Damame de Martrait, del. et Sculpt.
From an aquatint printed in colours lent by Israel Solomons
On the 9th February, 1807, the Grand Sanhedrin assembled at the Grand Synagogue in Paris under the Presidency of Rabbi David Sintzheim (1745–1812) of Strasburg. Service was read in Hebrew, French and Italian; an excellent discourse was delivered by the President in the first-named language. After his discourse he took a scroll of the Law from the Ark and blessed the Assembly, and then recited a prayer for the Emperor, the glory of his arms, and the return of peace. From the Synagogue the Assembly adjourned to the Hôtel de Ville, where, after appropriate speeches from the most distinguished members, the Committee appointed by the late First Consul laid before the Sanhedrin a general plan of organization for Mosaic worship, consisting of twenty-seven articles. According to this plan a Consistory and Synagogue were to be established in each Department containing 2000 Jews; those of the persuasion who intended to reside in France were to announce their intention to the Consistory within three months of their arrival on French territory; there was to be a Central Consistory in Paris, consisting of five persons, of whom three were to be Rabbis; and none were to be appointed Rabbis who were not naturalized in France or in the Kingdom of Italy. The functions of the Rabbis were to be:—
1. To give instruction in religious matters.
2. To inculcate the precepts contained in the decisions of the Grand Sanhedrin.
3. To preach complete obedience to the laws, and particularly to those enjoining the defence of the country, and above all, to exert themselves every year during the time of conscription, from the first summons to the complete carrying out of the law, in exhorting their followers to conform to that measure.
4. To impress the need for military service upon the Jews as a sacred duty, and to explain to them that so long as they devoted themselves to that service, their religion would give them a dispensation from such laws and customs as were incompatible with it.
5. To preach in the Synagogues, and to recite the prayers which were offered up for the Emperor and the Imperial Family.
6. To solemnize marriages and give divorces.
On the 12th February the Sanhedrin met again formally and commenced its deliberations as to the plan of organization. During the ensuing March the Deputies from Holland, Moses Solomon Asser (1754–1826),[¹] Moses Leman (1785–1832), the learned Polish Jew, Juda Litvak (1760–1836), and the delegates of Frankfort-on-the-Main were admitted into the Sanhedrin, and declared, in the name of their constituents, that they would adhere to the doctrinal decisions of the great Sanhedrin of France and Italy.[²] The President answered both delegations in Hebrew, congratulating them upon their resolutions, and also the Assembly on having them in its midst, and himself on having to answer coreligionists from a community so highly distinguished for its piety, and now governed by a just and liberal Prince, from whom the friends of humanity had everything to hope and expect. In brief, he considered himself fortunate in having to congratulate the Deputies of a country in which equal participation in the common rights of men had long since been granted to all the inhabitants, including the Israelites, who were quite as industrious as the best of the citizens. The President afterwards gave a discourse in French, which made a most favourable impression on the Assembly, and offered them the opportunity of expressing their gratitude to the great man whom Providence had chosen to be the instrument of its blessings and its miracles. He expressed the most sanguine hopes as to the salutary influence which that august Assembly and its labours would have upon the future destiny of the Jews. Having expressed sentiments of lasting devotion to all his colleagues, who had been convoked by the voice of this great man, from the Pyrenees to the borders of the Maine, and from the shores of the Adriatic to the Zuyder Zee, to form a religious Assembly unparalleled in modern history, and having done justice to the talents of the two Assessors, he paid, in the name of the Sanhedrin, a tribute of homage to the Commissaries of the Emperor, MM. le Comte Louis Matthieu Molé (1781–1855), Etienne Denis, Baron et Duc de Pasquier (1767–1862), le Comte Joseph Marie Portalis (1778–1858), and others, whose assiduity, zeal and indulgence had so powerfully contributed to the success of the common cause. M. Abraham Furtado (1756–1816) afterwards proposed a vote of thanks to the Chief of the Grand Sanhedrin, which was adopted with acclamation. M. Michael Berr (1780–1847) then read the Procès Verbal, and the President concluded by announcing that the sittings of the Sanhedrin were closed.[³]
[¹] Great-grandfather of the eminent Dutch Jurist, Tobias Michael Carel Asser (1838–1913).