Bail, Charles-Joseph. Des Juifs au XIXe Siècle.

(FRENCH-JUDAICA).

Paris

1816

FIRST EDITION. With author’s signature on verso of the half-title. Ex-libris of Rabbi David Feuerwerker.

French soldier, publicist, and civil servant, Charles-Joseph Bail (1777-1827) was placed in charge of the administration of the Bonapartist kingdom of Westphalia, and thus had close contacts with the heads of the Jewish Consistoire there. After the fall of Napoleon, he continued to defend the basic principles of the revolution. In this spirit he published the present pamphlet on “The Jews in the 19th Century, or Considerations of their Civil and Political Status in Europe.” Here he defended the basic principles of equality, ascribing the separatist characteristics of the Jews to their depressed civil and political status. The tone of philo-Semitism is set by Bail in his preface: “I will not regret the protracted and meticulous research that I have undertaken to perfect this work if it can be of any service to a nation so rich in its heritage and its virtues.” He sees with alarm that “all of a sudden the Jews have been expelled from Lübeck, Bremen, and several other free cities; Frankfurt has denied them civil rights and the right to own their homes, reducing them to a state of serfdom.” Bail subsequently fears a return to the days when the main promenade in Frankfurt featured a traffic sign reading “No Jews, no pigs.” As for that “strange, meaningless, barbarous question ‘What are the Jews good for?’ you might as well ask,” he says, “‘What is mankind good for?’ Look at their astounding industry, despite the perpetual restrictions by which they are hampered, and just imagine what they could achieve!”