Jewish emancipation
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Jewish Emancipation refers to the abolition of discriminatory laws applied specially to Jews, the recognition of Jews as equal to other citizens, and the formal granting of citizenship. Emancipation was a major goal of European Jews of the 19th Century, and led to active participation of Jews in the civil society. As a result, many Jews who earlier were practically locked out of the rest of the society, turned to Jewish political movements (such as Zionism), or revolutionary movements (especially facing oppressive regimes such as in Russian Empire) or were able to emigrate to countries of better opportunities.
Background
Jews were subject to a wide range of restrictions throughout most of European history. Jews had been required to wear special clothing, such as the Judenhut and the yellow badge to distinguish them from Christians since the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215. The practice of their religion was also often restricted, and they had to swear special oaths. (see Oath More Judaico) Jews were not allowed to vote, and were also formally forbidden from even entering some countries, such as Spain, until the middle of the 19th century.
Since Jews were excluded outsiders throughout Europe, they were mostly shut out of politics or any sort of participation in the wider political and social sphere of the nations in which they were involved until the Enlightenment, and its Jewish counterpart, Haskalah, made popular movements possible. As long as the Jews lived in segregated communities, and as long as all avenues of social intercourse with their gentile neighbors were closed to them, the rabbi was the most influential member of the Jewish community. In addition to being a religious scholar and clergy, a rabbi also acted as a civil judge in all cases in which both parties were Jews. Rabbis sometimes had other important administrative powers, together with the community elders. The rabbinate was the highest aim of many Jewish boys, and the study of the Torah (first five books of the Bible) and the Talmud was the means of obtaining that coveted position, or one of many other important communal distinctions. Haskalah followers advocated "coming out of the ghetto," not just physically but also mentally and spiritually.
The changes caused by the Haskalah movement coincided with rising revolutionary movements throughout Europe and in 1791 France became the first European country to emancipate its Jewish population. Despite these movements, only France, Britain, and the Netherlands had granted the Jews in their countries equal rights with gentiles after the French Revolution in 1796. Napoleon also freed the Jews in areas he conquered (see Napoleon and the Jews). Elsewhere in Europe, especially where Jews were most concentrated in Central and Eastern Europe, Jews were not granted equal rights. It was in the revolutionary atmosphere of the mid-19th century that the first true Jewish political movements would take place.
Emancipation movements
During the early stages of Jewish emancipation movements, Jews were simply part of the general effort to achieve freedom and rights that drove popular uprisings like the Revolutions of 1848. During the Revolutions of 1848, emancipation was granted throughout Germany and elsewhere in Europe, but was quickly rolled back, and restrictions were reinstituted. During these revolutions, Jewish statesmen and intellectuals like Heinrich Heine, Johann Jacoby, Gabriel Riesser, Berr Isaac Berr, and Lionel Nathan Rothschild busied themselves with the general movement towards liberty and political freedom, rather than Jews specifically.
There was however a backlash and spread of intense anti-Jewish hostility as Jews gained equality. Jews played an active role in most states fight for liberation. The question of equal rights for Jews was tied with demands for constitutions and civil rights. An equal society was having laws guaranteeing basic freedoms for all. Basic Rights of the Frankfurt Parliament (Paragraph 13) stated that civil rights were not to be conditional on religious faith. This was a great improvement over the Act of 1815 which allowed special legislation dealing with Jews.
Still, in the face of persistent anti-semitic incidents like the Damascus Blood Libel of 1840, and the failure of many states to emancipate the Jews, Jewish organizations started to form in order to push for the emancipation and protection of Jews. The Board of Deputies of British Jews under Moses Montefiore, the Central consistory of Paris, and the Alliance Israelite Universelle all began working to assure the freedom of the Jews throughout the middle of the 1800s.
Dates of emancipation
France 1791. Germany emancipated its Jews in 1871. The Emancipation of the Jews in England occurred in 1890, and in Russia emancipation coincided with the Russian Revolution in 1917.
References
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