Trudy Gold
Napoleon and the Jews, Part 1
Summary
Napoleon knocked down the ghetto walls wherever he conquered. He ushered in a new era for the Jews, but at a price. “For the Jews as individuals everything, for Israel as a nation nothing.”
He unleashed on them all the dangers and all the opportunities of the modern world.
Trudy Gold
Trudy Gold was the CEO of the London Jewish Cultural Centre and a founding member of the British delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Throughout her career she taught modern Jewish history at schools, universities, and to adult groups and ran seminars on Holocaust education in the UK, Eastern Europe, and China. She also led Jewish educational tours all over the world. Trudy was the educational director of the student resources “Understanding the Holocaust” and “Holocaust Explained” and the author of The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization.
Yes. It wouldn’t have been allowed by the Catholic church. You’ve got to remember, the French Revolution was secular. You had civil marriage and civil divorce.
It’s a very, very important question. In the areas that Napoleon had conquered, once that is taken back by the reactionary princes, all the rights or everything awarded by Napoleon is taken away. In France, the rights awarded by Napoleon, I’m going to talk about it on Thursday. They’re going to be changed somewhat by him, but it’s never stopped. But many of them fell so in love with France. They wanted to take the final step.