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Before the French Revolution most of the Jews in Occidental Europe
were subjects to heavy discriminations; they were obliged to live
in separated areas, closed at night - the Ghettos - they had no
freedom to move around, to choose where to put their residence,
which work to do, to buy or sell real estates and so on...
Considering the kind of social organisation of the state at that
time, this discrimination was easily possible for two reasons :
1) The State was not an omogeneous set of people with equal
rights, but rather a set of different groups with different
characteristics, different duties and different rights.
2) There was no separation between the Church and the State, so
all religions not belonging to the dominating majority were
totally discriminated : Jews at first, but also also Christian
groups not part of the majority, like for example the "Valdesi", a
protestant group spread in some valleys between Italy and France.
So the Jewish difference, even if it caused a discriminated
status, was in some way "normal" in a situation in which
differences were the rule, not the exception.
The Jewish emancipation, it is the equal rights for them like
other citizens, started with the French Revolution (with some
exceptions, but here I make a very summary explaination). With the
French Revolution the ideas of freedom and equality for everybody
were extended to Jews and equal rights were asked also for them,
but with two basic ambiguities (the second of which may
constitute, according to some historians, the base for the future
nazi antisemitism).
- The first was the anticlerical attitude of the giacobin. While
fighting against the Christian dominating religion, they fought as
well against the obstinate religiuos attitude of Jews. (Of the
illuministic mouvement only Montesquieu showed a true tolerance
towards Jews, while other from Diderot to Voltaire and later to
Desmoulins and Marat were against Jews emancipation).
- The second, more important, because it still impacts some
attitudes in the modern world, was the refuse of all kind of
differences. So the Jews could be emancipated, but only if they
would renounce to their difference. (The French revolution fought
against the "Ancien Regime" which was based on differences, and
according to that fight they could not accept any difference
between people).
Significant are the words told at the Constituent Assembly by
Clermont-Tonnerre in 1789, when he asked the full equality for
Jews : " All has to be given to Jews as individuals, all has to be
denied to the Jews as people". The first thing asked to Jews in
exchange for their emancipation was to dissolve their Communities,
the basic social organisations on which Jews have been based since
hundreds of years. For this reason, for example, the emancipation
came one year earlier for Sefardic Jews of South of France (in
1790), and only one and half year later for Ashkenazi Jews of
Alasazia and Lorena (near the border of Germany), because, beeing
more traditional, they refused at the beginning to dissolve their
communities.
At least, even with many limitations and not with a true
tolerance, the formal emancipation for Jews arrived in Europe and
was carried to all Europe with the Napoleone's troops. His defeat
and the following Restauration stopped this process and also
brought back Jews, but the creation of modern states (which
included freedom for Jews with the limitations seen before) was
already started and Jews emancipation followed, at different
times, the creation of the national states and the concession of
civil rights to the whole population.
In Italy the situation was similar to the rest of Europe, with one
big difference. Not only there was no separation between Church
and State in all the small Italian States existing at that time,
but also a conspicous part of Italy was directly dominated by the
Curch (the Papal States); in those states Jews were subject to
more repressive laws, aimed not only at discriminating and
separating them from the remaining population, but also at
converting them. I remember only two facts : Jews were obliged to
periodically listen to preachs aimed at converting them (often
given by converted Jews); every Christian could give baptism to a
Jew, even against his will, and when this happened the Jew was
considered converted and was not allowed to live with other Jews
any more.
For this situation (even if in parts of Italy dominated by Austria
Jews received some earlier emencipation) Jews in Italy, more than
in other Eupean countries, identified the cause of their
emancipation with the cause of the construction of an Italian
national State. They not only ardently fought in the independence
wars, but also participated massively to the construction of the
new state. The kingdom of Italy was proclaimed on the 17th of
March 1861, but Jews in Rome had to wait for their emancipation
until 1870 when Rome was conquered by italian troops. The Jews in
Rome have been the last in Occidental Europe to obtain their
emancipation, 80 years after the French Revolution.
The kidnapping of the Mortara child (quoted in note 1388.19-33)
was one of the last (certainly not the only) event of this kind
who happed to Jews under Pope domination. But when it happened
Jews emancipation was almost a reality in many countries, so it
found a big audience and that's why it is known today.
To complete my description of the context, I would like to add two
other considerations.
1) Jews in Rome are the oldest community outside Israel. They
started to live there from about the second century a. e. v. and
during the Roman Empire they reached a number of 30.000, 40.000 on
a total population of one million. Synagogues in Rome preceded the
Vatican. Under Roman Empire Jews in Rome had in general a good
treatment, even if it could change, according to the Emperor's
attitude towards Jews. But after the conversion to Christianism of
Costantino the Jews situation became definitively worse. Until the
modern times, in parts of Italy where the Curch had the secular
power, Jews were oppressed and subjects to all sort of laws and
rules aimed at converting them and at making difficult to them to
observe their religious practices.
2) This oppression had only a religious base and did not
corresponded to a general feeling of people. Then, even if Jews
in Italy were almost the last in occidental Europe to be
emancipated, they were integrated in the structures of the new
Italian state, in important positions, quicker than in any other
European state, in a number much greater than their percentage in
the Italian population, which never was greater than 1 for one
thousand. (One reason for that is also the high level of training
among Jews compared to the low level of training of the other
Italian population of that time. Of Jews over ten years of age,
only 5,8% was illitterate, while for the catholic community
the percentage was of 54,5%).
The secretary of the Prime Minister of Piemonte, Camillo Cavour,
between 1850 and 1860, was a Jew, Isacco Artom (Jews in Piemonte
had been emancipated in 1848 and Cavour was the most important
statesman of the time, the man who made the unity of Italy). Later
Isacco Artom became the first Jew in Europe to be assigned to an
high diplomatic charge outside his country in Europe. Three Jews
were elected in the first Italian Parliament, in 1861; in 1870 the
elected were nine and eleven in 1874. In 1891 the Jew Luigi
Luzzati was named Minister of Finances and in 1910 he was named
First Minister (In France, were Jews obtained emancipation about
80 years earlier, it was necessary to wait for more 26 years to
have a Prime Minister Jew). In 1888 Giuseppe Ottolenghi was the
first Jew to be named general, and in 1902 he became Minister of
War (at that time in Germany no Jew could have a military grade).
During the first World War (the only war in modern times that
Italy won) there were 50 Generals Jew. The youngest to deserve a
gold medal was a Jew, Roberto Sarfatti, died at 17 years, and the
oldest voluntary was also a Jew (also the youngest partisan who
fought and died against Nazi in WWII in Italy was a Jew, of 14
years). In 1930 8% of University professor in Italy were Jews
(while Yale College did not have a regular Jew professor until
1946). The other side of this strong integration of Jews in the
Italian society was the high degree of assimilation, but this is
another subject that I will not treat here.
These informations have been taken from the following books - all
in Italian - :
* Attilio Milano - History of Jews in Italy - Einaudi
* Anna Foa - Jews in Europe - Laterza
* Susan Zuccotti - The Holocaust in Italy - Mondadori
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