The March 17th Decree

Godchaux Baruch Weil (Ben-Lévi) was among the first generation of Jews to have grown up as French citizens, and his writing reflects a loyalty to French ideals of pluralism and universalism. The son of a prominent Parisian businessman, Weil received a traditional Jewish education and was something of a prodigy, publishing a refutation of a reformist article at age fifteen. After his father died, he became dedicated to modernizing Jewish institutions and traditions in France. To this end, Weil (under the pseudonym Ben-Lévi) wrote dozens of short stories and social commentaries in Les archives israélites.