Décret Impérial relatif aux individus professant la Religion Juive. Au palais de Saint-Cloud, le 30 Mai 1806 [“Imperial Decree Relating to Individuals Professing the Jewish Religion: Call to Assembly of Jewish Notables.”]

An imperial decree of Napoleon, Emperor of France and King of Italy, declaring an Assembly of French Jews in Paris to be held on the 15th of July, 1806. The Assembly of Jewish Notables was the precursor of the Sanhedrin, established the following year. A table on p.4 shows the distribution of the 74 delegates from the various regions within France. According to contemporary accounts, it was Napoleon's short stay in Strasbourg on January 23-24, 1806, returning from his German campaign, that prompted him to tackle the so-called Jewish problem. In this imperial decree, Napoleon accuses the Jews of the northern departments of the Empire of practicing usury; it is his duty to come to the assistance of the victims (p.1). The aim of the Assembly of Jewish Notables will be to find "useful arts and professions to replace by honest industry the shameful resources to which many of (the Jews) have resorted from generation to generation for many centuries" (p. 2). See S. Schwarzfuchs, Napoleon, the Jews and the Sanhedrin (1979), p. 45-52