OTD in History April 20, 1799, Napoleon becomes the first world leader to promise the Jews a national homeland in Israel

By Bonnie K. Goodman, BA, MLIS

On this day in history, April 20, 1799… Napoleon becomes the first modern leader to promise that the Jews can establish a homeland in Palestine, setting the course for the modern Zionist movement and the establishment of the state of Israel.

Introduction

In the spring of 1799, as Napoleon Bonaparte’s military campaign extended into the Middle East, a curious episode occurred—one that would resonate profoundly with the Zionist movement over a century later. Amid his siege of the city of Acre during the Egyptian Campaign, Napoleon allegedly issued a proclamation to the Jews, promising the restoration of their ancient homeland in Jerusalem. Though the authenticity and dissemination of this “proclamation” remain subject to historical debate, its symbolic significance is undoubted. It marked the first time a modern European leader publicly associated the idea of Jewish national restoration with geopolitical goals. In many ways, Napoleon’s appeal to the Jews of Eretz Yisrael foreshadowed later diplomatic efforts, most famously the Balfour Declaration of 1917, to engage with Jewish aspirations for nationhood.

The historical context, content, and legacy of Napoleon’s 1799 appeal included questions about its authenticity, motivations, and reception, particularly within the broader Enlightenment era and the rise of Jewish emancipation. Ultimately, while the promise may not have carried concrete political weight and led to any tangible results, it planted ideological seeds that would bloom and develop into the age of Zionism.

Historical Context: Napoleon’s Middle Eastern Campaign

Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign (1798–1801) was an ambitious endeavor aimed at undermining British influence in India and expanding French imperial reach. After occupying Egypt, Napoleon advanced into Ottoman-controlled Syria in early 1799. His campaign, however, stalled at the fortified city of Acre, where his forces were repelled by Ottoman and British defenders.

At this point, Napoleon faced strategic and symbolic dilemmas. His army was isolated and undersupplied, and morale was low. Attempting to galvanize regional support, Napoleon turned to the religious and ethnic minorities of the region—Greeks, Maronites, Druze, and particularly Jews—offering them promises of autonomy and restoration in exchange for loyalty. 1

The Jews of Palestine at the time were a small, dispersed population, centered mostly in Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, and Safed, with an estimated population of a few thousand. 2 They lived under Ottoman rule and enjoyed dhimmi status—protected but subordinate. While their numbers were small, their symbolic significance as heirs to the biblical kingdom of Israel and as a diasporic nation scattered across Europe and the Ottoman Empire held political potential.

The Proclamation to the Jews: Content and Controversy

The proclamation attributed to Napoleon reads, in part:

“Rightful heirs of Palestine! The great nation, which does not trade in men or nations, has called on you to claim your rightful heritage. Arise, then, with gladness, ye exiled, and unite under the banner of France to claim once more your patrimony among the nations.” 3

This declaration is often regarded as the first instance in which a modern political power, France under Napoleon, formally proposed the reconstitution of a Jewish state in Palestine. While the document’s precise origin and dissemination are murky, several French newspapers reported versions of it in 1799. 4

Historians are divided over the authenticity of the proclamation. Some argue that Napoleon genuinely issued such a statement during the siege of Acre, intending to stir Jewish uprisings in the Ottoman Empire. 5. Others suggest it was a piece of propaganda, never formally declared or circulated, meant to impress Jewish financiers in Europe, particularly those in revolutionary France and Britain. 6 Still others see it as entirely apocryphal, a fabrication by later Zionists seeking a noble origin story for modern Jewish nationalism. 7

Despite this uncertainty, the very fact that such a proclamation was widely believed and reported even in the absence of physical copies attests to the ideological plausibility of such a gesture. Napoleon was already known for emancipating Jews in France and Italy, extending civil rights, and abolishing discriminatory laws. 8 The idea that he would extend his revolutionary egalitarianism to the Jews of Palestine was not far-fetched.

Napoleon and the Jews: Enlightenment Emancipation and Strategic Interests

Napoleon’s attitude toward the Jews was complex, reflecting the tensions between Enlightenment universalism, French nationalism, and pragmatic politics. During his reign, he enacted policies that promoted Jewish emancipation, including the recognition of Jews as French citizens. He convened the Sanhedrin in 1807, a symbolic body meant to integrate Jews into French civic life while affirming loyalty to the state.9

However, Napoleon also harbored ambivalent and occasionally hostile attitudes toward Jewish economic practices, particularly in Alsace and Lorraine, where he briefly restricted Jewish moneylending.10 His policy was not based on theological anti-Judaism, as in medieval Europe, but on Enlightenment ideals of rationalization and integration, “regenerating” the Jews as useful citizens.

In the Middle East, Napoleon’s appeal to the Jews was both ideological and tactical Ideologically, it aligned with the revolutionary principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity, extended to a historically marginalized people. Tactically, Napoleon sought to undermine Ottoman rule by rallying minorities to the French cause. By presenting himself as a modern Cyrus, referencing the Persian king who allowed the Jews to return from Babylonian exile, Napoleon hoped to win Jewish hearts and possibly arms. 11

Moreover, by invoking the restoration of ancient Jerusalem, Napoleon tapped into the growing messianic fervor among some Jewish communities, particularly those influenced by the teachings of Rabbi Elijah of Vilna and other proto-Zionist thinkers. 12 His appeal was not merely to the Jews of Palestine but to world Jewry, especially in Europe, where he needed financial and diplomatic support.
Reception and Impact

Whether or not the proclamation reached the Jews of Palestine in 1799, it did reverberate in European Jewish consciousness. Some Jewish leaders and intellectuals welcomed the idea of restoration under French auspices. Notably, several early proto-Zionist thinkers later cited Napoleon’s gesture as a turning point in Jewish political thought.

One such figure was Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai (1798–1878), a Sephardic rabbi in the Balkans who began advocating Jewish return to the Land of Israel in the 1830s. Though writing decades later, Alkalai referenced Napoleon’s appeal as an early sign that “the nations of the world were awakening to the return of Israel.” 13

Similarly, Moses Hess, a German Jewish socialist who wrote Rome and Jerusalem in 1862, cited the Enlightenment’s legacy, including Napoleon, as part of the awakening of Jewish national consciousness. 14 By the late 19th century, Jewish nationalists from Leo Pinsker to Theodor Herzl would retrospectively view Napoleon’s proclamation as a prophetic, if symbolic, milestone in the long arc of Zionist history.

Franz Kobler, in his book Napoleon and the Jews, discussed how the proclamation had a long-lasting influence on the creation of the modern state of Israel: “At the same time, Bonaparte’s call to rebuild Jerusalem and to convene the Sanhedrin continued to reverberate throughout the Jewish world. The growing legend of a Napoleon who set the pattern for the revival of the Jewish State became a driving force in Jewish history. Theodor Herzl, in a critical moment of his struggle for the realization of the Zionist idea, referred to Napoleon as his precursor. In the public debate that preceded the issue of the Balfour Declaration, Israel Zangwill urged his countrymen to follow Napoleon’s example. Napoleon appeared in Nahum Sokolow’s History of Zionism at a time when the Palestine Mandate was being discussed at the Peace Conference in Paris, as the main witness to the feasibility of reviving the political existence of the Jewish nation. The unearthed text of the Proclamation, included in Three Historical Memoranda of the Vaad Leumi (the National Council of the Jews of Palestine) in 1947, was able to testify to Israel’s proper claims to the Holy Land before the General Assembly of the United Nations.”

The idea of Jewish restoration under European auspices also influenced Christian Restorationists in Britain and the United States, who saw Napoleon’s proclamation as a precursor to their own theological-political visions. 15 Indeed, some scholars argue that Napoleon’s gesture helped seed the ideological ground for later declarations such as Britain’s Balfour Declaration (1917) and the San Remo Resolution (1920), which transformed Zionism into international policy. 16

Historical Significance: Precursor to Modern Zionism

Though ephemeral and of dubious authorship, Napoleon’s 1799 proclamation occupies a pivotal place in the history of Jewish nationalism. It was the first time a modern European state invoked the idea of a Jewish homeland not as a theological fantasy but as a geopolitical proposition. In doing so, it linked Jewish restoration with the revolutionary ideals of modernity, citizenship, nationhood, and self-determination.

Unlike earlier Christian Zionist thinkers, Napoleon’s promise was not couched in eschatology but in Enlightenment rationalism and realpolitik. It anticipated the secular Jewish nationalism of the 19th and 20th centuries, which saw return to Zion not as a messianic miracle but as a political project.

Moreover, the proclamation highlights the persistent intertwining of Jewish hopes with the interests of great powers. Just as Napoleon sought Jewish support in his war against the Ottomans, so too would Britain seek Zionist alignment during World War I. In both cases, Jewish restoration was considered a tool of empire but also, for Jews, as a path to sovereignty.

Conclusion

Napoleon’s 1799 appeal to the Jews of Eretz Yisrael remains shrouded in mystery, yet its symbolic significance is undiminished. It marked the first recorded instance in which a modern political leader publicly proposed the reestablishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Whether or not the proclamation was ever formally issued or received, it embodied a new political possibility: the convergence of Enlightenment, nationalism, and Jewish redemption.

In retrospect, Napoleon’s gesture was more rhetorical than real. His campaign in the Middle East failed, and no Jewish uprising materialized. Yet the idea he floated of Jewish national restoration sanctioned by a great power would become a central theme in Jewish political history. It would inspire proto-Zionists, echo through diplomatic channels, and ultimately contribute to the birth of the modern State of Israel in 1948. Thus, Napoleon’s 1799 “promise” was not a footnote but a preface to Jewish modernity, one that resulted in Israel’s 77 years of existence.

Endnotes
1. Frank E. Manuel, The Broken Staff: Judaism Through Christian Eyes (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992), 160–61.
2. Daniel Schwartz, The First Modern Jew: Spinoza and the History of an Image (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012), 204.
3. Quoted in Martin Gilbert, Jerusalem: A Biography (New York: Doubleday, 2011), 260.
4. François Crouzet, “Napoleon and the Jews,” The Journal of Modern History 39, no. 1 (1967): 56–57.
5. Albert Abramson, Napoleon and the Jews (London: Jewish Chronicle Publications, 1976), 19–22.
6. Max Dimont, Jews, God and History (New York: Signet, 1962), 235.
7. Shmuel Ettinger, “The Emergence of the Modern Jewish National Movement,” in The Zionist Idea, ed. Arthur Hertzberg (New York: Jewish Publication Society, 1959), 119–120.
8. Howard M. Sachar, A History of the Jews in the Modern World (New York: Vintage, 2005), 96–99.
9. Graetz, Heinrich. History of the Jews, Vol. 5 (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1895), 419.
10. David Vital, A People Apart: The Jews in Europe, 1789–1939 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 103.
11. Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, The Faith of Fallen Jews (New York: Schocken, 1996), 211.
12. Allan Nadler, “Elijah of Vilna and the Rise of Modern Zionism,” Commentary, Vol. 110, №3 (2000): 52–54.
13. Yehuda Alkalai, Shema Yisrael (Vienna, 1864), introduction.
14. Moses Hess, Rome and Jerusalem: The Last National Question (1862), trans. Meyer Waxman (New York: Bloch, 1918), 8–10.
15. Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword: England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour (New York: Ballantine, 1984), 147–149.
16. Efraim Karsh and Rory Miller, Empires of the Sand: The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East, 1789–1923 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999), 73.

Bibliography

Abramson, Albert. Napoleon and the Jews. London: Jewish Chronicle Publications, 1976.
Crouzet, François. “Napoleon and the Jews.” The Journal of Modern History 39, no. 1 (1967): 52–62.
Dimont, Max. Jews, God and History. New York: Signet, 1962.
Ettinger, Shmuel. “The Emergence of the Modern Jewish National Movement.” In The Zionist Idea, edited by Arthur Hertzberg. New York: Jewish Publication Society, 1959.
Gilbert, Martin. Jerusalem: A Biography. New York: Doubleday, 2011.
Graetz, Heinrich. History of the Jews, Vol. 5. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1895.
Hess, Moses. Rome and Jerusalem: The Last National Question. Translated by Meyer Waxman. New York: Bloch, 1918.
Manuel, Frank E. The Broken Staff: Judaism Through Christian Eyes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992.
Nadler, Allan. “Elijah of Vilna and the Rise of Modern Zionism.” Commentary, Vol. 110, №3 (2000): 50–56.
Sachar, Howard M. A History of the Jews in the Modern World. New York: Vintage, 2005.
Schwartz, Daniel. The First Modern Jew: Spinoza and the History of an Image. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012.
Tuchman, Barbara. Bible and Sword: England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour. New York: Ballantine, 1984.
Vital, David. A People Apart: The Jews in Europe, 1789–1939. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim. The Faith of Fallen Jews. New York: Schocken, 1996.

Bonnie K. Goodman, BA, MLIS, is a historian, librarian, journalist, and artist. She is the author of “On This Day in History…: Significant Events in the American Year,” and “A Constant Battle: McGill University’s Complicated History of Antisemitism and Now anti-Zionism.” She has a BA in History and Art History and a Masters in Library and Information Studies from McGill University. She has done graduate work in Jewish history at Concordia University as part of the MA in Judaic Studies and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as part of their MA in Jewish Education. She contributed to the “History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–2008,” edited by Gil Troy, Arthur M. Schlesinger, and Fred L. Israel (2012). She is the former Features Editor at the History News Network and reporter at Examiner.com, where she covered politics, universities, religion, and news. Her scholarly articles can be found on Academia.edu.