The condition of the Jews in Alsace during the French Revolution was a matter of considerabler attention in Paris. Despite the efforts of Jewish notables, such as Cerfberr, Isaiah Beer-Bing of Metz, and Berr Isaac Berr of Turique, supported by Mirabeau , Robespierre and, above all, by Abbé Grégoire, a change in the status of the "German" Jews was strenuously and successfully opposed in the first years of the Revolution by the deputies from Alsace and Lorraine. They claimed that such a move would provoke riots and massacres in their districts. Even when the equality of the Jews before the law was proclaimed on Sept. 27, 1791, people in the eastern provinces became used to it only gradually. These districts of France became in practice, and in formulation of anti-Jewish theory, the hotbed of opposition to Jewish emancipation. Many attacks were made on Jews in Alsace-Lorraine. While the Jews themselves were not overly eager to integrate there, they gladly used their newly won rights, especially concerning freedom of settlement. The Jewish population of Strasbourg, for instance, grew in about ten years from less than 100 Jewish inhabitants to over 1,000. Napoleon I tried to force the Jews of Alsace-Lorraine to integrate, first on the basis of the document formulated by the Assembly of Jewish Notables and the Sanhedrin of 1807, and later by the edict of March 17, 1808, called by the Jews the "infamous decree" (Décret infâme).

The repayment of debts owed to Jews by Christian peasants was deferred, trading by Jews was subjected to special authorization, and the possibilities of finding replacements for the army draft were restricted. The regulations were theoretically aimed at Jews throughout the country but were implemented only in Alsace and Lorraine. Napoleon's requirement that Jews should adopt family names , and the creation of the consistorial organization, compelled, even the Jews most opposed to reforms, to conform to the general legal and economic structure of the country despite attempts at resistance. The discriminatory regulations were not renewed in 1818, and the Jewish religion was recognized by the July Monarchy in 1831 as one of the three religions supported financially by the state. This more liberal policy finally succeeded in turning the Jews of Alsace, like their French coreligionists, into loyal citizens of the realm. An Ordonnance, issued on May 17, 1849, supplied French Jewry with a strong constitution as one of the "spiritual families" of the French nation. In that framework the Jews from Alsace and Lorraine became a significant element in French Jewry because of their number and the tenacity of their Jewish religious identification.