THE .TEWTSn ENCYCLOPEDIA
461
declared tlicnisolvcs opposed to tlio gnuitinjrof civil On April H an address, signed rights to the Jews. by all the municipal olticers and hy thousamlsof the better classes of the citizens in Stnisburg. was presented to the National Assembly: it declared that the signers did not wish to have any Jewish citizens within the city walls. The Assembly considered Ibis address on April 13; and a few days later anoilier fnmi Colniar brmight tidings of similar senIn view of the liniciils in ibe I ppi'r Kliiiie region. cnnstaiit agitatinn kept up by a flood of counterrevolutionary literature (lislributed over the disturbed districts by the emigrants and the contumacious clergy, a considerable time elapsed befinv the Constitutional Commitlee daretl to jiropose any detinite snlutiiin of the problem. While theories were being discussed in Paris, the ill-treatment of the Jews in Alsace had not entirely In the new dcpnilment of the Upper Hhine ceasc<l. especially the local authorities frec|uently refused permis-sion to Jews to estnlilish themselves in the community, or prohibited them from collecting the promissory imtes of the Christians. At Oberhagenthal. for (xamjile, the Jews were compelled to re(piest the executive of the department to send troops, whom they offered to pay, to protect them against the exaelinns of the municipality (Procesverbaux du Directoire du Ihnit Khin, March, 17!U). In llegeidieini a Christian woman was compelled to (Id iienance in the Catlmlie church for having kindled a lire on the Sabbath for a Jew (March 4, 17!)1). The mayor of Isseiiheim thrust into i)rison such of lie Jews under his administration as did not send him the t(inguesiif the oxen which they killeil(May AVnise Mings lap pencil in the depart Mil 'Mt "I.ITIH nf the Lower Kliiiie. Ill Deceiiiber. IT'JO, the mayor of Dlieriiai cast a young Jewish girl into ]irisoii and kepi her there until after her delivery, in order that her child might forcibly be baptized in the Catholic cliuich. altliniigh the father of the child, who was a Jew. had previously declared his intention of marrying the woman (see Ezekiel Landau's " Noda' liiI
).
I
I
Yehudah," nil Ebeii 'Ezer, 2d ed.. No. 27). The priilnngid discussions on the civil ciiiistitutinii of the clergy led to the shelving of the Jewish (|uesbut on Sept. 27, tion during the summer of 171)1
Adrien Duport proposed that the Jews of France accorded the right.s of active citizens. Hewbell and Victor de IJroglie, two deputies from the Upper Hhine, opiiosed tjie proposition. The former insisted that, although the Assembly had no desire to who, he said, held notes to shield Jewish usurers the amount of twelve or lifteen millions of francs lie
—
against debtors whose personal estate never excecdeil three millions in value it would beheld responsible for all Efforts for the trouhles which its vote might exRedress, cite in Alsace. The Assembly desired to complele its huinaiie work, but all thai the old and the new represenlatives of Alsace, uniled in the conference, could obtain, was the deciie of Sept. 2H, which reipiiied the Jews to make a formal renunciation of the jurisdicliiin of their nibbis and to submit completely to the civil laws, "Few among them," wrote Schwendl to his constituents on the same day, "will wish to take this oalh": and on Oct. 8 he wrote: "Nothing remains of the Jewish nation in Fnuice: and Judaism is now nolliing more than the name of adislinel religion: those who are unwilling to yield this will not enjoy any of the Henceforward it herights of Fn"nch citizens." came necessary to respect the laws: but Ihe wrath of Ihe reactionarii's manifestid itself violently in
More
—
many pamphlets, as.
for
example,
iu "
Les Pounpiois
du Peuple
i
,ses
Alsace
Kepresentauts
"
— an
interrogatory
aiUlressed by the electors to their representiitives. The Liberals themselves were somewhat disturbed
by this movement, which they considered premature and altogether too radical. The Jews seem to have had the majority on their side: but, either from fear of Ihe future or from ignoninee, they were quite indilferenl to the signal victory w Inch had been gained for Ilieni. However, here and there, they expressed their siitisfaction, as at IJischheim, on Oct. 20, during the festival of the Constitution,
when
the rabbi
and the jiriest fraternized before the national altar; and at a banipiet given by a wealthy Israelite the patriotic inliabilants of all beliefs were united. StiliSburg, in particular, held aloof for a long time: and it was only on Feb. 21, 1702, that the .lews of the viciiiily were adniilied lo the city, to take the oath of alleiriance prescribed bv the decree of the Legislative Assembly, Nov. 13, 1791, It must be acknowledged that, as regards a very large number of the Jews of Alsace, the i)rolonged distrust of them was not altogether unCauses of justitiable. Many of them engaged in Oppression, questionable transactions in government bonds, such as assignats, promissorj- notes issued by the Hevolutionary government, and in the surreptitious exportation of specie prohibited by law. Some became the agents in ordinary for the sale of the antirevolutionary pamphlets issued by the Cardinal de Kohan. and were the transmitters of the correspondence of those French citizens who had emigrated for political reasons; others instigated the emigration of young ])easiints harBut there were assed by the fractions prieslhood. also among ihema nuiuberof jiatriots who were lavish in their gifts to the volunteers, and who to aid in similar contributions deprived themselves of their jewels, and even ojfercd to the fatherland the candeSoon they were treated labra of their synagogues.
with as much disfavor by the Radicals, who had come into power, as previously by the Liberals. When the Liirislative Assembly called for 3(Kl.tMI0 men, certain of the communes, such for instance as that of AVintzeiiheini, sii|iplied the greater part of its (piota from It may be mentioned the Jewish minority. that while many of the numerous volunteers furmeans to evade military nished by the Jews found .service, several rose to the rank of ollicerand took part in the battles of the Upper Rhine during the wars of the Kepublic. In other places, asat Voegtlinshoffen, theChristians again sacked the dwellings and synagogues of the In February, i7!l3, a representa.Tews (April, 17it2). tive, named Couturier, who had been sent into the Lower Hhine district to investigate conditions there, declared in his report that he suspected most of the Jews of being "the agents of the English"; and in June, 17ii;t, other re]>resentatives informed the Assembly that "Ihe .Jewish faith was abhorred in Alsaci'," because its votaries practised only usury and ix-fused to work. The Jacobin Club of Strasburg. succes.sor of the "Society of the Friends of the Constitution " that had defended the Jews so zealously some The Jaco- years before, demaiiiled on Oct, 17, bin Club. "l7!i:t. theex|iulsionofall the Jews from the city, and on Nov. lit, Uepresentalive IJaudol seriously jiroposid to devote himself to their regeneration by means of the guilloline. When Ihe new revolutionary tribunal of the Lower Hhine began ils<ircuit in the ilei>arlineiit (November. 17118). a numberof Jews were guillotined while others were sentenced lo transportation to Madaga.senr for stockjobbing, or for violations of the law regulating the
among
