Infamous Decree - After Effects

After Effects

After the decrees were not renewed after 10 years, Jews migrated into three main cities: Paris, Alsace and Lorraine. Indications of cultural and economical change can be seen in these cities. Although these changes were devastating to the economy of the Jews, they greatly increased the population and the distribution of the Jews.

Many Jews continued to live as lower class citizens. They were peddlers, clothes dealers, cattle merchants and small-scale commercial agents. The decree made business in the French Jewry more difficult. They could not have gone into farming or artistry because other bans took away their ability to own any land or belong to guilds. The Jews could not use their commercial skills because without the ability to own land, the Jewish businessmen could not experience any kind of expansion. But as time went by, more and more Jews began to go into artistry. In Bordeaux, for example, 34 Jews worked as artisans and professionals. 66 Jews owned houses in the city and 39 were proprietors of rural land. Percentages of artisans in the city of Paris and Nancy increased also. These different economical changes were accompanied by the union of Jewish youth in the public school system.

There were many concerns with Jewish youth and the public school system. There was discrimination and talk of conversions. Only 10 percent of Jewish children attended public school in Alsace. One government Jewish official said, “Our schools are Catholic schools rather than public schools. Prayers according to the Roman religion are recited upon entering and leaving, the catechism of the same religion is taught there and the textbook used are of that same religion.”

By 1810, a few Jews went to local schools and moved to Lycée, but many Jewish parents neglected their children’s education to prepare them in to business. Jews gradually moved into public schools, and some even hired private tutors. Some parents home schooled their daughters to teach them music, dance and embroidery.

The emancipation led to the redistribution of the Jewish population in France. Jews migrated to the cities and to communes where there had not previously been a Jewish population. French Jews went to Paris, by 1809 there were more than 2900 Jews there. The total Jewish population grew to more than 46,000 in Alsace.