Grand Sanhedrin

The Grand Sanhedrin was a Jewish high court convened in Europe by the French Emperor Napoleon I to give legal sanction to the principles stated by an assembly of Jewish notables in answer to twelve questions put to it by the government. The name was chosen to suggest the authority of the original Sanhedrin, the main legislative and judicial body of the Jewish people in antiquity. The assembly of notables met from April 1806, under the chairmanship of Rabbi Joseph David Sinzheim of Strasbourg, and the emperor then called for a great sanhedrin of seventy-one members, two thirds rabbis and one third laymen. Its opening was delayed until February 9, 1807. Its seventy-one members included the rabbis of the assembly, twenty-nine further rabbis and twenty-five laymen, with Sinzheim as president. In its sittings it voted without discussion on the replies of the assembly and passed them as laws, declaring that, like the ancient Sanhedrin, it was a legal assembly empowered to pass ordinances promoting the welfare of Israel and obedience to the laws of the state.