Cerf Berr of Médelsheim 1726–1793: Emancipating the Jews in Eighteenth-Century France Revised Edition

By Margaret R. O’Leary, MD

On December 7, 1793, an old man lay motionless at last, surrounded by his family, rabbis, and members of the society who would prepare his body for Jewish burial. Sixteen days after he was sentenced to jail, his family would go to extraordinary efforts to bury him in a Jewish cemetery ordered destroyed by the French government just two weeks earlier. The old man was Cerf Berr of Mdelsheim, the tenacious eighteenth-century Ashkenazi emancipator of the French Jews.
Margaret R. OLeary, MD, presents Cerf Berrs life story, recognizing his profound contributions to the liberation of the Jews of France. While chronicling his incredible journey, OLeary not only highlights Cerf Berrs scrupulous honesty and reliability that earned him the deep appreciation of the French Crown, but also details how he besieged authorities in both Strasbourg and Versailles to grant political, social, and economic equality for all of his coreligionists in France. Cerf Berr achieved that milestone on September 27, 1791, only to die two years later after imprisonment by sadistic French revolutionaries.
Cerf Berr of Mdelsheim is the biography of a man who was faithful to his people, sought the good for the community, and cherished justiceall while making a momentous contribution to the history of France and the Jews.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491734186

Margaret R. O’Leary, MD

Margaret R. O’Leary, MD, earned her medical degree from the George Washington University School of Medicine and her MBA degree from Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois. She is the author of many publications that include books on the histories of medicine, science, religion, society, and war. Dr. O’Leary currently resides in Fairway, Kansas.

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CERF BERR OF MÉDELSHEIM, 1726–1793

Emancipating the Jews in Eighteenth-Century France

REVISED EDITION

Copyright © 2014 Margaret R. O’Leary.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by

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without the written permission of the publisher except in the case

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and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Front cover photo credit: Eighteenth-century oil-on-canvas portrait of

Cerf Berr of Médelsheim, property of the Hospice Elisa in Strasbourg. The

portrait hangs in the Musée Historique de Strasbourg. The photograph

of the portrait is by Rama, Wikimedia Commons, Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr.

ISBN: 978-1-4917-3420-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-3419-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-3418-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014909476

iUniverse rev. date: 7/31/2014

Contents

About The Author

Preface

Chapter One: The Old Man Of Alsace

Chapter One Notes

Chapter Two: Cerf Berr’s Jewish Heritage, 63 Bc–Ad 1726

The Roman Era, 63 Bc–Ad 476

The European Early Middle Ages, 476–1000

The European High Middle Ages, 1000–1300

The European Late Middle Ages, 1300–1500

The European Early Modern Period, 1500–1726

Chapter Two Notes

Chapter Three: Cerf Berr’s Alsace Gamble, 1726–1763

Ashkenazim Settle In Alsace, France

Ashkenazim Settle In Saarland And The Palatinate, Holy Roman Empire

Cerf Berr Moves From Saarland To Alsace

Chapter Three Notes

Chapter Four: Cerf Berr Besieges Strasbourg, 1763–1784

Cerf Berr Moves To Strasbourg

King Louis Xvi Naturalizes Cerf Berr, 1775

Case Of The Counterfeit Receipts Of Alsace, 1777–1779

Cerf Berr Turns To Moses Mendelssohn, 1780

List Of Cerf Berr’s Employees, 1783

Suppression Of The Strasbourg Jewish Body Tax, January 1784

Chapter Four Notes

Chapter Five: Cerf Berr: Grand Syndic Of The French Ashkenazim, 1784–1788

Death Of The Chevalier De La Touche, 1784

List Of Cerf Berr’s Family Members, 1784

Cerf Berr Retires From His Businesses, 1786

King Louis Xvi Convenes Assembly Of Notables, 1787

Malesherbes’ Unfinished Work For Jews In France, 1787–1788

King Louis Xvi Agrees To Convene Estates-General, 1788

Cerf Berr Resigns As General Syndic Of Alsace, November 10, 1788

Chapter Five Notes

Chapter Six: Cerf Berr Besieges King Louis Xvi, 1788–1789

Ashkenazim Excluded From The Estates-General, 1789

Estates-General Opens In Versailles, May 4, 1789

Parisians Revolt Against King Louis Xvi, July 1, 1789

The Great Fear, Summer 1789

The Rights Of Man And Religious Freedom

Deputy Clermont-Tonnerre’s Speech, September 28, 1789

Deputy Berr Isaac Berr’s Speech, October 14, 1789

Deputy Clermont-Tonnerre’s Speech, December 23, 1789

Deputy Adrien Duport’s Amendment, December 23, 1789

Chapter Six Notes

Chapter Seven: Jews In France Receive Citizenship Rights, 1790–1791

Sephardim Receive French Citizenship Rights, 1790

National Assembly Dissolves All Religious Corporations In France, 1790

Civil Constitution Of The Clergy Ratified, July 12, 1790

King Louis Xvi Attempts Escape From France, 1791

Massacre At Champ De Mars, July 1791

French Constitution Of 1791 Proclaims Constitutional Monarchy

Ashkenazim Receive French Citizenship Rights, September 1791

Legislative Assembly Supersedes National Assembly, War Looms

Chapter Seven Notes

Chapter Eight: Cerf Berr’s Waning Days, 1792–1793

France Declares War On Austria, April 20, 1792

Tuileries Palace Cased, June 20, 1792

Brunswick Manifesto, July 25, 1792

Tuileries Palace Attacked, August 10, 1792

Jacobins Round Up Enemies In Paris, August 28, 1792

September Massacres, September 2–7, 1792

Fate Of Citizen Louis Capet

Reign Of Terror Begins, September 5, 1793

Cerf Berr Dies, December 7, 1793

Chapter Eight Notes

Conclusion

Conclusion Notes

Appendix A

Appendix B

Bibliography

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Cerf Berr of Médelsheim (1726–1793)

To Dennis S. O’Leary, MD

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Margaret R. O’Leary, MD, a native of Indiana, received her formal education at the Anna Head School (Oakland, California, graduated 1970); Smith College (Northampton, Massachusetts, BA, religion, 1974); Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley, California, 1973–1974); University of California (Berkeley, California, BA, zoology, 1976); George Washington University School of Medicine (Washington, DC, MD, 1980); and Benedictine University (Lisle, Illinois, MBA, 1999). She chose to pursue medicine, following the example of her father, Gerald P. Wiedman, MD (1924–1995). She published her first book, Care of the Sick in Medieval Hospitals, during her third year of medical school.

Following graduation from medical school, Dr. O’Leary became one of the first residency-trained and board-certified emergency medicine physicians in the United States. She subsequently held academic and clinical positions in the emergency departments of two urban academic universities, published a dozen articles in peer-reviewed medical journals and medical books, consulted as a senior writer for a large health care organization accrediting body, served as an elected director of a national medical organization, and reviewed medical articles for a prominent national medical journal.

In 1999, following receipt of her MBA degree in an executive MBA program for physicians and senior health care executives, Dr. O’Leary was recruited by the same university as director of its MBA programs, for which she received a regional award for professional excellence in that role. After the 2001 attacks on the United States, Dr. O’Leary accepted a large private grant to improve local disaster preparedness in a collaborative environment that encouraged communication and joint planning between public and private spheres. One of the books written by members of this consortium won an editorial and readership award from the book’s publisher. Dr. O’Leary currently writes books on the histories of medicine, science, religion, society, and war.

Published Works by Margaret R. O’Leary, MD

O’Leary, Margaret R. Dr. Thomas Addison, 1795–1860, Agitating the Whole Medical World. Revised edition. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2014. Editor’s Choice, iUniverse.

O’Leary, Margaret R. Dr. Thomas Addison, 1795–1860, Agitating the Whole Medical World. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2013.

O’Leary, Margaret R. Forging Freedom: The Life of Cerf Berr of Médelsheim. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2012.

O’Leary, Margaret R., and Dennis S. O’Leary. Adventures at Wohelo Camp: Summer of 1928. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2011.

O’Leary, Margaret R., and Dennis S. O’Leary. Tragedy at Graignes: The Bud Sophian Story. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2011. Editor’s Choice, iUniverse.

O’Leary, Margaret R. Anaxagoras and the Origin of Panspermia Theory. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2008.

Dobbins, Claire, Margaret R. O’Leary, Michael Isaacson, et al. Preparing for Public Health Emergencies: How Kane County Health Department Nurtures Successful Non-traditional Partnerships. Illinois Nurse 3, no. 2 (February–March 2007): 19–20.

O’Leary, Margaret R., ed. Dictionary of Homeland Security and Defense. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2006.

O’Leary, Margaret R. Measuring Disaster Preparedness. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2004.

O’Leary, Margaret R., ed. The First 72 Hours: A Community Approach to Disaster Preparedness. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2004. Editor’s Choice and Reader’s Choice Awards, iUniverse.

O’Leary, Margaret R. Women in Emergency Medicine. In Emergency Medicine: Guide for a Career in Emergency Medicine, edited by A. Antoine Kazzi and Joel M. Schofer, 295–300. Milwaukee, WI: American Academy of Emergency Medicine, 2003.

O’Leary, Margaret R. Formal Management Training in Emergency Medicine. In Emergency Medicine: Guide for a Career in Emergency Medicine, edited by A. Antoine Kazzi and Joel M. Schofer, 231–236. Milwaukee, WI: American Academy of Emergency Medicine, 2003.

O’Leary, Margaret R. Clinical Data Interpretation. Oakbrook Terrace, IL: Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, 1996.

O’Leary, Margaret R. Lexikon: Health Care Dictionary for the Age of Reform. Oakbrook Terrace, IL: Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, 1995.

O’Leary, Dennis S., and Margaret R. O’Leary. From Quality Assurance to Quality Improvement. Emergency Medical Clinics of North America 10 (1992), 477–492.

O’Leary, Margaret R. Trismus: Modern Pathophysiological Correlates. American Journal of Emergency Medicine 8, no. 3 (May 1990), 220–227.

O’Leary, Margaret R. Subclavian Artery False Aneurysm Associated with Brachial Plexus Palsy: A Complication of Parenteral Drug Addiction. American Journal of Emergency Medicine 8, no. 2 (March 1990), 129–133.

O’Leary, Margaret R., Mark S. Smith, Dennis S. O’Leary, et al. Application of Clinical Indicators in the Emergency Department. Journal of the American Medical Association 262, no. 24 (December 22/29, 1989), 3444–3447.

O’Leary, Dennis S., and Margaret R. O’Leary. The Care of the VIP Patient. New England Journal of Medicine 320 (April 13, 1989), 1016.

O’Leary, Margaret R., Mark S. Smith, William W. Olmsted, et al. Physician Assessments of Practice Patterns in Emergency Department Radiograph Interpretation. Annals of Emergency Medicine 17, no. 10 (October 1988), 1019–1023.

O’Leary, Margaret R., Mark S. Smith, and Edward M. Druy. Diagnostic and Therapeutic Approach to Axillary-Subclavian Vein Thrombosis. Annals of Emergency Medicine 16, no. 8 (August 1987), 889–893.

O’Leary, Margaret R., and Mark S. Smith. To the Editor. American Journal of Emergency Medicine 5, no. 1 (January 1987), 91.

O’Leary, Margaret R., and Mark S. Smith. Penicillin Anaphylaxis. American Journal of Emergency Medicine 4, no. 3 (1986), 241–247.

Wiedman, Margaret R. Care of the Sick in Medieval Hospitals. Washington, DC: Keuffel and Esser, 1979.

PREFACE

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Cerf Berr of Médelsheim (1726–1793)

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Théodore Ratisbonne (1802–1884)

Cerf Berr of Médelsheim first strode into my life during research for a book about his grandson, Théodore Ratisbonne (1802–1884), who was a unique figure in the history of France, Judaism, and Roman Catholicism. Born and raised in the Jewish faith in Strasbourg, Ratisbonne converted to Roman Catholicism as a young adult (1826), entered the ultramontane Roman Catholic priesthood (1830), and founded the Roman Catholic order Notre Dame de Sion, which continues to flourish today. The original mission of the order was to witness in the [Roman Catholic] Church and in the world that God continues to be faithful in his love for the Jewish people and to hasten the fulfillment of the promises concerning the Jews and the Gentiles.

In practical terms, Ratisbonne and his first female Christian followers (who became the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Sion) sought to educate and to convert orphaned Jewish girls in Paris. The Notre Dame de Sion order spread vigorously throughout the world, where its sisters founded schools and performed other good works. The mission of the order later shifted to improving Catholic–Jewish relations and to witnessing God’s faithful love for the Jewish people.

Emily Sophian O’Leary (1913–1995), my mother-in-law, attended Notre Dame de Sion School in Kansas City, Missouri, for eleven years as a day student and for one year, her senior year, as a boarder. At the same time, Emily’s parents, Dr. and Mrs. Abraham Sophian, raised her in the Reform Jewish faith at home in Kansas City. Emily never converted to Christianity but did marry Theodore Morgan O’Leary, an agnostic with whom she shared her life for more than sixty years.

To understand Ratisbonne’s motivations for apostatizing, I turned to Cerf Berr of Médelsheim, the Jewish patriarch of the large, closely knit, multigenerational Ashkenazi family of which Théodore Ratisbonne and one of his younger brothers were the only known members to reject the family’s faith. During his lifetime, Cerf Berr almost single-handedly liberated the French Jews in his usual trenchant manner. After learning about Cerf Berr and his extraordinary efforts on behalf of the French Ashkenazim, I felt compelled to write his biography to introduce him to a new generation of people interested in the turbulent history of Jews in eighteenth-century France.

Cerf Berr of Médelsheim, 1726–1793: Emancipating the Jews in Eighteenth-Century France, the book before you now, is the revised edition of the first edition titled Forging Freedom: Cerf Berr of Médelsheim (published in 2012). This revised edition of Cerf Berr of Médelsheim, 1726–1793: Emancipating the Jews in Eighteenth-Century France includes information about the author, a preface, and images, and it conforms to the writing and document preparation standards of the Chicago Manual of Style.

Margaret R. O’Leary, MD

Fairway, Kansas

April 2014

CHAPTER ONE:

THE OLD MAN OF ALSACE

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I n the early afternoon of December 7, 1793, an old man lay motionless at last, surrounded by his family, rabbis, and members of the burial society who would prepare his body for Jewish burial. Outside of his Strasbourg home on Quai Finkwiller, city and provincial authorities intimidated, imprisoned, and randomly executed residents who had grown disaffected with the French revolutionary creed and fight. Sixteen days earlier, Strasbourg Mayor Pierre Monet had ordered the old man into a dank jail in cold weather. Now the old man, only recently released to home, was dead.

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A Jewish man’s final hours with the chevra kadisha, or Jewish burial society. This example is from Prague, 1772.

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Map of the Rhine Graben in Central Europe.

The burial society members gently placed the old man into a plain wooden coffin, covered it with a black sheet until nightfall, and took it to the forbidden Rosenwiller Jewish Cemetery for burial even though two weeks earlier, the French Revolutionary Government in Paris had ordered Rosenwiller Jewish Cemetery destroyed. All future burials of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in France were to be in civil cemeteries stripped of all religious symbols and decorated with a new Cult of Reason sign that read, Death is an eternal sleep. Despite the ravaged state of the Rosenwiller Jewish Cemetery, the old man’s kin were determined to bury him there. Who was this old man? What did he accomplish during his life that commended him to such extraordinary efforts by his kin? Were his kin successful in burying him in Rosenwiller Jewish Cemetery?

The name of the old man was Cerf Berr of Médelsheim (pronounced Serf BARE of MAY-del-shime), the hero of this book. He lived most of his life near the Rhine River that tumbles out of the Alps and flows through the south–north trending trench of the Rhine graben rift system, crossing Europe from Marseille, France, to Rotterdam, Netherlands.¹–² Beneath the floor of the Rhine Valley lay miles of sediment beneath which a giant pillow of molten rock boils.¹–³ The last major earthquake associated with the Rhine graben occurred on October 18, 1356, at its south end near present-day Basel, Switzerland. This earthquake destroyed most of Basel and generated shock waves felt as far west and east as Paris and Prague, respectively.⁴ The Kaiserstuhl Mountains (maximum elevation around 1,800 feet above sea level) on the Rhine Valley floor near Freiburg were originally active volcanoes.⁵ The valley floor and lateral edges of the Rhine graben were sinking and spreading, respectively, during Cerf Berr’s lifetime, and they continue to do so today.

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Schematic map showing the Great European Plain (darker colored area).

The heights of both the Vosges (France) and the Black Forest (Germany) form the western and eastern boundaries, respectively, of the Rhine graben. These heights appear as rounded mountain chains but are actually the upthrown shoulders of the downthrown Rhine graben. The Vosges extend northeasterly between the French cities of Belfort and Saverne and boast the Grand Ballon, the highest peak at around 4,700 feet above sea level. The Jura Mountains near Basel form the natural southern boundary of the Rhine graben. The northern aspect of the Rhine graben lacks a natural boundary and yawns to the North Sea.

What is the location of the Rhine River Valley in Europe? The dominant territorial feature of Europe is its vast west-to-east, upward-trending plain—the Great European Plain—which stretches without interruption for over 2,400 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ural Mountains.⁶ Its greatest width is about 1,200 miles between the Barents and Caspian Seas. Its narrowest width is about 125 miles in the Low Countries. The Great European Plain simultaneously tips in two directions—up from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ural Mountains at an average west-to-east gradient of twenty-six inches per mile, and down from the Alps to the North Sea. Most of the major rivers of the Great European Plain flow northward. For eons, humans have followed these rivers to settle Northern Europe. The geography of the south-to-north–flowing rivers of the Great European Plain creates a series of natural breaks for people migrating across the Great European Plain, dividing the journey into six or seven easy stages. The Great European Plain is a windy, dry sea of grasses except for the area between the Rhine River Valley and the Oder River Valley where impenetrable, forested hills dominate the landscape.⁶

The Rhine River flows 766 miles from glaciers in the Alps to the shallow North Sea near Rotterdam. Geographers divide the Rhine River into four sections—the High Rhine River (confined to the Alps), the Upper Rhine River (from Basel northward to Bingen), the Middle Rhine River (from Bingen to Bonn), and the Lower Rhine River (from Bonn to the Hook of Holland). Cerf Berr spent most of his life in the region west of the Upper Rhine River. The Upper Rhine River receives many tributaries, including the Ill River, which invests the city of Strasbourg. The Quai Finkwiller outside of Cerf Berr’s Strasbourg home is an arm of the Ill River. The Ill River runs the length of Alsace from its source in the Jura Mountains northward to its mouth on the Rhine River.

Alsace is a small French province about 100 miles long (roughly south to north) by an average of twenty miles wide (east to west). It lies in the southernmost and westernmost part of the Rhine River Valley on France’s northeastern flank. The natural physical boundaries of Alsace are the Rhine River in the east, the Vosges in the west, the Lauter River in the north, and the Jura Mountains in the south. Strasbourg is located in the northern half of Alsace. Alsace forms a blunt point that pokes into Germany and Central Europe. Only the Rhine River separates France from Germany and Western Europe from Central Europe. Paris is about 240 miles due west of Strasbourg.

Geographers divide Alsace into Lower and Upper Alsace. During the French Revolution, politicians divided Alsace into the Bas-Rhin department (the Lower Rhine or Lower Alsace) and the Haut-Rhin department (the Upper Rhine or Upper Alsace). The words upper and "haut refer to the higher average altitude (closer to the Alps) of the so-designated region. The words lower and bas" refer to their lower average altitude (farther from the Alps, closer to sea level at the Hook of Holland).

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Map of Alsace, France.

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Map showing the location of Alsace in France.

The Palatinate is the German region north of the Lauter River and west of the Rhine River. Baden-Württemberg and Hesse are German states facing the Palatinate from the east side of the Rhine River. The Palatinate occupies the western side of the Rhine graben, north of Alsace. Heights, which are not as high as the Vosges of Alsace, form part of the western aspect of the Palatinate (the tallest height in the Palatinate is around 2,800 feet above sea level). The heights of both the Palatinate and the Vosges are the same upthrown western shoulders of the downthrown Rhine graben.

Saarland is an obscurely defined region of the Palatinate, which shares its southern boundary with Lorraine province, France. Lorraine and Alsace provinces are contiguous along the western side of Alsace and the eastern side of Lorraine. Cerf Berr was born in Médelsheim, a rural village in the southeastern corner of Saarland. Médelsheim is one mile north of the boundary between Saarland and Lorraine.

During Cerf Berr’s lifetime, Alsace was unlike any other part of France because of its unique geography and history. Most Alsatians spoke German, an Alsatian dialect, or Yiddish, and could not fathom the French language. They initially shared the national enthusiasm for the French Revolution beginning in 1789 but retained a strong sense of their peculiar local identity, which differed from that of Parisians and other Frenchmen who resided in the interior of France. For example, most Alsatians, including Cerf Berr, sympathized with the plight of Louis XVI, king of France (1754–1793, ruled 1774–1791), during the French Revolution and applauded the adoption of the French Constitution of 1791, which created a constitutional monarchy. However, most Alsatians, including Cerf Berr, worried when the French Revolution took a radical turn in 1792. Historian Norman Hampson noted, The impact of the Revolution on this idiosyncratic society [Alsace] was both complex and difficult for men from the ‘interior’ to appreciate. Alsace could not respond like the rest of the country to the new conception of France as an integrated national community. To the majority of the rural population isolated by the linguistic barrier, the Revolution was an essentially alien movement.⁷

Alsatian society was also distinctive because of its Ashkenazi population, which was the largest Jewish population in eighteenth-century France. Before the French Revolution, France had four Jewish population centers:

• the Ashkenazim in the three provinces of Alsace, Lorraine, and the Three Bishoprics (Metz, Verdun, and Toul with Lorraine)

• the Sephardim in southwestern France (Bordeaux, Saint Esprit-les-Bayonne, and several smaller towns)

• the four Sephardi communities in the papal possessions of Avignon and Comtat Venaissin

• a mixed community of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews in Paris⁸

The Sephardim, with whom Cerf Berr sometimes sparred, immigrated to France from Iberia after expulsion by Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452–1516) and Isabella I of Castille (1451–1504), the king and queen of Spain during the fifteenth-century Spanish Inquisition (1492–1501). The word Sephardim derives from the Hebrew word for Spain. The Sephardi Jews rapidly assimilated into mainstream French society as international traders. They received royal letters patent in the early eighteenth century that openly acknowledged their Jewish faith (for many years, they had pretended to be Christians) and granted them the rights of subjects of the French king in his kingdom. Letters patent were communications written on parchment, marked with the king’s seal, and countersigned by the king’s secretary of state. They were called patent (after the Latin word patere, meaning to open) because they were delivered open (i.e., not in an envelope or folded).

About 40,000 Jews (Ashkenazim plus Sephardim) lived in France on the eve of the French Revolution. Of these 40,000 Jews, the Ashkenazim in Alsace comprised over 70 percent (about 28,000 individuals), while the Sephardim comprised about 20 percent (about 8,000 individuals).⁹–¹⁰ In 1789, the total population of France was about 28,000,000 people.¹¹ Thus, in 1789, Jews made up a tiny percentage (about one-tenth percent) of the total French population. The French Protestants, the other significant minority in France, made up about two percent of the population (about 600,000 individuals). French Catholics comprised more than 97 percent (over 27,000,000 individuals) of the total population of France.¹²

In 1784, the total population of Alsace province was around 624,000 people, according to a royal census ordered by Louis XVI. Of these 624,000 people, almost 20,000 were Ashkenazim. Thus, in 1784, the Ashkenazim comprised slightly more than three percent of the population of Alsace, although this is almost certainly an underestimate.¹³

Most people living in Alsace and in southern France personally knew Jews. However, in the rest of France, people could pass their entire lives without ever meeting a Jew. Their information about Jews came from printed materials and by word of mouth. Cerf Berr of Médelsheim relentlessly exposed the plight of the impoverished Ashkenazim to both Louis XV (1710–1774, ruled 1715–1774) and Louis XVI, as well as to the National Assembly during the French Revolution.

In 1784, the Ashkenazim in Alsace lived in 182 small and rural towns scattered throughout the province. These towns belonged to at least sixty-one different owners, including Louis XVI, Roman Catholic authorities, municipal authorities, and nobles of the Holy Roman Empire.⁹ Historian Zosa Szajkowski assembled a long list of the owners who permitted settlement by the Ashkenazim. Examples from this list follow:

Ownership of Alsatian Towns and Cities in Which Ashkenazim Were Permitted to Dwell (1784)

• Louis XVI, king of France, owned nine towns and cities, which were home to more than 1,300 Ashkenazim.

• The city of Colmar owned one city (itself), which was home to twenty-eight Ashkenazim.

• The city of Colmar and the Imperial bailiff of Kayserberg together owned three towns and cities, which were home to about 900 Ashkenazim.

• The prince bishop of Strasbourg owned sixteen towns and cities, which were home to about 1,500 Ashkenazim.

• The abbey of Neubourg owned two towns, which were home to eighty-one Ashkenazim.

• The landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt owned twenty-one towns and cities, which were home to about 1,900 Ashkenazim.

• The prince of Hohenlohe owned six towns, which were home to about 350 Ashkenazim.

• The prince of Rohan-Soubise owned six towns, which were home to about 600 Ashkenazim.

• The prince of Nassau-Saarbrücken owned one town, which was home to six Ashkenazim.⁹

In summary, Cerf Berr of Médelsheim lived during the eighteenth century in Alsace province, which lies between the Rhine River and the Vosges of the Rhine River Valley in northeastern France. The Ashkenazim and Sephardim comprised the majority and minority populations of Jews, respectively, in France. The Ashkenazim and Sephardim together comprised a miniscule minority population in France. The Ashkenazim in France mostly lived in the three French provinces of Alsace, Lorraine, and the Three Bishoprics. In 1784, the Ashkenazim in Alsace province were scattered across 182 privately owned, small, and rural towns.

CHAPTER ONE NOTES

1.   J. H. Illies, The Rhine Graben Rift System-Plate Tectonics and Transform Faulting, Surveys in Geophysics 1, no. 1 (1972), 27–60.

2.   J. H. Illies, An Intercontinental Belt of the World Rift System, Tectonophysics 8, no. 1 (July 1969), 5–29. The pulling apart of the Earth’s crust at the graben began in the Middle Eocene epoch about forty million years ago.

3.   James E. Wilson, Terroir: The Role of Geology, Climate, and Culture in the Making of French Wines (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998), 82–107.

4.   Jérôme Lambert et al., New Hypotheses on the Maximum Damage Area of the 1356 Basel Earthquake (Switzerland), Quaternary Science Reviews 24, no. 3–4 (February 2005), 381–399.

5.   C. E. Perrin, A Lost Identity: Philippe Frederic, Baron de Dietrich (1748–1793), Isis 73, no. 4 (December 1982), 545–551.

6.   Norman Davies, Europe: A History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 51–52.

7.   Norman Hampson, Saint-Just (Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell, 1991), 140–141.

8.   Zosa Szajkowski, Relations among Sephardim, Ashkenazim, and Avignonese Jews in France from the 16th to the 20th Centuries, Jews and the French Revolutions of 1789, 1830 and 1848 (New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1970), 235.

9.   Zosa Szajkowski, The Demographic Aspects of Jewish Emancipation in France during the French Revolution, Jews and the French Revolutions of 1789, 1830 and 1848 (New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1970), 45–74.

10.   Zosa Szajkowski, The Growth of the Jewish Population in France, Jews and the French Revolutions of 1789, 1830 and 1848 (New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1970), 75–80.

11.   Peter M. Jones, Reform and Revolution in France: The Politics of Transition, 1774–1791 (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 13.

12.   Rémi Fabre, Les Protestants en France Depuis 1789 (Paris: La Découverte, 1999), 6.

13.   The data collected during the Jewish census of 1784 is available in Denombrement des Juifs d’Alsace, 1784 (Strasbourg, France: Cercle de Généalogie Juive, Éditions du Cédrat, n.d.). See also Simon Schwarzfuchs, Alsace and Southern Germany: The Creation of a Border, Jewish Emancipation Reconsidered, eds. Michael Brenner, Vicki Caron, and Uri R. Kaufmann (London: Leo Baeck Institute, 2003), 9.

CHAPTER TWO:

CERF BERR’S JEWISH

HERITAGE, 63 BC–AD 1726

C erf Berr of Médelsheim belonged to the ethno-religious group known as the Jews, Hebrews, or Israelites, whose roots are complex. The English word Jew derived from the Latin word Judaeus , which itself derived from the Hebrew word yehudi . The word yehudi derived from the proper name Yehuda, or Judah. Judah was the name of one of the twelve sons of Jacob. Judah was also the head of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Judah’s mother, Leah, named him Yehuda to praise God for giving birth to so many sons (Genesis 29:35).

During the first century BC, the Romans assigned the word Judaea to the Hebrew province centered on Jerusalem. The word Hebrew derived from the name of the original language (Hebrew) spoken by the Jews. In the first century AD, the Jews used the name Israel on their coins in conscious rejection of the Roman-assigned name Judaea.¹ The word Ashkenazim refers to the Yiddish-speaking group of Jews who first settled around AD 1000 on the banks of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers of western Europe in the area designated by them as Loter.²

The following overview of the Jewish heritage of Cerf Berr of Médelsheim comprises five sections: The Roman era (63 BC–AD 476), the European Early Middle Ages (476–1000), the European High Middle Ages (1000–1300), the European Late Middle Ages (1300–1500), and the European Early Modern Period (1500–1726). Histories of the long Jewish experience before 63 BC are available elsewhere.³

THE ROMAN ERA, 63 BC–AD 476

During Sabbath in June 63 BC, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (106–48 BC, henceforth, Pompey), a Roman Republic military commander, conquered the Hebrew-speaking people of the kingdom of Judaea by defeating King Aristobulus II (ruled 66–63 BC), the Hebrew Hasmonean dynast. The Roman soldiers entered the court of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem through a breach in the wall during a prolonged siege, killed the Jewish high priests as they stood sacrificing before the altar, and slaughtered around 12,000 Judaeans who were attending Sabbath services. Pompey entered the sanctuary of the Jewish Temple to satisfy his curiosity about the much-rumored nature of Judaean worship. He found simplicity and no images. The Jewish religion prohibited visible representation of the Godhead. Pompey left untouched the sanctuary treasure of 2,000 talents of sacred money. However, his entry into the sanctuary symbolically ended Jewish sovereignty and subjected Judaea to Roman rule.⁴

Pompey executed the most determined of his Judaean prisoners of war; razed the walls of Jerusalem; placed Judaea in the category of conquered provinces; levied a tax on the people of Jerusalem; and transported Aristobulus II, his daughters, and many learned and skilled Judaeans across the Mediterranean Sea to Rome on the west side of the Italian Peninsula. The Judaean captives joined a group of Jewish merchants already living as free men in Rome.⁴

In AD 26, Praetorian Prefect Lucius Aelius Sejanus (20 BC–AD 31) gained control of the entire state mechanism in Rome when Roman Emperor Tiberius (42 BC–AD 37, ruled AD 14–37) withdrew to Capri off the coast of Naples, Italy. Sejanus dispatched Pontius Pilate (ruled AD 26–36) to Judaea to succeed Valerius Gratus (ruled AD 15–26) as the fifth prefect to govern Judaea since its conquest by Pompey in 63 BC.

Around AD 30, the Galilean Jew named Jesus traveled to Judaea where he disturbed the Passover celebration in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Temple guards arrested and led him not before the great Synhedrion (Sanhedrin), but before twenty-three members of a smaller court of justice presided over by Joseph Caiaphas, a Roman-appointed high priest. Because Jesus answered questions in a certain way, the Jewish court of justice declared him guilty of blasphemy. Pontius Pilate then tried Jesus, who answered his questions in a certain way that led to a sentence of execution. Pontius Pilate alone had the power to enforce the verdict of execution. Roman soldiers treated Jesus according to Roman penal laws, which included scourging and crucifixion in Golgotha, the place of skulls. Jesus had twelve disciples while he was alive and preaching. After his crucifixion, the twelve disciples became the 12 apostles who proclaimed Jesus the risen lord Christ and the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. The apostles spread the gospel of Jesus to peoples living around the Mediterranean Sea.

From around AD 68 to 100, four Christians named Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote separate narratives describing the life, teachings, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. These narratives were included in the canonical Christian New Testament.⁵

Image9.jpg

Bust of Roman Emperor Vespasian (ruled AD 69–79).

In Jerusalem in AD 66, a Jewish sect called the Zealots attempted to drive the Romans from Judaea through armed guerilla-type warfare. Roman Emperor Vespasian (AD 9–79, ruled 69–79) sent his eldest son Titus Flavius Vespansianus (39–81, ruled 79–81) to subdue the Zealots. In 70, Titus finally won a prolonged siege of Jerusalem. The exhausted Romans took the rich spoils of the sanctuary of the Jewish Temple before torching it to the ground. They depopulated Judaea by butchering, banishing, or selling the Hebrews into slavery.

In 132, Judaean Simon Bar-Cochba led another revolt against the Romans that required direct intervention by Roman Emperor Hadrian (76–138, ruled 117–138). After three years of fighting, Hadrian’s army crushed the revolutionaries, razed the Temple Mount, and began construction of a new Greek-styled pagan city called Aelia Capitolina on the northern edge of Jerusalem.

Image10.jpg

Bust of Roman Emperor Hadrian (ruled 117–138).

Hadrian forbade Jews from entering Aelia Capitolina. On the razed Temple Mount, he built a column in his own honor and a temple to honor Jupiter, the Roman god of war. Hadrian was so angry with the recalcitrant Judeans that he prohibited circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, marriages on Wednesday, attendance at religious schools, and other Jewish rites and customs. His persecution of the Jews was so severe that some Jewish Christians sought political and religious recognition as a body separate from the Jews.⁶

Amid the tumult in Judaea in 135, Judah I, also known as Judah the Prince, was born. Around 189, fifty-four-year-old Judah I completed the compilation of Jewish oral law in a sacred text called the Mishna. The compilation of the Mishna had begun two generations earlier. Judah endeavored to observe a certain systematic order in dealing with the various traditional laws relating to the prayers, to benedictions, taxes on agricultural produce, the Sabbath, festivals and fasts, marriage customs, vows and Nazarites, civil and criminal jurisdiction, the system of sacrifices, levitical purity, and many other points, said Heinrich Graetz, one of the first historians to write a history of the Jewish people from the Jewish perspective.

The Mishna is a sacred text beyond the Hebrew Bible, or Torah. The Torah consists of the Law of God, as revealed to Moses. The Torah comprises Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy of the Hebrew Bible. Other names for the Torah are the Books of Moses, the Pentateuch, and the Old Testament. The Mishna contains certain laws that Jews transmitted orally from one generation to the next over many centuries. The constantly changing conditions of life required new regulations, and some sort of an organization must have been in operation from the times of Ezra on to make the Law effective in the life of the community, to preserve it, and to widen its scope, noted historian Hermann L. Strack.⁷

The Mishna contains no laws pertaining to Christians, said Graetz, suggesting that the danger with which Judaism had been threatened by the Jewish Christians, since the destruction of the Temple until the Bar-Cochba War, had already been averted, and that danger was now no longer to be dreaded. On the other hand, the Mishna contains numerous laws directed against paganism and interaction with pagans, or gentiles. The pagans were non-Abrahamic (i.e., not Jews, not Christians), Greco-Roman polytheistic believers. Paganism still suffused Palestine, and paganism’s love of the images of idols deeply offended the Jews. Mishnaic laws on this subject included prohibiting Jews from receiving medical care during any illness by pagans; selling ornaments or other objects for the use as idols by pagans; or renting houses to them in Palestine, because pagans would desecrate the premises through introduction of the images of idols.⁸

Roman Emperor Caracalla (188–217, ruled 198–217) issued his famous Constitutio Antoniniana Edict in 211 to extend citizenship to every inhabitant of the Roman Empire, including all Jews. The purpose of the Constitutio