Israel Shahak writes that the rabbis preferred it that way, because Jews (especially their rabbis) had certain privileges before Napoleon. Jews lived in self-governing ghettos, with their own laws and courts. Rabbis could even impose the death penalty on Jews who broke their religious laws, and sometimes did so. It was all very insular and Old Testament.
It was like those ultra-Orthodox communities you see in Brooklyn today, only more so. Rabbis had real legal authority over their people prior to Napoleon.
Prior to Napoleon, gentile nations recognized rabbinical jurisdiction over the lives of most Jews.
The "emancipation of Jews" also meant the diminishment of rabbinical authority and Jewish autonomy. Jews were now free to mingle among gentiles, but they were subject to gentile, secular authority, as never before.
“Israel Shahak writes that the rabbis preferred it that way, because Jews (especially their rabbis) had certain privileges before Napoleon.”
The “privileges” of the favored Rabbis did not mean “privileges” for all Jews.
And while those “self governing” Jewish communities meant one thing, within those communitites, it did not prevent the abuses against the legally unprotected Jews in interactions with the broader society.
I think the famed Jewish writer was speaking mostly only for the rabbis and in that for some Rabbis more than others, and more so than for the general Jewish population.
“Rabbis could even impose the death penalty on Jews who broke their religious laws, and sometimes did so”
ummmmm. no. the death penalty in Talmudic law can only be decided by a sanhedrin of 71 judges. There hasn’t been a sanhedrin since our temple was destroyed almost 2000 years ago. And if you study talmudic law, then you would know that the conditions to secure a death penalty are next to impossible to achieve.