[Godard, Jacques]. Petition des Juifs établis en France, adressée à l’Assemblée Nationale, le 28 Janvier 1790

(FRENCH JUDAICA).

De Prault, Imprimeur de Roi

Paris

1790

Szajkowski 52 (p. 862); Feuerwerker, pp. 330-347

Jacques Godard was a young advocate, all of twenty-eight years old, engaged by the Jewish community to plead their cause before the government. The petition argues that there is nothing in the Jewish religion incompatible with them becoming citizens of France. It would be possible to conscript them into military service - their Sabbath would not pose a problem as Jewish law allows fighting on the Sabbath for self-defense (pp. 64-65). Likewise, their Talmud does not encourage them to return to Palestine until the arrival of the Messiah (p. 72). Godard’s dossier was designed to defeat the assertions of the likes of Maury and Reubell that Jews were not fit to be citizens. Signed by the notables of Alsatian Jewry: Mayer-Marx, Ber-Isaac-Ber, David Sintzheim, etc.