Infamous Decree - Actual Decree

Actual Decree

After Napoleon’s emancipation of the Jews he “wanted to mandate what some proponents of emancipation had hoped would happen, namely the total assimilation, or biological fusion of Jews with the rest of the French people.” To mandate the assimilation of Jews in to French society, three decrees were issued on March 17, 1808.

The “first two decrees restored order to the informal Jewish communities that had survived the revolution by establishing a hierarchical, centralized organization, under the aegis of the ministry of religions.” The first two decrees set up the consistories which were designed to enforce the decrees. Some of the members also were a part of the Great Sanhedrin which met in 1807. The consistories consisted of a grand rabbi, possibly another rabbi and three lay members who were residents of the town. The consistories acted to enforce Sanhedrin rules through the use of education; they also worked as informants to the government which was monitoring Jewish activity. There was one consistory for every town that contained 2,000 or more Jews.

The Infamous Decree, also known as the “third decree," presumed all Jews guilty of chicanery (the use of trickery to achieve a political, financial or legal purpose) unless proven innocent, and restricted Jewish commerce and money lending for a period of 10 years.” This decree was put into place to end Jewish money lending. It annulled all debts owed to Jews by married women, minors, and soldiers and voided any loan that had interest rates exceeding 10 percent. This was an attempt by Napoleon to get rid of alleged usury by Jewish businessmen and to turn these former businessmen into craftsman and farmers to promote supposed equality between the Jews and non-Jews in France. To encourage Jews to move into this niche, the Jews were restricted in changing residency to certain parts of France unless they “acquired rural property and devoted themselves to agriculture without entering into any commercial or business transactions.” To keep tabs on businesses that had survived the new restrictions, the decree mandated that all business require a patent or license that had to be renewed yearly. Not only did the decree hurt the Jews economically but it changed their military rights.

The final restriction of the Jews was an attempt to strengthen their bond with the government and the country. The decree made it so that the Jewish conscripts (required enlistees of military) couldn’t find replacements for themselves when drafted like other Frenchmen were allowed to do.

As a consequence of the first three decrees, another and final decree was implemented on July 20, 1808. This final decree declared that all Jews acquire a fixed family name to help the government and consistories supervise the Jews movements. They were restricted in their choice of names and weren’t allowed to pick names from the Hebrew Bible or any town names.

The three decrees were set up to expire after 10 years and would only be continued if renewed after that period. In 1818 Louis XVIII opted to not renew the decree and thus it ended. Louis XVIII was thereafter known as the “liberator of Jews.”