Title
Address by the President of the Republic Mr. Jacques Chirac
on
the occasion of the 190th Anniversary of the Great Sanhedrin
Date
2 March 1997
Speaker
Jacques
Chirac, President of the French Republic
Description
The Great
Sanhedrin took place in 1806, when the representatives of the Jewish community
in France met for the first time at the invitation of Emperor Napoleon I. This
event marked the final act in the process of the emancipation of the Jews. This
speech by President Chirac was delivered in commemoration of the Great
Sanhedrin, and provides a historical and political overview of the rights and
history of citizenship of the Jews in France since the 18th century.
Of
particular interest is Chircac's repeated statement that the French
government was responsible for the arrest, deportation and death of thousands of
Jews and his commitment to finding out, through the research of the Mattéoli
Commission, what became of the property confiscated from French Jews.
Publishing
Information
Chirac, Jacques. Address By the
President of the Republic on the Occasion of the 190th Anniversary of the Great
Sanhedrin. 2 March 1997, Paris. <http://www.info-france-usa.org/news/statmnts/1998/wchea/sanhe.asp>
accessed 16 July 2002.
Source
A transcript of this statement can be found on the web page
for the Embassy of France in the USA, <http://www.info-france-usa.org/news/statmnts/1998/wchea/sanhe.asp>
accessed 16 July 2002.