Margaret R. O'leary

Forging Freedom: the Life of Cerf Berr of Médelsheim Margaret R. O'leary

Forging Freedom is the first full-length biography of Cerf Berr of Médelsheim (1726-1793), the formidable eighteenth-century emancipator of the French Jews. His early business providing forage for thousands of horses of the French military garrisoned in Alsace grew into a huge military supply business that earned him the profound respect of French Kings Louis XV and XVI. After receiving his French naturalization papers from Louis XVI as a reward for his service to the French Crown, Cerf Berr worked tirelessly on behalf of his Ashkenazi co-religionists to win their political emancipation in France on September 27, 1791.