.
Not since the French revolution of 100 years before, was France so divided. The two camps being the State, the Army and the Catholic Church against one poor, earnest, hardworking and withdrawn man, a Jew. The World became riveted. The worst aspect was the anti-Semitism brought to the surface. The French press put forward the view that the Jew Dreyfus was in a syndicate financed with heavy world Jewish backing, with the help of the Germans, the Freemasons and Atheists to bring down the French nation. After an independent inquiry it was discovered that a Major Henri had forged the documents, a retrial was authorised but it was a whitewash and Dreyfus’ guilt was re-conformed but with a reduced sentence. Fortunately in 1906 a left wing government came to power and Dreyfus was fully pardoned and reinstated to the army with a higher rank and awarded the Legion of Honour.
His original trial was covered by a Jewish reporter from Vienna a Dr Theodor Herzl. The experience of this injustice crystallized his view that Jews, in spite of Napoleon, would never be safe in Europe and in 1897 he convened the first Zionist Congress in Switzerland. (Zionism is the movement to enable Jews to return to their “Promised Land” and Holy City of Jerusalem where they can live in peace. “Zion” is one of the hills on which Jerusalem is built.)
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