Napoleon is one of the most centralizing and controversial rulers of the early modern period. Sometimes perceived as a tyrant who fatally wounded the French Revolution, other times he is perceived as a reformer who moderated the French Revolution’s darker aspects and yet other times he is the man who brought France to its greatest height since Charlemagne. He was many things to many people, but today, let's focus on what he meant to the Jewish people he ruled over, more specifically, the Jews of the German speaking world. Varying greatly depending on how much influence Napoleon had over various states and territories, Napoleon was transformative. Bringing both Jewish emancipation in one hand and economic persecution wrapped in centuries of Jewish stereotypes in the other, Napoleon was as divisive a figure for Jews as any other group.
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von Dohm, Christian Conrad Wilhelm. On the Civil Improvement of the Jews [1781]. Nathan the Wise by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing with Related Documents, translated and edited by Ronald Schechter. Bedford/St. Martins, 2004, pp. 128-139.