Napoleon
emperor
Conqueror
Not actually that short
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was the Emperor of France. In the early 1800s he initiated the Jewish Emancipation there and in the lands he conquered. The Emancipation ensured that Jewish citizens of France enjoyed equal rights and freedoms as individual Frenchmen and women, freeing them from confinement in Jewish ghettos and from restrictive laws around property ownership and religious freedom. At the same he promulgated laws that restricted other areas of Jewish life, such as professions and migration. He established formal institutions for governing Jewish religious life, as well. Napoleon is credited as breaking centuries of official Jewish persecution in Europe and paving the way for greater freedoms and assimilation, both of which profoundly impacted Jewish life throughout the continent.
Appears in
Episode 23
Mentioned in Episode 42