Emancipation, the recognition that Jews had the same rights as other citizens, was seen as a historic change that heralded a better future for the Jewish people and became a central issue for Jews everywhere, although each community had to fight its own battle to achieve it.

In many places, it was a long process of social and economic integration of Jews into Gentile society, which also required them to renounce their traditional way of life. In 1789, Count de Clermont Tonnere, in his famous speech before the French National Assembly, said: “The Jews must be denied everything as a nation, but they must be given everything as individuals.” The French introduced this type of emancipation to all the countries Napoleon conquered. Whether as a result of a deliberate choice, as in France, or imposed by force, as in Germany or Italy, or the product of a long process of sociocultural maturation, as in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, emancipation was a difficult and painful process. The customary religious animosity of Gentiles toward Jews did not make it easy.

Emancipation suffered setbacks in the years following the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15, after Napoleon’s defeat. However, liberal and democratic groups took up the banner of Jewish emancipation as a central theme of their political campaigns. By 1848, the idea of ​​equality for Jews was an accepted concept in Western countries.

Emancipation had its own timetable. It was achieved in 1786 in Virginia, in 1787 throughout the United States, in 1791 in France, in 1796 in Holland, in 1812 in Prussia, in 1814 in Denmark, in 1831 in Belgium, in 1832 in Canada, and in 1866 in Switzerland. It was achieved in 1867 in Austria and Hungary, in 1869 in Italy, in 1870 in Sweden and Greece, and in 1871 in Great Britain and Germany. It was achieved in 1919 in Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania. It was achieved in 1917 in Russia, when the Russian government granted equal rights to all its citizens. In Poland, it lasted until 1935.

In Latin America, it occurred as a consequence of the independence movements of each country in the early and mid-19th century. In the Islamic world, there was no emancipation in the Western sense. In the Ottoman Empire, the Sultan granted equal rights twice, in 1839 and 1856, to Jews and Christians. The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 ratified this. In Yemen, Jews were never granted equal rights. In Egypt, Syria, Libya, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, they were officially granted, but were revoked after Israel’s War of Independence.

Today, it’s hard for us to imagine that there were places and times when Jews did not have the same rights as any other citizen. Achieving them was not a natural and simple process, but rather difficult and painful.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Encyclopedia Judaica and other sources.