Lettres-patentes du Roi, sur un décret de l’Assemblée nationale, portant que les Juifs, connus en France sous le nom de Juifs portugais, espagnols & avignonois, y jouiront des droits de citoyen actif.

(FRENCH-JUDAICA)

Michel Racle

Bordeaux

1790

Broadside with heraldic coat-of-arms. Single printed page.

The earliest European proclamation offering equal rights to Jews. The newly created French National Assembly threw open the doors of the Revolution by approving “The Declaration of the Rights of Man.” Though freedom and equality were demanded for all, this however did not include Jews. It was only a few months later that King Louis XVI under political pressure issued the present Lettres-patentes granting equal rights to Jews - albeit only Sephardic Jews, those of Spanish or Portuguese extraction.