Background
He was born in Nîmes to an assimilated family originating from the the town of Crémieux in southeast France.
He was born in Nîmes to an assimilated family originating from the the town of Crémieux in southeast France.
He was one of the first Jewish pupils to be admitted to the Lycée Imperial in Paris. Crémieux gained his law degree at the University of Aix-en-Provence.
Upon being admitted to the bar at Nîmes in 1817, refused to take the more judaico oath required of Jews in lawsuits with non-Jews, which had an explicit character of a curse. After defending other Jews who also refused to take the oath, he successfully fought for its abolition in 1827. He soon attained national fame when he defended a group of young republicans against the reactionary Bourbon régime, as well as Protestants, whose rights were restricted.
He was active in the Freemasons and in liberal organizations. In 1830 Crémieux moved to Paris and, as a member of the Central Consistory, supported King Louis Philippe. In 1842 he entered the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the opposition, where he distinguished himself as a brilliant orator and in 1843 was appointed president.
In 1869 he returned to parliament on the Republican ticket, and in 1870 was appointed minister of justice. Crémieux was elected a member of the National Assembly in 1871, and in 1875 was appointed a life senator.
Despite his assimilated background (his wife had his children baptized unbeknown to him), Crémieux waged a constant battle to improve the lot of the Jews in France and fought against the oppression of Jews everywhere. In 1831 he obtained regular government funding for the salaries of rabbis and elected functionaries in Jewish communities; in 1835 he contested the Basel canton’s attempt to expel French Jews from its territory, as a result of which France broke off diplomatic relations with Basel. In 1840 he accompanied Moses Montefiore to Egypt with a delegation that secured the acquittal and release of Jews arrested as a result of the Damascus blood libel and succeeded in persuading the sultan to issue an order against such libels. In 1858 Crémieux became involved in the Mortara case in Bologna, in which a Jewish child was kidnapped by the Catholic church and baptized against the will of its parents. Crémieux spoke out vehemently against the pope (Pius IX) who justified the action.
In 1864 Crémieux became president of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, the French Jewish organization that established Jewish schools in Mediterranean countries with the support of French Jewry and set out to help oppressed Jewish communities in Morocco, Rumania, and Russia. In 1870 he signed, as minister of justice, the Décret Crémieux (Crémieux decree) by which the Jews of Algeria were granted French citizenship. In the 1860s he became interested in the return of Jews to Zion and helped Charles Netter to establish the Mikveh Israel Agricultural School near Jaffa in 1870, as well as other schools in the main towns of Eretz Israel.