The Abbe Gregoire and the Jews

Henri-Baptiste Gregoire's work in behalf of Jewish enfranchisement was not only important for French Jewish history, but it also influenced his career & therefore became enmeshed in the pol'al controversies of the Revolution, particularly those pertaining to the Constitutional church. His philo-Semitic actions between 1785 & 1806 show the connection between reforms within the French Catholic Church & within French Judaism. Both reform movements illuminate the revolutionaries' insistence upon using gov'al authority to impose religious innovations, thus denying the religious tolerance which they proclaimed. In the process, they alienated orthodox believers from the Revolution & greatly strengthened counterrevolutionary forces. Gregoire's reasons for encouraging Jewish enfranchisement were linked to his neo-Jansenist theology as well as his environmentalist philosophy. This combination shows the 18th cent transition from Christian to nat'list anti-Semitism, while his interest in converting the Jews presages the cultural nat'lism of 19th cent Europe. AA.