Chelek Tov. Chelek Ra. Napoleone e la condizione giuridica degli ebrei

Th e question of the legal status of the Jews during the Napoleonic regime constitutes a complex and ambivalent problem, since on the one hand the Emperor recognises certain expectations of the Jews with regard to the organisation of the cult and of their communities, while on the other hand he oppresses the Jews themselves, enacting certain contra codicem measures. While it is true that Napoleon expressed a widespread anti-Jewish sentiment and was concerned to contain the phenomenon in Alsace and progressively exempt the “Portuguese” and Italian Jews, it cannot be overlooked that he planned and pursued a vexatious assimilation project as early as 1806, tending to dilute the Jewish presence itself and endorsed the stereotype of the usurious Jew. Th e Jewish aff air once again highlights the ambiguous character of Napoleonic power. In order to achieve his goals, Napoleon shows that he has no scruples in disapplying the new rules he himself has fabricated (which he indeed received from the Revolution). Just think, for example, of the institution of state prisons, or of the special courts established in 1801 to cope with the spread of banditry, which would later become laid out in the same fabric of the code of penal procedure, or the prohibition of marriage unions between whites and blacks.