The distinctions bestowed on individual Jews, however, did not improve the condition of the masses. The progress of liberal ideas made this question a matter of serious concern for legislators. In England a bill giving the Jews political rights was passed in 1753, but aroused such opposition among the populace that the government found itself compelled to repeal it in the same year. Of more permanent value were the measures of the humane Joseph II of Austria (1780-1790). In various legislative acts, and especially in the so-called “Toleranz-Edict” of January 2, 1782, he laid down the principle that the Jews should be treated like human beings. Although they were still under considerable restrictions, their lot was in many ways improved, and the Emperor laid special stress on their education. As a tangible evidence of the improvement in their condition the abrogation of the poll tax, “Leibzoll,” the Jew badge and Jew taxes may be noted. The abolition of these mediæval discriminations, which were based on the principle that the Jew was a foreign and injurious element of the population, became more and more general by the end of the eighteenth century.
France abolished the poll tax in 1784. As early as 1781 the Academy of Metz offered a prize for the best essay on the improvement of the Jews. The prize was won by Abbé Grégoire, a Catholic priest, who advocated the abrogation of all Jewish disabilities. About the same time Christian F. Dohm, an official in the Prussian war department, wrote an essay on the civil improvement of the Jews, in which he likewise advocated the granting of full equality to the Jews. This principle became for the first time a fact when on September 27, 1791, the French National Assembly passed a bill giving the Jews full civic and political equality with other citizens.
When the French rule spread over adjacent countries this was everywhere adopted. Such was the case in Holland in 1796, and in all parts of Germany which directly or indirectly came under French influence. In Cologne, where for nearly four hundred years no Jew had been permitted to reside, Jews began to settle in 1798. In Mayence the population tore down the gates of the ghetto in 1798, and this was done in Rome when the French ruled there. In Frankfort-on-the-Main, where the Jews labored under cruel discriminations, their condition was considerably improved in 1807 by an edict of the Grand Duke, Baron von Dahlberg, and in 1811 they were given full civil equality. Even reactionary countries like Prussia could not resist the current of the time, and the edict of March 11, 1812, declared the Jews to be citizens, gave them freedom of residence and occupation and the right to professorships in the universities; and although it withheld from them political rights, it promised to grant them such in the future.
Jews have been drafted into the army in Austria since 1787, and in Prussia since 1812; but numerous Jews joined the army as volunteers and distinguished themselves by acts of bravery during the wars of liberation. In 1809 the Austrian Jew, Israel Hönig, was made lieutenant for bravery on the battlefield of Aspern, and a few years afterwards was promoted to the rank of captain. In Prussia several Jews were promoted to the rank of officers during the Napoleonic wars.
Meantime reaction began to set in. Napoleon, who as commander of the army in the Orient in 1798, had called upon the Jews to join his army and conquer Palestine, changed his policy. Moved by complaints against the business methods of the Jews, he called an assembly of Jewish notables in 1806 and laid before them twelve questions, including whether the Jews considered themselves Frenchmen, whether their law permitted them to take usurious interest from non-Jews and whether intermarriage with Christians would be permitted. The answers given by this body of men were satisfactory, and the Emperor in 1807 established a Sanhedrin to ratify these principles and form a supreme ecclesiastic authority for all the Jews of the world. While thus apparently showing favor to the Jews, he issued a law in 1808 which imposed some restrictions on the freedom of trade of the Jews of Alsace. With his downfall, however, a general reaction set in. Some states repealed the laws which had given full freedom to the Jews, while others, among them Prussia, limited the efficacy of these laws by interpretation.
In Rome, where the rule of the Pope was reinstated, all oppressive measures were put in force again. In Hamburg and Luebeck, where, during the French rule, the Jews had enjoyed full equality, the former restrictions were partly reintroduced. From Luebeck the Jews were unconditionally expelled in 1816. In some cities of Bavaria attacks on the Jews were organized by the mob under the cry of “Hep-hep” in 1819, and an article of the Congress of Vienna of 1815, which declared that the Jews should retain all the rights they had acquired during the time of transition, became practically a dead letter.
The July Revolution of 1830 strengthened liberal ideas and brought the Jewish question up for discussion in various Parliaments, particularly in Southern Germany. In Baden and Bavaria the petition for the improvement of the condition of the Jews was regularly met with the demand that the Jews should first show their willingness to assimilate with their environment by a change of their religious beliefs and practices. Legislation made very little progress, and in some instances new reactionary measures were introduced. King Frederick William III of Prussia in 1836 ordered that Jews should not have any Christian names. The decisive change came about after the French Revolution in 1848.
By and by all states of Western Europe recognized in their constitutions the full civil and political equality of the Jews, and in the Parliaments which were elected on this basis, Jews were members. Gabriel Riesser (1806-1864) was one of the vice-presidents of the National Assembly in Frankfort. The first Austrian Parliament had five Jewish members and the Diet of Bavaria two. When the storm passed away, a reactionary spirit again took hold, although the liberties granted to the Jews were not entirely repealed. Some countries like Austria suspended the constitution, while others like Prussia interpreted it in a sense which rendered nugatory some of the rights given to the Jews in theory. This, however, was mostly the case with regard to the right of holding official positions. Civic equality and the right to vote at elections and hold elective offices remained uncontested.
Finally toward the end of the ’sixties even these disabilities were removed. The Austrian constitution of 1867 granted to the Jews unrestricted equality. The law of the North German Federation of July 3, 1869, declared that every state must remove all disabilities imposed upon citizens on the ground of their religious belief. This law was embodied in the constitution of the German Empire in 1871. Sweden, which had admitted the Jews only at the end of the eighteenth century, and in 1838 still restricted their residence to four cities, granted them full equality in 1870. Switzerland, while a republic, had for a long time restricted the Jews to two places in the Canton of Aargau. Not until 1878 were they given full equality with other citizens. Norway had, until 1851, a law on its statute-book which prohibited even the temporary residence of Jews in the country.
England made slow but steady progress. In 1830 the first attempt was made to give the Jews political rights, a year previously the disabilities imposed on Christian dissenters having been removed. In 1833 Francis H. Goldsmid was admitted to the bar, and in 1835 David Salomons was elected sheriff of London and Middlesex, the first municipal office held by a Jew. In 1845 he was elected alderman and in 1855 Lord Mayor of the city of London. The entrance of Jews to Parliament was opposed with great vehemence by the Conservative Party. In 1847 Baron Lionel de Rothschild was elected to Parliament, but could not take his seat because the prescribed oath contained “upon the true faith of a Christian.” Not until 1858 was a bill passed which allowed a Jew to omit these words from the oath. His son, Baron Nathan de Rothschild, was in 1885 admitted as the first Jew to the House of Lords.