Emancipation a Historical Background

The file contains several reports regarding the emancipation of Jews. The report discribes in detail the development in its historical and legal aspects and where the fundamental principles were expressed. Jewish emancipation was the external (and internal) process in various nations in Europe of eliminating Jewish disabilities, e.g. Jewish quotas, to which Jewish people were then subject, and the recognition of Jews as entitled to equality and citizenship rights on a communal, not merely individual, basis. It included efforts within the community to integrate into their societies as citizens. It occurred gradually between the late 18th century and the early 20th century. The first attemt to solve the question of individual emancipation did not entail a rapid development. To overcome the still existing, frequently prevailing animosity against the Jews, Napoleon summoned the Sanhedrin to Paris in February 1807. This body was to sanction reform of the Jewish Ritual, to overcome the discrepancy between midievel tradition and the new way of life. Jewish emancipation followed the Age of Enlightenment (Haskala). The period of Enlightenment was a movement of thought which permeated Central and Eastern Europe in the 18th and 19th century. This search for a new synthesis touched on questions concerning vital traditions of the community and on the life of each seperate individual, so the author argues. It was this urge which developed into a movement which again introduced the period of Enlightenment. It began to develop in Germany, it broadened out to Austria, and later on penetrated into may of the Jewish centres of Poland and Russia. In addition a report regarding Zionism is attached. Zionism was recognised as a political reality as soon as the Balfour Declaration was published in 1917. The Zionist organisation was then given legal status as Jewish Agency within the structures of the Palestine Mandate of the League of nation.