Napoleon and the Jews

The first laws to emancipate Jews in France were enacted during the French Revolution, establishing them as citizens equal to other Frenchmen. In countries that Napoleon Bonaparte's ensuing Consulate and French Empire conquered during the Napoleonic Wars, he emancipated the Jews and introduced other ideas of liberty. He overrode old laws restricting Jews to reside in ghettos, removed the forced identification of Jews by their wearing the Star of David. In Malta, he ended the enslavement of Jews and permitted the construction of a synagogue there. He also lifted laws that limited Jews' rights to property, worship, and certain occupations. In anticipation of a victory in the Holy Land that failed to come about, he wrote a proclamation published in April 1799 for a Jewish homeland there.

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