Integrating Jews into French Civil Society
In 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, convened an “Assembly of Jewish Notables” in order to lay the groundwork for integrating the Jews into French civil society. He called this assembly “le Grande Sanhedrin,” taking his cue from the Sanhedrin known from classical sources as the main governing body of the Jewish people in antiquity. Like the ancient model, the French Sanhedrin was composed of seventy-one members, two-thirds of them rabbis and one-third of them laymen from across France and Italy. The members of Napoleon’s Grande Sanhedrin met in Paris in surroundings of great magnificence; this pamphlet contains the prayers they recited at their last session on February 9, 1807. Notably, it was printed at Napoleon’s own “Imperial Press” in Paris.
In 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, convened an “Assembly of Jewish Notables” in order to lay the groundwork for integrating the Jews into French civil society. He called this assembly “<em>le Grande Sanhedrin</em>,” taking his cue from the Sanhedrin known from classical sources as the main governing body of the Jewish people in antiquity. Like the ancient model, the French Sanhedrin was composed of seventy-one members, two-thirds of them rabbis and one-third of them laymen from across France and Italy. The members of Napoleon’s Grande Sanhedrin met in Paris in surroundings of great magnificence; this pamphlet contains the prayers they recited at their last session on February 9, 1807. Notably, it was printed at Napoleon’s own “Imperial Press” in Paris.