New facts about the role played by Napoleon in the emancipation of European Jewry at the beginning of the nineteenth century are revealed in an article in the current issue of The American Hebrew. The article is written by Prof. F. N. Kircheisen, who is regarded as the world’s leading authority on Napoleon and his times.
The reason why Napoleon suddenly disolved the Great Sanhedrin soon after he had convened it, is explained by Prof. Kircheisen as follows:
“While the Great Sanhedrin was convening in Paris, Napoleon happened to be dining one day with one of his intimate friends. As they dined they were talking of various things, even of religious matters, in the gayest and most jovial of manners. Suddenly Napoleon’s uncle, Cardinal Fesch, grew very serious so that the emperor, becoming inquisitive, asked him what was wrong. ‘It is easy enough to understand what is the matter with me,’ said the cardinal. ‘However, it appears that you want the end of the world to come about.’ ‘How so and why do I?’ the emperor asked in amazement. ‘Well, then,’ Fesch, ‘Do you not know that the Sacred Scripture predicts that the end of the world will take place as soon as the Jews are recognized as a nation?’ “
This, according to Prof. Kircheisen, led Napoleon on the next day to order the Sanhedrin dissolved. Another reason which he gives is as follows:
“Since Prussia, after its defeats in Thuringen, was absolutely unwilling to make peace, Napoleon had to proceed to Poland with his army in order to seek out the Russians who were allied with Prussia and annihilate them. The land which he traversed and which was inhabited by Poles had made the most unfavorable and disadvantageous impression upon him, but still more so the numerous Jews who lived there in the greatest degradation. This regrettable circumstance determined the emperor’s future attitude towards a race of high rank which he wished to liberate and which he desired to make into an integral component part of the land in which it was dwelling.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
