Spectra Undergraduate Research Journal
Category
Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences > Humanities > History > European History
Received
January 13, 2023
Accepted
February 7, 2023
Published
June 15, 2023
Copyright
Articles in Spectra are freely available under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly cited.
Data Availability Statement
The author confirms that all data underlying the findings are fully available without restriction.
Conflicts of Interest
The author declares that no conflicts of interest exist.
Ethical Considerations
Given that this project did not involve human or animal subjects, no IRB or IACUC approval was needed. All research was derived from publicly shared sources.
Funding
This research was made possible by UNLV’s Office of Undergraduate Research’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (OUR SURF) in 2022. The author’s Fall 2022 scholarships from the Liberal Arts General Scholar, UNLV Excellence Scholarship, and the Millennium Scholarship also contributed.
Abstract
The citizenship of Jews became more discussed as a result of changes from the French Revolution of 1789. There were a variety of perspectives between non-Jews and Jews, and between different groups of Jews. The research methodology involves the analysis of qualitative primary sources including government texts and debates, groups of everyday Jews, and French Jewish literature and journal excerpts. The theoretical framework of nationalism will guide how citizenship is analyzed in the research, based on Dean Kostantaras’s book Nationalism and Revolution in Europe, 1763-1848. Results show that the way French Jews fit into or engaged with society is quite nuanced, and the Jewish community (Sephardic, Ashkenazi, etc.) or region (Alsace, Bordeaux, etc.), and Napoleon’s methods, had a large influence on the extent to which Jews wanted or did not want to further integrate with French institutions. While many French Jews’ views on their own citizenship were not found in government texts, their opinions were increasingly portrayed directly in journals, Judaic reform, or indirectly through fictional characters in written works. These findings suggest that researching particular groups or regions of French Jews leads to more varied perspectives, rather than a general review of the group as a whole.
Keywords
French Jewish citizenship/emancipation, French Revolution, French Jewish literature, Enlightenment, Napoleon, 18th-19th century history
Submission Type
Thesis-based research article
Recommended Citation
Wilson, J. D. (2023). Shifts in French Jewish citizenship, 1789-1840s. Spectra Undergraduate Research Journal, 3(1), 21-32. https://doi.org/10.9741/2766-7227.1025
Included in
European History Commons, French and Francophone Language and Literature Commons, Jewish Studies Commons, Political History Commons, Social History Commons
