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A
Gentile Advocates Emancipation
As the 18th
cen. drew to a close, more and more intellectuals began to warm
to the idea of Jewish emancipation. Enlightenment philosophers
appealed to reason and logic in arguing that Jews were entitled
to equal rights, and they suggested that any defects possessed
by Jews "as a race" would disappear once they were fully exposed
to Gentile values. In this passage, written two years before the
French Revolution, Count de Mirabeau argues that Jewish emancipation
would bring economic benefits to the state.
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There
can be no doubt but that the better treatment of Jews would
cause to disappear among them those religious prejudices
that at present prevent the followers of Moses from being
socially adjusted. The Jew is first a human being, and then
a Jew; hence why should he not conceive a deep loyalty toward
a country in which he is granted all the rights of citizenship?
. . . These innate feelings of the human heart will speak
louder than the sayings of the rabbis. . . . Holland and
England have been enriched for several hundreds of years
by the Jews who were driven from these two
kingdoms , and who brought with them not only their
industry, but often considerable wealth. It is in those
countries that the Jews have most nearly gained the rights
of human beings and citizens, and it is also in those countries
that they are the most loyal servants of the state.
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