deed recognized the odium that the
German Jews were calculated to bring on the Jewish cause, and in an
address to the Assembly on January 22, 1790, dissociated themselves from
the aggressive claims of the Ashkenazim:

We dare to believe that our condition in France would not to-day be
open to discussion if certain demands of the Jews of Alsace,
Lorraine, and the Trois Eveches [i.e. Metz, Toul, and Verdun] had
not caused a confusion of ideas which appears to reflect on us. We
do not yet know exactly what these demands are, but to judge by the
public papers they appear to be rather extraordinary since these
Jews aspire to live in France under a special regime, to have laws
peculiar to themselves, and to constitute a class of citizens
separated from all the others.

As for us, our condition in France has long since been settled. We
have been naturalized French since 1550; we possess all kinds of
properties, and we enjoy the unlimited right to acquire estates. We
have neither laws, tribunals, nor officers of our own[626]

In adopting this attitude the Sephardim created a precedent which, if it
had been followed henceforth consistently by their co-religionists,
might have gone far to allay prejudice against the Jewish race. It was
the solidarity generally presented by the Jews towards the rest of the
community which excited alarm in the minds of French citizens. Thirty
years earlier the merchants of Paris, in a petition against the
admission of the Jews to their corporations, indicated by an admirable
simile the danger this solidarity offered to free commerce.

The French merchant carries on his commerce alone; each commercial
house is in a way isolated, whilst the Jews are particles of
quicksilver, which at the least slant run together into a
block.[627]

But in spite of all protests, the decree emancipating the Jews of Alsace
was passed in September 1791, and hymns of praise were sung in the
synagogues.

What part was actually played by the Jews in the tumults of the
Revolution it is impossible to determine, for the reason that they are
seldom designated as such in the writings of contemporaries. On this
point Jewish writers appear to be better informed than the rest of the
world, for Monsieur Leon Kahn in his panegyric on the part played by his
co-religionists in the Revolution[628] finds Jews where even Drumont
failed to detect th