The disadvantaging of Jews led already in the 18th century to their beginning to strive for legal equality. The first expression of this and of the growing Jewish self-confidence were the territorial assemblies in Mecklenburg, which the Jews held in 1752 in Malchin, in 1764 in Schwaan, and in 1767 in Crivitz, with only modest success, however.
It was not until the 19th century that the time for emancipation had come for them. When Jews in other German lands were already demanding or had already demanded their rights -- with the Edict Concerning the Civil Relations of the Jews in the Prussian State of 11 March 1812, the Prussian Jews had already become subjects and citizens -- the Jews of Mecklenburg also approached their territorial princes. In the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the court agent Ruben Michel Hinrichsen and the timber merchant Nathan Mendel, the two leaders of the Israelite Community in Schwerin, submitted their petition of 22 February 1811 to Duke Friedrich Franz I with the "Application for the Granting of General Civil Rights".
Against the resistance of the noble estates, the dukes of both Mecklenburgs finally issued corresponding Emancipation Edicts in the years 1813/14 in Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz, granting the Jews more extensive rights. This decree of the "sovereign Constitution for the Determination of an Appropriate Organization of the Jewish Co-religionists in the Ducal Lands" of 22 February 1813 resulted in their becoming practically equal citizens.
Connected with this emancipation and the edict was, moreover, the duke's requirement that the Jews now adopt hereditary family names, primarily for fiscal reasons in the duke's interest. But the Jews themselves were also quite in favor of this regulation, as they saw in it a step towards civic acceptance.
This social achievement of the Jews, however, soon led to broad opposition, especially among the knightly and landed estates, but also among the town magistrates. Crivitz was the first town to attempt to prevent the civic oath and especially their freedom of trade through a petition to the state government. Later, Guestrow, Laage, Schwerin Neustadt and Altstadt, Rostock, Grevesmuehlen, Gadebusch, Wittenburg, Malchin, and many others followed suit. These towns ultimately had to be directed by the state government to implement the constitution. Schwerin Altstadt successfully resisted to the very end. The blockades and interventions of the estates and magistrates in Mecklenburg ultimately resulted in the revocation of the rights the Jews had won as early as 1817: On 11 September 1817, Grand Duke Friedrich Franz I was forced, under pressure from the estates, to repeal his Emancipation Edict regulations of 22 February 1813. This meant that the discriminatory provisions of the LGGEV were reinstated for the Mecklenburg Jews, a catastrophe for them.
The Mecklenburg Jews did not, however, resign themselves to this situation and in the following years repeatedly attempted to improve their legal position. Thus the representatives of the Jewish community, Dr. Aarons and court engraver Meyer Loeser from Guestrow, made a new effort from 1825 onwards, and later at the Landtags of 1828 and 1830, to achieve their civil equality. It may be surmised that the "Draft Decree on the Organization of the Jewish Religious Communities in this Country", which was submitted for resolution at the Landtag held in Sternberg in March 1828, had been at least influenced or even initiated by their prior activities.
Even though the following decades brought partial legal improvements for the Mecklenburg Jews, approximately 40 more years were still to pass before their complete civic equality.