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H.E.G. Paulus Opposes the Emancipation of the Jews in Baden (1831)

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14. The protected member of society has no legal grounds to claim admission to full citizenship by the existing citizenry. He cannot – and may not – even be given citizenship rights in a nation as long as he – whether it be due to prejudice or for special reasons – belongs to another nation and persuades himself that he needs to constitute another nation of his own.

15. There is no basis for religion forcing Jewry to remain its own nation. But even if it were a necessary consequence of its religion, the tenet must still remain: whoever belongs to one nation may not aspire to become a superior officer [supervisor], judge, co-legislator in another nation. And if he should aspire to this, then he must be directed back toward that to which he is entitled.

16. It is not the Mosaic religion – i.e., the belief about the relationship to God – that compels Jewry to its ongoing national differentiation; but rather the difference of alien laws and manners, hence of upbringing and customary prejudices. These include, for example, the following:

17. According to Moses himself, to the Jew every non-Jew is a foreigner, a goy who is certainly allowed to reside in the land of the Jews (2. Moses 19, 33, and 5. Moses 10, 18), but only as a protected resident. If Jewry clings to Moses not just as a matter of religious belief, but also as a matter of legislation, then how can it demand that we (who, if Jewry were a state, would be tolerated inhabitants at best) treat its people as citizens, i.e., let them be admitted to lower or higher offices, in order to govern over us?

18. How, according to the Mosaic constitution, would a non-Jew residing in the land [of the Jews] ever have dared to think that he was capable of being a community official for Jews or even a mere elector to the plenary assembly through which, e.g., Saul, David, etc. were chosen as regents? – For as long as Jewry feels obliged to remain a Jewish people according to Mosaic legislation (which would have to be sharply distinguished from the religion of Abraham and Moses); for as long as this is the case, we remain foreigners in its estimation, at best protected fellow residents. With what right can its people be more to us? This is not the case because we are Christians; but rather because they themselves want to constitute another nation with other laws and customs.

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