Sur Moses Mendelssohn, Sur la Réforme Politique des Juifs:

Coming from the personal library of Jacob Bernays, the renowned German philologist and philosophical writer, this book explores the 'Jewish question' from its author's perspective.

Mirabeau, a leading figure in the early days of the French Revolution, became interested in the 'Jewish question' during his visits to Holland in 1776, England in 1784 and Prussia in 1786. Influenced by the enlightened members of the Jewish communities in these countries, he was particularly fascinated by the image of Moses Mendelssohn.

In this book, which resulted from his journey, he argued that the faults of the Jews were those of their circumstances. Although his main reason for admiring Mendelssohn was that 'humanity and truth' seemed much clearer to him than 'the dark phantoms of the Talmudists', Mirabeau did not consider Judaism an immoral faith, and he defended it against attacks both old and new. In the course of his argument, he repeats the of Christian Wilhelm von Dohm, the famous German advocate for Jewish emancipation, that 'the Jew is more of a man than he is a Jew'. Quoting from Turgot and Rousseau in support of his pro-Jewish arguments, Mirabeau affirms that history proves that 'the Jews, considered as men and as citizens, were greatly corrupted only because they were denied their rights'.

Like Dohm, Mirabeau advocated preserving some measure of Jewish autonomy, a view he developed in his memorandum to Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, but he envisaged it as a transitory phenomenon. In his opinion the organised Jewish community would wither away and die as the Jews entered fully into the economic and social life of the majority.