Trudy Gold
Napoleon, the Jews and Jewish Identity, Part 2

Trudy Gold | Napoleon, the Jews and Jewish Identity Part 2 | 08.02.21

• [Wendy] So true. You know we see we three minutes into the hour, into the half hour. So I’m going to turn over to you. Yes, thank you. Welcome everybody. Welcome for another week. We’re now into August. It’s hard to believe.

Visuals displayed throughout the presentation.

• Yes, we’re into August and good evening everyone from London. And of course last week I began, what I’ve decided to do in my sessions over the next month or so, I’m really going to be concentrating on Jewish identity. And when William lectured on Napoleon, what was obvious is Napoleon is one of these characters whose force, whose personality changes history. The Jews are totally irrelevant to Napoleon, but the point to make is Napoleon is so important to Jewish history, because it’s not just the Jews of France who have been swept up by the French Revolution. Don’t forget the conquest of the French Revolution and the conquest of Napoleon.

So what happens in France also affects the Jews in occupied Europe. So important to remember that. And something else before we actually get onto the 12 questions, which we began to look at last week, it’s this. Already there were cracks in Jewish identity in the West. When I talk about Germany later on this month, I’ll be talking of course in general about the work of Moses Mendelssohn, and may I please recommend those of you who’ve come online late, can I please recommend “The Pity of It All” by Elon. It’s one of the best books on German history, German Jewish history you will ever read. And it reads like a novel. “The Pity of It All.”

Anyway, already in Germany, figures of the Enlightenment, thinking where the Jews fit in and also amongst certain Jews, particularly those wealthy Jewish bankers in Berlin who were beginning to mix in Gentile society and also the work of Moses Mendelssohn. So already there are groups of Jews in Europe who are rethinking and are really falling in love with western culture. It’s early days yet, but it’s already there. And I think it’s quite well summed up by actually Behr, Isaac Behr in 1791 when he writes a letter. He’s one of the Jews of course who I’ve mentioned to you last time, who he was one of the members of the Assembly of Notables.

He already wrote this. “French ought to be the Jews mother’s tongue because they are reared with us amongst Frenchmen.” So already this in itself is a huge change of identity. And I think one of the things that we have to live with and deal with is that the majority of Jews who are going to be emancipated in the West, they really perceive the outside world as something they really want, and they begin to develop a more downgraded view of the world they come from. And I think that’s something that has very much marked Jewish identity in the west. And this is the period when for the first time we really have to consider what the word Jew means, because really up until this time nobody would’ve asked the Jews if they were thought of anything.

They would’ve considered themselves to be a nation in exile. And please don’t forget how small the Jewish population was. When we’re talking about France, we’re talking about 40,000 people. When we’re talking about the German lands, you are talking about 150,000. So you are not looking at a large population. And the other point to make of course in terms of Napoleon and the revolution and the work they did, let me just read to you when they take Padua, liberty, equality in the name of the French Republic, the general government of the Paduan Delta first, the street of the Hebrews, the Hebrews are at liberty to live in any street they please, secondly that the barbarous and meaningless name of ghetto, which designates the street which they’ve been inhabiting, shall be substituted with that of via libera.

So you have this in many of the countries. Those of you who have travelled in Italy, you will know if you go, if you’re interested in Jewish history, you will know that the streets are usually called the Via Libera. And this in itself sends shock waves. But then just a recap on what I discussed with you last week. It took the French Revolution until September, 1791 to emancipate all the Jews of France. The Sephardi already distanced themselves from their Ashkenazi brethren. They had advantageous treaties, and remember they had been in the main conversos, they were wealthier, they were used to mixing in non-Jewish society, and they basically cut themselves off from the Jews of Alsace and Lorraine. So it’s not until 1791 that they are actually emancipated.

And then of course, as I mentioned to you, you have the situation when Napoleon is returning from Alsemitz when a group of deputies from Alsace say to him, “we are still in depth to the Jews, what are you going to do about it?” And that’s when Napoleon realises he has a problem. Now, what Napoleon believed above all else is the central power of the state. He later on is going to do a deal with the Catholic church. He’s going to allow the Catholic church to reestablish in France, but he’s going to control it. He’s going to pay the priests. The same is going to happen with the Huguenots. Remember this is the genius of the man behind the Code Napoleon, a set of laws, central laws. And now he has an anomaly.

Can he deal with the Jews? And you’ll remember from last week the question Count Molay, Napoleon’s envoy, he makes it quite clear, to the Jews as individuals, everything. To Israel as a nation, nothing. And the 12 questions are very clever. So let us go onto the 12 questions if you don’t mind. Judy, could we have them on the screen? Thank you. And we looked at the first three. Is it lawful for Jews to marry more than one wife? Is divorce allowed by the Jewish religion? Can a Jewess marry a Christian? And the answers of course bearing in mind that they know if they don’t give the answers Napoleon wants, they’re going to be expelled.

They give the answers that Napoleon wants. Those of you who are just joining, of course, using Jewish law, what they have to do is to go back to Geshom, the Geshom, the great synod is Vehm where he pronounces anathema against any Jew who took more than one wife. And of course divorce is valid. The complication is this. Is divorce valid when it’s not pronounced by the courts of justice? Now as I mentioned last week, in England, there is a problem, because the terms of Jewish divorce are very different from the terms of Britain. So consequently in England, if you have a civil divorce, of course you’re free to marry, but if you don’t have a Jewish divorce, a gett, you cannot marry again in a synagogue.

So they fudged all this, because they wanted to give Napoleon the answer he wanted. Now, can a Jewess marry a Christian? As I said to you, this is the one that the rabbis had problems with, because obviously no Jew can marry a Christian in synagogue any more than any Jew can marry a Christian in church without conversion. But of course they can marry, because there are secular courts. Secular marriage now exists, and secular divorce in France. So they did give Napoleon the answers he wanted. Now the fourth question. In the eyes of Jews, are the Frenchmen considered in the eyes of Jews, are Frenchman considered as brothers or as strangers?

I hope some of you thought about these questions over the weekend, because really this is the citizenship test. Now this is the answer that they give, remembering there are rabbis and lay people in the Assembly of Notables. “In the eyes of Jews, Frenchmen are their brethren, and are not strangers.” I’m quoting now from the responses of the assembly. “The true spirit of the law of Moses is consonant with this mode of considering Frenchmen. When the Israelites formed and settled an independent nation, their law made it a rule for them to consider strangers as brethren. Lovely, therefore, the stranger says Moses to the Israelites, the ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

And and that actually appears 66 times in the Torah. And then they go on to say, “a religion whose fundamental maxims are such, a religion which makes it a duty of loving the stranger, which enforces the practise of social virtue must surely require the followers to consider their fellow citizens of brethren.” Now I want you to listen to this very, very carefully. “And how could they consider them otherwise when they inhabit the same land, when they are ruled and protected by the same government, and by the same rules, when they enjoy the same rights and have the same duties to fulfil. There exists even between the Jew and the Christian a tie which abundantly compensates for religion. It is the tie of gratitude.

This sentiment was at first excitingness by the mere grant of toleration. It has been increased these 18 years since the revolution by new favours from government to such a degree of energy that now our fate is irrevocably linked to that with the common fate of all Frenchmen. Yes, France is our country. All Frenchmen are our brethren, and this glorious title, by raising up our own esteem, becomes a sure pledge that we shall never cease to be worthy of it.” Okay. “In either case, what line of conduct is the law prescribed towards Frenchmen, not of their religion? Basically because the French are now our brothers, exactly the same. So therefore we will treat Frenchmen just as we treat another Jew.”

The sixth question is a fascinating one. “Do the Jews born in France and treated by the French law as French citizens consider France as their country? Are they bound to defend it? Are they bound to obey the laws and follow the direction of the civil code?” Now here you have the great one. Where does your loyalty lie? Does it lie to Jews throughout the world, your community, your nation, or does it lie with the Frenchmen? Are you going to be Jews of the, are you going to be Frenchmen of the Jewish religion? And as I said to you, because Napoleon’s the conqueror, at the Assembly of Notables, you had Jews from the Rhineland, you had Jews from Italy, and these ideas are going to extend wherever Napoleon conquers.

Please don’t forget that one of his brothers takes over the Duchy of Warsaw, another one of his brothers takes over the Kingdom of Vesfalia. So it’s going to extend. And this really does become the citizenship idea. So, “men who adopted a country who’ve resided in it under many direct generations who even under the restraint of particular laws, which abridged their civil rights, were so attached to it they preferred being debarred from the advantages common to other citizens rather than leave it cannot but consider themselves equally sacred and honourable the bound duty of defending their country.”

And they use as the example, of course, Jeremiah 29 where he exhorts the Jews living in Babylon. Even though they were only going to remain there for 70 years, he exhorts them. And I’m quoting now of course from the Hebrew Bible. “To till the ground, to build houses, to sew and to plant.” And according to what they then say is that his recommendation was so much attended to that Ezra says that when Cyrus allowed them to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, 42,360 only left. And this was mainly, that was about 10%, mainly composed of the poor people, the wealthy having remained in the city.

Now, let me come to a couple of phrases that I really want you to think about. The love of the country in the heart of Jews is a sentiment so natural, so powerful, and so consonant to their religious opinions that a French Jew considers himself in England as amongst strangers, although he may be amongst Jews, and the case is the same with English Jews in France. To such a pitch is this sentiment carried among them that during the last war, French Jews have been fighting desperately against other Jews, the subjects of countries then at war with France, many of them are covered with honourable wounds and others obtained in the field of honour the neighbour rewards of bravery.

The Napoleonic wars are the first wars where you would’ve had this conflict. It’s important to remember this. And now what they’re saying is France is our country. We are Frenchmen. And if you think about it later on, when we talk about the work of the alliance that spread French culture in all the French colonies, think about, I’m sure online there will be Saphardin many of whose families were educated in the Alliance schools and were educated in French and in French culture. So this is really, and for me, in many ways, the beginnings of modernity and all the decisions and dilemmas that Jews have to make.

And then the other questions, this is about what kind of police jurisdiction have the rabbis? What judicial power do they have? What Napoleon’s about here, all he wants to know, are there any amongst you who would in any way rival the French state, rival my power? And of course they give him the answers that he wants. Are there professions from which the Jews are excluded by their law?

Well actually there aren’t. Only those professions that would be considered immoral or illegal. So they can give that answer. Does the law forbid the Jews from taking usury from their brethren? I’m going to bring it together with the the 12th question. Does it forbid or does it allow usury towards strangers? And this is the answer again, there are rabbis present, and remember they’re using the sources. They’re using as many of the Talmudic and sources from the various prophets and the Hebrew Bible and all the commentaries to give Napoleon the answer he wanted.

And they answer from Deuteronomy, “thou shall not lent upon interest to thy brother, interest of money, interest of victuals interested of anything that is lent on interest. The Hebrew word neshir has been improperly translated by the word usury. In the Hebrew language, it means interest of any kind and not usurious interest. It could then not be taken in the meaning now given to the word usury. And then they go on to say, how on earth would we treat the non-Jews in any way different because they are our brothers? So they give Napoleon the answers he wants and therefore he’s in a position to take it further and he decides he is going to convene something known as the Grand Sanhedrin.

Now of course, and at the Grand Sanhedrin, they’re going to ratify the decisions. Can we please see the next slide, Judy? There you have a pictorial view of the Grand Sanhedrin. Do you realise how important this was? ‘Cause if you think about the Grand Sanhedrin, it’s to be held on the 9th of February 1807. There’s going to be 71 delegates, including 46 rabbis from all over the French Empire. Now this is absolutely critical, because can you imagine the emperor of the French, the most powerful man in the world now, is convening our assembly again, which hasn’t been held since the Roman times. And no institution in Judaism ever possessed more power than that Grand Sanhedrin.

So it has an incredible impact on them. Now, but that’s not really the end of the story, 'cause this is what Napoleon, this is Napoleon’s view on the Sanhedrin. And this is a letter written on November the 29th, 1806 in advance of the Sanhedrin. And this is what Napoleon had to say. From the doctrine which will be established by the Great Sanhedrin that the Jews must consider Christians as brothers, it follows not only that marriages between Jews and Christians not be anathematized, but they re be recommended, because they are vital to the state. The obligation in every department or district of the Sanhedrin or Consistory to authorise only two marriages between Jews and Jewesses out of every three marriages, the third between being be between Jew and Christian.

After the establishment of the assembly, what Napoleon did was to set up a consistory system. He wanted to govern all the Jews of France just as he did with every other group. And in Paris, there was a central organisation of three rabbis, two lay people, they were not allowed to make, they had to ensure that nothing that was opposed to the decision of the Assembly of Notables ratified by the Grand Sanhedrin would happen, and every other consistory in France had to come off the Grand Sanhedrin. So you had one in the Grand Consistory. So you had one in Paris and 13 over the whole of the French Empire all reporting back to the one in Paris.

And every Jew who wanted to be considered part of the community had to register with a consistory. And also if you didn’t have any means of livelihood, you had to register with the consistory. And somebody else, the local rabbi had to encourage military service, had to encourage the Jews into wholesome pursuits. So the first point that Napoleon makes, very important, of every three marriages, only two which are sanctioned by the Sanhedrin, only two can be with Jews. Another important point. The obligation of furnishing a number of conscripts proportionate to the Israelite population without it being possible for an Israelite conscript to provide a replacement except it be by another Israelite.

If you were wealthy in France and about 80% of the French wealth was maintained by the bourgeoisie and the aristocrats, if you were wealthy in France, you could buy your children out of the French army unless you were a Jew. We’re going to make you loyal to the state, whatever happens. Now, another point, the primary object in mind had been to protect the Jewish people to come to the help of the country districts and to rescue several departments from the disgrace of finding themselves vassals to the Jews.

Remember it all started because in Alsace, a lot of the peasants were in debt to the Jews. So we are going to, if you charge more than 10% interest, that contract is invalid. And what we are going to do, we are going to, I’m quoting from Napoleon. "The second objective is to weaken, if not destroy the tendency of the Jewish people towards such a great number of practises which are country to civilization and to the good order of society in all the countries of the world.” You see, this is the downgraded view of the Jew. That even a man like Napoleon, you know, the great conqueror, the great educator, yes, he was a genius, but it’s important to understand how downgraded the view of the Jew was, even by those who are enlightened and those who are giving Jews rights.

Because one of the issues that I’ve always found most painful in studying 19th century Jewry in the West is almost this belief that the outside world is so much better than the world that they came from. Now this is what he then says. “It will be necessary to put an end to the evil by preventing it. It is necessary to prevent it by changing the Jews, or the measures proposed must lead to these two results. When amongst every three marriages, there will be one between Jew and a Christian, the blood of the Jew will cease to have any unique character. When they are prevented from devoting themselves exclusively to usury and brokerage, they will accustom themselves to engage in the crafts and the tendency towards usury will disappear.

When a proportion of the youth are required to enter the army, then we will stop having specific Jewish interests and feelings. They will assume French interests and feelings. When they are submitted to the authority of this civil law, all that will remain to them of Jews will be dogma and they will leave their current state of affairs where religion is the only civil law, a situation which exists amongst the Muslims, and which has always been the situation during the infancy of nations. It is wrong to say that the Jews are only degraded in those places where they are persecuted.

In Poland, where they are necessary to fill the place of the middle class of society and where they are esteemed and powerful, they are no less vile, dirty, and given to all the customs of base dishonesty. Theorizers will doubtless propose to limit themselves to amelioratory measures. How about this will not be sufficient? Good is accomplished slowly and a massive corrupt blood can only be improved by time. However, people are suffering, they are crying, and the intention of his majesty is to come to their help.

It is necessary to employ the two methods concurrently, the stick and the carrot obviously, "one in which aims to put a stock to the congregation and the other which aims to extinguish it. The grand Sanhedrin has the best wishes and respect of all those who are enlightened amongst the Jews of Europe. With this support, it has the power to expunge from mosaic legislation all those laws which are atrocious, and those which only refer to the situation of the Jews in Palestine.” So there you have it.

Napoleon, the assembly of no supports, and that’s what Napoleon wanted. And of course the Grand Sanhedrin is received with the most extraordinary acclaim, because this is the most, as I said to you before, this is the most powerful man in the world giving the Jews their assembly. And there was also something very, very, very cynical about this, because also his armies were invading Poland and he believed that a pro-Jewish declaration or is it in the light of Jewish history, a pro-Jewish declaration would mean that Jews would actually help him. Remember he’s fighting Czar Alexander I.

The czarist regime is incredibly, the autocratic czarist regime is incredibly harsh to the Jewish community. When Poland was carved up, if you remember the greatest proportion of Jews are now living under czarist rule. So it’s happening, the Grand Sanhedrin is happening, and it is reviewed with great acclaim amongst the Jewish world. However, following the Grand Sanhedrin, there was further anti-Jewish activity in Alsace. And Napoleon first thought, “well, they’re still engaged in usury, what am I going to do?” But then nap Portuguese and Jews are now living in Paris. They, the Portuguese Jews of Bordeaux, and those living in Paris managed to persuade the authorities that they were a different kind of Jew, so they were excluded from the measures that I’m now going to tell you about.

So he passes what is called the infamous decree. There was a moratorium on Jewish debts, which were more than 10% was to last for 10 years, which meant financial ruin for many of the Jews in Alsace. Any Jew who was involved in trade of commerce had to manage, he has to take annual approval from the local magistrate and the consistoi, he has, in order to trade every year, you had to have a certificate. Jews from other areas of France were not allowed to live in Alsace, it was believed that there were too many and that was causing anti-Jewish feeling. And so if you lived in Paris and you wanted to marry or whatever, you could not go to live in Alsace. No foreign Jew was allowed to settle in France unless they were involved in agriculture, and it ratifies the fact that no conscripts, Jewish conscripts, could be bought out of the French army.

There was a further decree a few months later, which insisted that all Jews who didn’t have family names adopt and register such a name within three months. And the names could not be from the Hebrew Bible and they couldn’t be from French cities. So we’re going to make you Frenchmen. Now, it was introduced for 10 years. It was due to going to abeyance in 1818, and of course, by that time, Napoleon had fallen. And you have a much more authoritarian regime under the Bourbon monarchy, which I’ll talk about next time. But in fact, the decree disappeared. So it lasted just for 10 years.

But the impact on other places outside of France, let me just give you a little detail. In the Rhineland, and this is so important, particularly because of some of the families in the Rhineland, there were 20,000 Jews, and the emancipation process, of course, was extended to them. In Hamburg and the Hanseatic city port, Jewish emancipation wasn’t welcomed, there were towns like Bremen and Lubeck which had previously forbidden any Jewish residents. They’re now under Napoleon’s control. The minute Napoleon is no longer in control, when he’s defeated, they again expel the Jews. The kingdom of Vasfalia is very important.

After Napoleon first defeated the Prussians at the Battle of Yena, this is very important this, because later on, you know, the enmity between France and Germany, which is going to impel itself, of course, in the Napoleonic Wars, and of course it was General Blucher at the Battle of Waterloo was so important to the winning of the war, and then again in the Franco-Prussian War, in the First World War, this is where it all goes back to. Now, the Kingdom of Valsfalia was established, ruled by his brother Jerome. And what was part of the Kingdom of Valsfalia, the Duchy of Hanover, which must really have upset the British because of course it was Hanoverians on the English throne, the Duchy of Brunswick, and various provinces, which meant that there was equality granted to 15,000 Jews.

Now I want to personalise it a little bit and bring into the story a man called Israel Jacobson. Can we have his picture please, Judy? Because I think history is brought to life by looking at personalities. He’d been born in Saxony because another issue that I’ve discussed with you in the past is that practically every court in Europe had a financier who was Jewish. So the majority of people have no rights whatsoever before the revolution, but you have financiers. Ironically, their fortunes usually rose and fell with the particular prince or king, but they kept on coming back.

I suppose my favourite example of this is the extraordinary Samuel Oppenheimer who in 1683 controlled the fortunes of the Hapsburg Empire. And it was he who lifted the siege of Budapest, who was responsible supplying the army which defeated the Turks, and of course, when he comes back and the emperor comes back and they’re all victorious, what happens to him? All the debts are cancelled, his mansion is sacked, doesn’t stop his nephew, Samuel Vertimer becoming the next court Jew to the emperor. So it was a very tenuous existence.

So let’s talk about Israel Jacobson, whose dates are 1768 to 1828. He came from a very wealthy family, his father was a banker and a merchant, he studied in a Jewish school, but he read German literature and he also comes into the period of Moses Mendelssohn and the beginnings of the Enlightenment in Germany. So he walks both worlds and you’ll see that he’s clean shaven and he’s wearing an outfit of a upper middle class or an aristocratic German. By the age of 18, he’s als already wealthy in his own right, and he married a woman called Mink Sampson, who was also the daughter of a very wealthy financier and a scholar.

You see, you’re looking at a network of extraordinarily wealthy Jews, many of whom are interrelated, both in the Sephardi world and the Ashkenazi world, and more than anything, they never had the kind of power and wealth of the aristocracy, but they are the outsiders, and this is what makes the whole image of Jew and money, which is so powerful today, I mean, I can say until I’m blue in the face, this particular period of history, the majority of Jews were dirt poor. Just go over the border into Eastern Europe, look at the Jews in the ghettos of Alsace before the revolution. It’s dirt poverty. However, what is the image?

It’s the image of these court Jews. Now he marries well and through his in-laws, he comes into contact with a lot of German aristocrats. Not only is he a brilliant businessman, he becomes one of the richest men in the German lands. He also is very imbued with enlightenment ideas, and he believes in the ideas of the enlightenment and he also believes in self-improvement and he believes that if Jews and Christians could get to know each other better, there could be some sort of communality. And he establishes a school in 1801 near the beautiful Harz mountains for 40 poor Jewish children and 20 poor Christian children. They would receive a free education and board and hundreds of children were educated.

The school actually lasted for over a hundred years, and it was very much at the forefront of educational methods. He built a beautiful temple, didn’t call it a synagogue, in the school grounds. He was a reformer. We’re soon going to have to come onto that very thorny question of reform. He saw himself as a man really of the Jewish world. He’s not going to try and alter the Jewish world according to him, but he started introducing into the synagogue or the temple in his school, hymns in German, sung by a boy’s choir, prayers not just in Hebrew and Aramaic, but also in German, and he installed a pipe organ. Now what is this about? Is this to prove to the outside world that Jews could be Europeans?

We’re not yet talking about changing the law, but are we edging towards it? And of course what happens to him is when Napoleon’s brother, Jerome, was installed as king of West Falia, he went to live in Cassel, and Israel Jacobson goes there, he goes to reside there. And he of course was very useful to Jerome. He’s one of the richest men in the German lands. And he also paid for a seminary for the training of Jewish teachers, he believed that they should be of a higher standard than already existed. In fact, a portrait of him and his wife was actually painted by a Jewish court painter. Another development. May a Jew portray a graven image.

So he still, as I said before, and I cannot overemphasise this, he saw himself as a man of Judaism. He would be horrified to think that he was playing with the law. Later on, we will come to that very, very thorny question. When Napoleon falls, he relocates to Berlin and opened his own home for services. And some of the rabbis who came to his house actually are going to be very important in the development of Reform Judaism, but not in his time. He stops his services. Why? Because the Prussian government, a group of rabbis saw him as the beginning of the slippery road. And they persuaded the Prussian government that he had French sympathies, so they weren’t inclined to go along with everything he wanted.

And I think his overriding ambition really was to promote tolerance between Jews and Christians. I think he believed that if they could meet up as people, they would realise that they had more in common than the differences between them. Now in Frankfurt, this is interesting, because of course Frankfurt was the home of the Rothschilds. And already Nathan Rothschild in London was the richest man in the world. But the council refused French demands to commit Jews to leave the ghetto. And Nathan’s mother Gutelah who lived into her nineties, she never left the ghetto of Frankfurt. An extraordinary story. And I know that Sandra’s already given lecture on the Rothschilds and those of you who were not online, Nile Ferguson, who we had the pleasure of listening to last week, he’s written a wonderful book on the Rothschilds. Anyway, also when the city council was replaced by Napoleon, the Prince Dalberg, who was in charge, he was a man who resisted reform, And it wasn’t until 1810 that he agreed to Jewish emancipation. But in return for emancipation, the Jews were forced to pay a huge sum of money, the equivalent of 20 years of special taxes for it. So Bavaria, Bavaria was allied to France, and had a huge Jewish population of 50,000, and it was only the Munich community, 150 Jews, who obtained the right to permanent residents. So Prussia, the enemy of Napoleon, some of the land has gone into Prussian gone into Valsfalia, other of it into the Duchy of Warsaw. So you’re looking at a truncated state. However, the Prussians understood the need for trade and industry, and they believed the Jews could be useful. So in 1812, they themselves issued an edict of emancipation. So that was basically the picture at the time of Napoleon’s defeat. The beginnings of emancipation and the beginnings of the crisis. And of course, the last thing I talked to you about last week was of course the Zalman of Liadi. Ironically the bulk of Eastern European Jews, or was it ironic, the bulk of Eastern European Jews were violently against Napoleon. And Shneur Zalman of Liadi is so important today because he created Chabad, which I know that many of you will. So you know, something like 20% of American Jews actually go to Chabad shuls now. And Chabad has become incredibly important all over the world. When we used to run tours of Eastern Europe, where did we go to Doven, we went to a chabad schul. In China, Chabad is there. It’s absolutely extraordinary. So who was Shneur Zalman of Liadi? I have lectured on him the past. Can we go on? Yes. There you see him, you see a portrait of Shneur Zalman of Liadi who is revered as one of the greatest scholars and thinkers that ever existed in the Jewish world. And he was the great, great grandson of Judah Loew ben Bezalel who of course is the Maharal of Prague. The man who is reputed to have created the golem. Now he’s born in Belarus, he was an elui. He was one of those young geniuses, and according to the story, and of course these characters are very much raised up by their followers, by the time he’s eight years old, he had written an all inclusive commentary on the Torah based on Rushe and Maimonides. This is the story that’s told about him. He studied in the community till he was 12, but by the time he’s 12, he’s so far ahead of everyone else, he’s told to study alone. He’s sent home to study. At 15, he marries the daughter of the richest merchant in Vitess. Why? Because that means he can now devote his time to study. I’m going to bring this up because I find it absolutely fascinating. This Jewish preoccupation of wealth marrying brains. And let’s face it, to make money, you’ve got to have wealth as well. And I find it fascinating that still, this reverence for education, which I still believe is present in the Jewish world, it might now be for secular education, but I suppose, you know, if you think about it, you study for the sake of study according to the Talmud because it leads to love of God. But in a way, study was all we ever had. And if you think about the Jesuits, because a Jesuit education is just as rigid as a Talmudic education, but Jesuits are celibate. So I, I think you have to put this into the pot when you are trying to think about the key to Jewish survival. Because for everything negative and all the horror of Jewish history, what I would say is that we are a people of survival. And he also studied secular subjects. But what secular subjects did he study? Two Jewish refugees from Bohemia, what did they teach him? They taught him maths, they taught him geography, geometry, I beg your pardon, and they taught him astronomy. There is nothing wrong with the sciences because they help your study of Torah and Talmud. He also becomes an adept at Kabbalah, Noreanic Kabbalah. So he had the mystic side, he had a strong Torah background, a Talmudic background, but he was also, he was also interested in Kabbalah and he studied, he wanted to know all about prayer, so he studied with Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezeritch who was the leader of the Hasidic movement. There’s also already a great division between the Hasids and those who are against the Hasids, now known as the Misnagdi, the opposers. You know, by 1850, the Jews of Eastern Europe are either Hasids or Misnagdi. And he becomes one of the inner circle of his pupils. And the Maghid actually delegated to him the composition of an up-to-date Chukarna Ruh of the Rav. It was unfortunately, much of it was destroyed, but it’s a very important work. So it was written also in a superb Hebraic style. He was also a master of language. In 1894, he was one of those chosen with with Manheim Mendel of Iteps to go to meet the Vilna Gaon to try and go for peace between the two groups. You have the Vilna Gaon, of course, the great sage of Vilna, the centre of rabbinic learning. Those of you who come from South Africa, my hunch is the majority of you will be Misnagdi because Vilna was the centre and the Vilna would not meet up with them. And this is really the beginnings of the great division between the two groups. By 1788, he’s formerly appointed as an important leader and he becomes one of the most important leaders in the Hasidic community. But he develops a new strain of thought, Chabad. And what is Chabad? Yes, God wants joy in worship, but he also wants wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. Wisdom, understanding, knowledge. That is what Chabad means. And he published in 1797 the sayings known as the Tanya today, which is one of the main texts of the Hasidic movement. It’s a masterly and very period systematic expose of Hasidism. It’s important. You see, what he does is he brings it back. The division was between joy and learning and really the love of study. And he is so central because he brings it all back. Now in 1798, he’s arrested and brought to trial in St. Petersburg. Why? Because rivals in the Misnagdi camp accuse him to the Russian authorities of treason. Now what’s the treason? They have already, the Hasids have already sent some of their number to the land of Israel and he’s encouraging them to settle in Hevron, the Russo-Turkish war, Turkey war with Russia, telling the czarist authorities this is treason. He’s brought to trial, there’s no details of the trial that are known, but there are many, many Hasidic legends that are related to it. He was acquitted and released on the 19th of Kislev. It’s known as the holiday of deliverance amongst the Hasids. Again, he was arrested in 1801, but released without trial. He finally settles in Liadi. He is known as the Rav of Liadi So incredibly important, but what is most important as far as my conversation with you is concerned is what he says. He writes of course to another, and I mentioned this to you last time, he writes to another rabbi, if Napoleon wins, Jewish wealth and prosperity will rise, but Jewish hearts will be defeated. But if Alexander wins, our poverty and persecution will increase, and Jewish dignity will reduce, but the hearts of Jews will become close to God, and though I die soon and our Jews will be taken into the Russian army, it is worth it. And in fact, he was with the Russian forces. The Russian forces retreating from Napoleon when he dies. So important, the great Lebavicha Rebi is saying no. Now why does he become the great Lebavicha Rebi? Because let me go on a little so that you see the whole progression into Chabad today. Menachem Mendel, the grandson of Schneur Zalman, the son of his daughter and the son-in-law of Dov Ber became leader after his father. And then he was orphaned young, he is an elui, and he had to fight. He only does he fight the Misnagdi, but gradually they come together to fight, what? The Haskalah, the enlightenment. Because they believe that this is dangerous. Taking back the teachings of Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the outside world is dangerous. And after his death, the Hasids couldn’t agree a leader, so it went to various of the sons and sons-in-law. But they finally do come together. And in the 1930s, the sixth rabbi of Chabad, Josef Shneurson moved the centre from Russia, they’re being persecuted by the Russians, of course, by the Bolsheviks, they move it to Poland. Later on they go, so it goes from the village of Labovich, that’s what it’s all about, that’s where they settled. The little village. Or the dynasties were named for the villages. But tragically, at least 92% of all Hasids perished in the Shoah. Labovich was different. Why? They moved to Rostov Von Don, then because of Bolshevik persecution, they go to Riga in Latvia, then to Warsaw, and then finally to America. And they were one of the only dynasties that survived intact. And that’s why they are so important today. But what is interesting about Chabad is that they do see themselves as a proselytising organisation amongst the Jews. But I think it’s important to remember that this great figure was very against the ideas of Napoleon. He was very against the idea of Jewish emancipation because he believed it will be the end of Judaism. Now, I’m not coming down on one side or the other, I’m trying very hard to hold the tightrope. And again, I’m going give the last word, of course, to one of my favourite figures in Jewish history. Can we please see the picture of Heinrich Heine? Heinrich Heine 1797 to 1859. One of the most interesting characters to leap out of the pages of history. A German Jew, the skeil of a very wealthy family who becomes one of Germany’s greatest lyric poets. And many times I quote, of course, Heine, and that prophecy of his. Any people who burns books will one day burn people. And of course that quote comes from his book, “Almansor” which is about the burning of the Quran by the Inquisition. Heinrich Heine was always the double bind. Now, Heinrich Heine back in 1819 actually set up a society for the promotion of Jewish culture amongst the Jews. The kind of thing that Wendy’s trying to do with us. Learn more about your own history. Heinrich Heine believe it or not, decided to do it amongst his own people. Because by 1819, the fall of Napoleon, many of the rights taken away, what happens is Jews are losing their own identity. Conversion is on the march. So Heine, along with a few others, create this society in Berlin. He then, in 1824, changes his mind and he converts. He writes a fascinating letter, a ticket of admission to European culture. Basically, he decides to convert. Why? Because he’s desperate for a chair at a German university at Dusseldorf and baptism is the only way through. He never gets the chair by the way. He becomes a Protestant, and he says this, “Dear Old Prussia, I really do not know what cause to take in this bad situation, our turn Catholic yet for spite and hang myself. We are living in sad times. Scoundrels become our best, and the best must turn scoundrel. The baptismal certificate is the ticket of admission to European culture.” That is the quote, let me say it again. “The baptismal certificate is the certificate of admission to European culture.” By the time you get to Heine, conversion in droves is happening in Berlin. “My becoming a Christian is the fault of those Saxons who suddenly changed sides at Leipzig or Napoleon who really did not have to go to Russia or his teacher of geography at Brienne who did not tell him that Moscow winters are very cold.” And I promise you there’ll be a lot more on Heinrich Heine, but I really just wanted to bring him in as the final word on the Grand Sanhedrin. So to sum up, emancipation remains in France, remains in Old Prussia, taken away in many of the conquered states. However by 1848, revolution sweep throughout Europe, by 1878, the emancipation process, pushing and pulling, pushing and pulling, only a tiny percentage of the population is finally completed. 1878. Not in Eastern Europe, not in Czarist Russia. Never, never, never, never. However, and that’s where the bulk of world Jewry lives. However, it’s with Western Jewry, I’m going to deal with French Jewry in my next session with you tomorrow.

So I think we should stop there and let’s have a look at the questions, Wendy.

Q&A and Comments

• [Judy] Yes, Trudy. They’re there.

• Yes, alright.

• [Wendy] Another fantastic lecture.

• I know it’s a toughie, isn’t it, Wendy? You see, to me it really poses so many of the questions that we need to talk about today, doesn’t it?

• [Wendy] Absolutely. Absolutely.

• And what I find fascinating, of course, you see Jews are emancipated, and then we are going to see an incredible success story. We’ve talked about it many times, and then of course the Jew becomes the scapegoat of all the tensions in European society and antisemitism is born, and may I please mention, Ken Gaines is lecturing on Wednesday and he’s going to be talking about this and it will be brilliant. It will really help your understanding. I know a lot of you know a lot about this, but I really see this as the crux of Jewish identity. This is from Art.

Q: Did Jews send their kids to Napoleon? A: I don’t know about that. As Napoleon was financed by Jews, of course he would support them. Well, did he support them, Mike? And I think be careful. Yes, there were Jewish financiers, but there were others too. It’s just that the Jew is the outsider.

“The Pity of It All,” the name of the author, Amos Elon, Sharon, and it’s brilliant. And it’s of course, that’s what I love about this course. There’s always someone to tell you, thank you.

Please spell the words, the Italian substituted for ghetto. Via, V-I-A, which means the street, Libera, L-I-B-E-R A. The Street Libera. The Street of Liberty.

Q: Why would the Jewish population want to assimilate into French society, especially as France whose religion is Roman Catholicism, the church which used the Jews as scapegoats? A: You see John, they fell in love with France just as they fall in love with the German lands. They believe that they, if you like, you see, the first time you see Paris, let’s try and put it in a bold way. You go to Paris, I mean, Patrick’s been lecturing on it, just think what France was like. Think of the great boulevards, think of the arts, think of the music, think of the literature. These are people who back in their own world value education. But what education? Now you see, you can send your kid to the Sorbonne. You can have it. The world, they did believe in the enlightenment. That’s the point, John, as well. Yes, we now know what happened, but they did believe in the enlightenment. You know, I believed in the enlightenment. There’s a part of me that still does believe in the enlightenment. That’s all we’ve got, isn’t it? You know, the extraordinary movement in philosophy, the age of reason, that really does believe that there is a moral code in the universe. It’s all we’ve got to hang on to.

When I was growing up, Catholics could divorce legally. It was not recognised by the church. I don’t know if that’s still true, Margaret, but I don’t know, I can’t answer that question. But certainly in the sixties and seventies, a divorcee could not marry in a Catholic church. It would’ve been the case in Napoleon’s time. Yes, of course. That’s what the Grand Sanhedrin said, remember. What the assembly of notable said. No priest would sanction a Catholic divorce any more than any Jew, a secular divorce, I beg your pardon? Any more than any Rabbi would sanction a secular divorce.

Rabbi Sack said the love of the strangers is mentioned only 36 times. Now that’s interesting because Robert Wistrich told me it was 66. I think I better go with Rabbi Sacks on this. Robert was a great scholar, but he was not a rabbinic scholar. Interesting. I don’t know if anyone wants to go through the Torah and work that out for us.

Q: So when did the French become so anti-Semitic? A: Paul, stick with the next few lectures.

Margie, your former Tom Arblis.

Q: Trudy, if the Jews of that time wanted to be French citizens, then why today with anti-Semitism tolerance and intimidation, do Jewish communities not make common cause with non-Jewish pro-Israeli Christians? A: I think there are many Jews who do. I mean, if you think about the CCJ, there are many organisations of tolerance and toleration. But there is a problem, I think, with this as well. Because you know, there are certain extremist Christian groups who want all the Jews to return to Israel so that the Messiah can come again. The Christian Messiah can come again, and it’s a rather sort of eschatological view. But I know there’s a lot of people who do believe in toleration. And you know, most people are reasonably decent in my experience. It’s just that when forces are outside, the point is Jews make such good scapegoats, because we go into high visibility and we go into high visibility professions, don’t we? When I talk about what happens in France, I’m going to talk about the Panama Canal scandal. There were a couple of Jews involved, so all the Jews of France were blamed, but you and I know that when in the news a Jew steps out of line, it causes a lot of problems for the community. Are we individuals or are we a community? How does the outside world see us? This is true of any minority group, but I want to make the case, up until 1945, certainly in Britain, the Jews were the only other really non-Christian community. It’s only post '45 that you have the great influx from the British Empire colony. And the same is true of France. When do you have the great influx? It’s post the collapse of all the French colonies.

Q: What was the answer to the question about interest to non-Jews? A: They’re all the same as Jews, non-Jews and Jews, the same.

Q: How long did the Grand Sanhedrin exist? A: It was only convened for one meeting.

Margie, the problem is the Sanhedrin gave them Napoleon the answer he wanted.

Q: Ron, why as the Jews were so few in number, why didn’t Napoleon pay attention to them? Were the Jews thought of as a significant threat if they were not incorporated in spite of their small numbers? A: I think the point is Napoleon was completely thorough. He didn’t want any anomalies in the French state. Look, the Jews are completely irrelevant, but it also gives you a notion, the fact those letters he wrote, it gives you a notion of even the great emperor of the French, his view, you know, they are a downgraded people, they have corrupt blood. Napoleon was against the power of the church. So apart from reducing their power, he was looking for allies. I don’t think the Jews ever really had that kind of power. Perhaps he did believe that because of Poland. I’ll have to think about that, Mike.

Q: Where can one read Napoleon’s laws? A: I mentioned the book last week. It’s “The Jew in the Modern World,” the source book. But it is quite expensive. When we have the website up and running, and I’m not going to, so please don’t get in touch with Judy now, but when the website is up and running, I will be putting some of these documents on the website. I’m told that I’ll be able to do this.

Napoleon, this is Ron, Napoleon sounds extremely biassed and anti-Semitic in saying that only he can improve the Jews. Did he actually write the things you read? Yes, he wrote them. Yes, Ron. I was reading from something Napoleon wrote. Of course. The word anti-Semitism isn’t even invented yet. The word anti-Semitism is different from Jew hatred because it’s a modern racial term. And it’s something I’ll be talking about in the next couple of weeks.

The downgrading, the reduction in perceived Jewish power. Ah, it’s a difficult one that. Did that include a similar? You see, he look, Napoleon believed that the Jews were a downgraded point. Of course he would’ve known about Jewish financiers, but they really were an appendage.

Q: Why were there so many Jews in Russia? And where did they come from? A: Jews had begun, Jews had moved east to the kingdom of Poland. And Poland, it was one of the most important mediaeval kingdoms. It was weakened after the 30 Years War, and the annexations of Poland begin in 1776. By 1815, Poland is swallowed up a little bit to Prussia, a little bit to the Habsburgs, but the bulk into Russia. So that’s why the Jews did not move into Russia. Napoleon, I beg your pardon, the Russian Czars conquered the largest area of Jewish settlement. And I have covered this in the course, and all the lectures will be on the website when it’s up and running, but I will be giving a little bit of background later on this month when I talk more about the Jews of Russia.

Thank you. Stephen has answered that. Oh, I love this.

Q: Were Jews able to join Napoleon’s army? A: Yes, of course they were. In fact, they were conscripted into it and they couldn’t buy themselves out.

And this is from Jennifer. Oh my. Israel Jacobson lived right alongside Beethoven, whose dates were 1770 to 1872. Maybe he even heard Beethoven. Yes, this is the law of European culture. Can you just imagine it? Look how many Jews became great musicians. Today, look how many Jews are great musicians. They fall in love with European culture. Look, I would suggest to you this. Right up until the Renaissance, Jews would’ve considered their culture superior, then they’re ghettoised and they’re in Eastern Europe. Look what happened from the Renaissance onwards to the enlightenment. Look how Europe exploded. It must have been such heady wine, because I already said to you, I remember the first time I went to Paris. Those of you who’ve been to Paris, weren’t you seduced by it? By its art, it’s music, it’s architecture? I mean, come on! You could say the same about Berlin. You could say the same about Vienna. It’s seductive. Particularly if you come from a little stetl and you fall in love and because you’ve got this tradition of learning, you want to change it. Never forget the Isiah Berlin parable. Imagine this people from another planet who land on planet Earth and they fall in love with it. They fall in love with planet Earth. And how do they deal with planet earth? Because they come from this planet of learning, they take the learning of planet Earth and they push it. And then he goes on to say, pardon my hand, I’ll try and do it this way. What does he go on to say? He says that basically, how did the people on planet Earth view them, either as exotic strangers or enemy aliens? It’s a very cynical view.

Q: When did Ashkenazi Jews separate from Sephardi? A: Ashkeni is Germany, Sephardi means Spain, Sepharad is Spain. It’s a long complicated, and Stephen has answered it. Thank you, Stephen. It’s not a question of separation. The Jews, the Sephardi were Jews living in Iberia and North Africa. The Ashkenis in were Jews living in Northern Europe, France, Germany, and the Rhineland. The prior separation in these terms was between the Jews of Babylon, Talmud, Bavli, and the Jews staying behind in Judea, Jerushalami. The Jews of Eastern Byzantium Empire were them Romaniot, and despite the tendency of Italian Jews to affiliate with post-expulsion Sephardi in the Netherlands and England, they were not primarily of Sephardic heritage. Thank you, Steven. You said it beautifully.

Q: Why was Napoleon less threatened by the Jews than some other world leaders as past and present? Napoleon, maybe he wasn’t looking for a scapegoat. So at what period did the French become as antisemitic as they are now? A: Ina, I’m going to begin to deal with that tomorrow.

Shneur Zalman sounds like the real life embodiment of the song “If I Were a Rich Man.” Oh, he was much more than that, Karen. He was a genius in his own way.

This is from Michael. My wife’s maiden name was Verktimer. She is descended from Samuel Verktimer, court Jew to the Austrian court. Why, that is yikers, Michael. That is extraordinary. Yeah, we’re an interesting people, aren’t we?

Q: Andrea, when you say 20% of American Jews pray at Chabad, I presume you mean 20% of those who go to synagogue. A: Yes, of course I do. Yes, of course I do, Andrea! According to Absalom Ker, the name Shneur Zalman comes from the Spanish Solomon. I cannot answer that. I don’t know. I do know that there were Sephardi Jews who made it to Eastern Europe, but I can’t answer that. It’s not my field of expertise. I’m sure somebody online will know that. I love this group.

Amos Elon who wrote “The Pity of It All” also wrote a book called “Founder” Maya, I’m sure Rothschild in his time, Yes, Marsha. It’s a brilliant book.

Q: Can you explain, expand on how should we should interpret the outside world as dangerous? A: Oh, I’ll be talking about that a lot tomorrow.

My family’s Bible was in French in Poland. Yeah, that’s interesting. Marilyn, Rabbi Norman Benar stresses his time and again, give your children a Jewish education. This is Gerald, no plural in Hebrew, Misnagdi. Thank you. Not Hasid but Hasidi, Thank you. I am so bad at languages. I’ve got a real block. Something wrong with my brain.

France, think of the food. Yeah! You know, of course, you know, I must admit, and I’m very prejudiced here. When I go to the kosher delis in France, I find them so much more appetising than anywhere else!

This is Michael. Enlightenment is taking a hit in the US. Yes, enlightenment is taking a hit everywhere! Look, economic, social, political, chaos, plus a pandemic. What do we expect? John is thanking. Oh, thank you. Nice people. Oh, yes. Repeating the book is “The Pity of It All.”

Q: I have Jewish friends born in France after the war, and they have French names. I thought they still had to have a French name. Is that the same rule? A: I don’t know if it’s a rule anymore. Don’t forget also, something very important, the Alliance, as when I’ve got at least two more sessions on France with you, and later on we will talk more about France in the war, please don’t forget that French Jews did fall in love with France. France is a divided society. I will begin to discuss that with you tomorrow. Think about it. On one level, you have the church, the army, the forces of reaction. On the other, you have the France of the revolution, the republic, the enlightenment, and the rights of man. What France will prevail?

Can I recommend some books. As I’ve said to you before, we need an extensive bibliography, so what’s going to happen is that myself and my colleagues, we’re going to pull together a bibliography that will be on the website.

Oh, this is good. Nikki Steiner, I found the 12 questions on Napoleon, on the history website of the Foundation Napoleon. Chabad not a sect Of Judaism, but a perverted traditional observance to the worship of the rebi. Oh, I am not answering that. I am not qualified to answer that. I will talk about religion. I never teach religion. No, I wouldn’t dare answer that.

Interesting to see, this is from Barrington Black. Interesting to see members of the Sanhedrin wearing tabs as part of their regalia. Tabs, of course, are short for tablets. Tablets of the law as worn by council. Some modern Jewish clergy have been criticised for emulating their Christian counterpart, but clearly it was not so modern.

Ellie, Jews also fell in love with America after Germany and France. Of course they did, and they fell in love with England, with Britain. In fact, I’ve lectured on this, but I think Jeremy Rosen tomorrow night is going to lecture on it on the rise and fall of Anglo Jewry. It’s not surprising. You see, Zionism was a complete reaction to all of this.

Q: What was the response of of French Jewry? A: They wanted it. French Jewry, Stephen, wanted emancipation. Look, since 1791, you could live where you chose, there was a big community in Paris, you could go into whatever trade on profession you chose. Do you know how many French Jews became lawyers? You became part of the modern world. Do you know how many department stores like Gallery Lafayette were owned by Jewish firms? Became Jewish firms? Citroyen was a Jewish business. You know, they are the arbiters of the modern world because they’re outside the system. They thought they were giving everything.

This is from Mary, and my ancestors came from Barcelona. They were contemporaries of the Rambam. They went to the Austro-Hungarian empire by Alsace. You know, the more you find out about your families, it’s fascinating. I mean, one of my daughters is doing some research on ours and is actually altering what we believed was received wisdom.

Jonathan Allam became disillusioned and left Israel for Tuscany. Oh, John Norman, John Arthur Hertzberg wrote a brilliant study, “The French Enlightenment and the Jews, the Origins of Modern Anti-Semitism.” Yes, Arthur Hertzberg was a rabbi and an incredible scholar. His books on America are also superb.

Oh, Eli Straus. French food has a lot of influences. Most came from the Medici. The Italians today, North Africa have a great influence, especially on kosher food. Sure.

Q: What did English Jews feel about Napoleon? A: The same as the English, actually! You see, this is the point. The emancipation, Beverly, in England was very, very different. The British are all was different, aren’t they? It was a long, slow process. There was no edict of emancipation. In some ways, it was slow than on the continent. Jews couldn’t be members of the House of Lords until 1885. They couldn’t graduate from Oxford or Cambridge until 1871 because of the oath on the King James’ Bible. But it also stopped Catholics. The bete noire of British society was the Catholics. Do we always need one?

Yes, Eli, same in Germany. Most department stores were Jewish firms as were many banks. Yes, it’s the onset of the modern world. And we were very good at the modern world. I’ve said this to you before, please read Yuri Slavskin on the Jewish 20th century. He basically says that the modern world is about everyone becoming intricate, about becoming mobile, about becoming able to respond to all sorts of different careers. In fact, the Jewish world, the modern world is about everyone becoming Jewish. I’ll read you the whole quote on Tuesday, but I really advocate that you read it. It’s excellent. Not everything, but the title and author of the biography of the Rothschilds. Okay, there are two that we’ve recommended, Amos Elon and I think also Nile Ferguson.

Eli Straus, Polish Jews like to speak French as a sign of elegance and authority, not just Jews. Yes, of course, Eli. French was the language of courts in Germany. It’s fascinating ‘cause Moses Mendelssohn, who fell in love with Germany, he actually had the chutzpah to write to a German prince and say, “why don’t you use German? It’s a great language. Stop using French.” French was the language of civilization. It was really believed to be so.

Michael, some people think it rather strange that most Israeli Judeans fell in love with Israel. Ha ha ha, Michael. My family name was originally Rodriguez from Portugal, Spain. My in-laws changed their name in London to Rogers. Yes. Yeah, so many others. I mean, my great-grandfather’s family changed their name from a very Germanic name because of the First World War.

I think that’s it. That’s it, Judy.

• [Judy] Yes, thank you, Trudy.

• Thank you, Judy, for keeping us all sane, by the way, and I wish you all well and I’ll see you tomorrow.

• [Judy] Yes, we see everyone tomorrow. Take care everybody. Bye-bye.

• God bless.