A close-up on: the Great Sanhedrin: Jews during the Empire

Napoleon took but little interest in the Jews when he came to power. It was only in 1806 that, when faced with mounting hostility to the Jews in France, Napoleon turned to the problem of Jewish integration in the Empire, by reforming the regulations governing credit, an economic activity practised at the time largely by Jews. Having already built the Empire on the religious peace brought about by the Concordat, Napoleon then decided, via the decree of 30 May 1806, to form an assembly of Jewish notables who would represent the Jewish community and be a consultative body with the aim of bringing Jews over to his policies.
«According to an account given to us, in several northern departments of the empire, certain Jews, whose only profession is that of usury, have, by the accumulation of the most immodest interest, put many farmers in these lands in a state of the greatest distress. […] On the 15th of July, in our fine town of Paris, an assembly of individuals professing the Jewish religion and living in French territory shall be created.» «The members of this assembly shall be in number that here adjoined [111], taken from the departments here listed and selected from amongst the Rabbis, the house owners and other Jews distinguished by their probity and their enlightened nature.»
(Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, n° 10291)
This assembly met five times between July and September 1806. As a result, Napoleon decided the convocation of a Great Sanhedrin, created in the image of the Sanhedrin which met in ancient Jerusalem.