A Booklet Summoning the Assembly of Jewish Notables, Convened Before the Grand Sanhedrin – Issued on Behalf of ...

A Booklet Summoning the Assembly of Jewish Notables, Convened Before the Grand Sanhedrin – Issued on Behalf of French Emperor Napoleon I – Paris, 1806
Liste de MM. les députés de la Nation Juive, Convoqués à Paris par ordre de Sa Majesté l’Empereur et Roi [List of the Deputies of the Jewish Nation, Convened in Paris by order of His Majesty the Emperor and King]. Paris: Dabin, libraire, Palais du Tribunat, 1806. French.
The official booklet published by the French Empire, summoning an assembly of Jewish notables and listing the participants.
In 1806, Napoleon summoned an assembly of over a hundred Jewish leaders, presenting them with twelve questions: In the eyes of Jews, are Frenchmen not of the Jewish religion considered as brethren or as strangers? Do the Jews acknowledge France as their country? May a Jew marry a Christian? What kind of jurisdiction do the rabbis exercise over the Jews? and additional questions. The meetings of the Assembly drew much public interest throughout Europe (protocols of the meetings were published in French, English, Italian and German. Several months later, the notables submitted their final response to the emperor, expressing their willingness to give precedence to French state law over Jewish canon law. In order to accord religious validity to the decision, Napoleon called together the Grand Sanhedrin, a smaller assembly of 71 participants (as in the Grand Sanhedrin of the Second Temple), which in practice, subjugated the Halacha to French law. After the Assembly of Notables and the Grand Sanhedrin established the Jews as first and foremost French citizens, a statute was adopted which stripped Jewish communities of all civil authority, limiting rabbinical authority to conducting religious rituals and maintaining synagogues.
This booklet comprises two parts: · An imperial decree (Décret Imperial) of 30.5.1806, summoning delegates to convene on July 15 of that same year, placing a moratorium on all debts owed to Jewish usurers by Christian farmers until the assembly discusses the changes required from the Jewish community. · A detailed list of over a hundred names and addresses of delegates summoned to the assembly, grouped by counties (several delegates were summoned from Italy, which was then under Napoleon's rule). The list includes rabbis, community leaders and Jewish philanthropists from a variety of Jewish circles and movements, including Rabbi Joseph David Sinzheim (chief rabbi of Strasbourg, who later served as chairman of the Grand Sanhedrin), Rabbi Avraham de Cologna, banker Avraham Furtado from the Sephardic community of Bordeaux (chairman of the Assembly), Rabbi Hananel Neppi of Ferrara, and others.
The title page with Hebrew subtitle, reading "Elohim" (G-d).
18 pp, approx. 14.5 cm. Good condition. Stains. Blemishes and small tears to edges. Last leaf partly detached. Blank wrappers.