Are beards in? For most of my life I’ve been clean shaven. I grew a moustache for a few months in 1987, but it didn’t suit me. When I walked the Camino de Santiago in 2019 I was saving every ounce of weight in the backpack, so razor and shaving foam were out. The photograph that Claire took of me in Santiago is the only presentable photograph of me I possess, so that’s my author photo and the beard is here to stay. But that wouldn’t have been possible in revolutionary Strasbourg.
On the 22nd November 1794, during the French Revolution, Strasbourg issued a prohibition banning circumcision and the wearing of beards. This policy reflected the revolutionary government’s push for uniformity and secular citizenship, which often clashed with minority cultural and religious practices. Revolutionary France aimed to create a new, unified national identity based on Enlightenment principles of reason and equality, opposing what they saw as divisive, traditional religious distinctions.
The prohibition in Strasbourg specifically targeted practices viewed as markers of Jewish identity: circumcision, a religious ritual signifying a covenant in Judaism, and the wearing of beards, traditionally common among Jewish men. Authorities believed that these visible expressions of Jewish tradition ran counter to the Revolution’s secular ideals, symbolizing a reluctance to fully assimilate into the new French civic identity. Revolutionary leaders argued that citizens should abandon religious customs that set them apart and adopt secular practices as a sign of loyalty to the Republic.
This attempt to legislate religious practices sparked distress among the Jewish population. For many Jews, circumcision and traditional grooming were essential to their faith and cultural identity, and abandoning them meant renouncing a part of their heritage. Some Jewish leaders resisted, arguing that these personal practices did not undermine their loyalty to France and that Jews could be both faithful to their religion and committed to the Republic.
The restrictions in Strasbourg were part of a broader set of revolutionary reforms affecting religious and cultural life across France, including similar pressures on Catholics and other religious groups. However, the specific targeting of Jewish customs highlighted an ongoing struggle for French Jews to gain full acceptance as citizens while maintaining their religious identity.
Although the revolutionary government eventually granted full citizenship rights to Jews, these early policies underscored the tension between state-imposed secularism and minority religious freedoms. The Strasbourg ban on circumcision and beards in 1794 remains a significant example of the challenges faced by religious minorities in adapting to revolutionary ideals of civic equality and national unity.