Have the lessons of the Dreyfus Affair been learnt 130 years on? - analysis

It has been 130 years since Captain Alfred Dreyfus - a French Jewish artillery officer - was accused of treason, arrested, and imprisoned in what was to become one of the most significant political scandals in modern French history.

The so-called Dreyfus Affair, which split French society into pro-Dreyfus and anti-Dreyfus camps, highlighted the prevalence and impact of antisemitism and its role in the miscarriage of justice.

In the fall of 1894, a secret military document was discovered which had allegedly been sent from a French officer to a German military attaché. Despite there being no evidence of Dreyfus having written the document, Dreyfus was arrested on October 15, 1894, and later court-martialed.

Yael Perl Ruiz, the great-granddaughter of Alfred Dreyfus, told the Jerusalem Post that the anti-Dreyfusards (as they were called) only believed in Dreyfus's guilt because he was Jewish and, therefore, for them, the obvious traitor.  

“Dreyfus’s only fault was to be born Jewish, and as such he was the ideal traitor for the antisemites of the army and the antisemitic nationalist leagues,” she said.

A vicious antisemitic campaign began in the French press, spearheaded by La Libe Parole, an anti-Jewish newspaper edited by Eduoard Drumont. It heavily featured antisemitic cartoons, and anti-Jewish rhetoric. Drumont himself wrote a book, “La France Juive," which is widely regarded as the beginning of the antisemitic movement in France. 

The Affair marked a change in the nature of French antisemitism.

While there had been previous national scandals involving Jew-hatred, such as the Boulangisme affair, these were contained within upper-class circles. With the Dreyfus affair, however, antisemitism invaded all parts of society, the left-wing and right, upper class and lower. Riots occurred across France, mobs stoned Jewish shops and homes. The topic was as much of a discussion among the working class as to the academic elite. Jews were frightened.

Despite the significance of this event, the knowledge that antisemitism comes from all strata of society may have been lost slightly; in conversations the Jerusalem Post had last week with French Jews, several said that only in the last year did they come to understand that antisemitism was just as prolific among the left as the right. 

The rise of the France Insoumise party showed French Jews of the pernicious existence of antisemitism on the left, something that for a long time was only associated with parties such as Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National. Antisemitism is mainstream.

“The division of France into two warring camps,” Dreyfus’s biographer, Maurice Samuels, told Haaretz, "strongly parallels what we see today."

And as with the Dreyfus affair, today's antisemitism features many false accusations, libels and conspiracy theories. Whether it was Jews being blamed for Hurricane Helene last week, or the wife of British PM Keir Starmer being accused of controlling the world through access to world leaders.

In April of this year, an Australian Jewish man was falsely accused of having stabbed people in Bondi by a local news channel and large social media accounts. Legal action was taken, but not before false accusations had run rife on the internet. 

This is not the first time in history that Jews have been the first to face the firing squad. 

Throughout history, Jews have been accused of blood libels, such as killing Christian children, which have resulted in pogroms and massacres, arrests, and false imprisonments. 

While some might think that the global rise in antisemitism is a result of the Israel-Hamas war, the Dreyfus affair shows us that it has existed for significantly longer, and it is still a relatively recent event in Jewish history.

While Aeschylus, the ancient Greek playwright, said, “In war, truth is the first casualty,” baseless accusations against Jews are nothing new.

And the targeting of Jewish citizens - many of whom, like Dreyfus, were fiercely patriotic - has not ceased either. The antisemitic trope of the dual loyalty of the Jew has existed throughout history. The idea is that Jews are more loyal to their fellow Jews than to their home country. This, in turn, has allowed Jews to be vilified, victimized, and ostracized.

Dreyfus, though a proud French officer, was seen as a Jew first. Even after being betrayed by the army, the judiciary, and the French people and spending years in a penal colony, he still decided to return to his role in the army after being exonerated.

In a recent study by the Campaign Against Antisemitism, researchers found that many Americans still feel that US Jews care more about Israel than America, again reflecting the trope of dual loyalties.

Perl Ruiz said that while the Dreyfus Affair was unique, there were similarities in that both then, and now, people feel they have to pick a side.

“I never thought that I would experience in my lifetime a rise in antisemitism like the one we are currently experiencing.”

Perl Ruiz continued: “Today, why is it that we have a President [Emmanuel Macron] who, under the pretext of wanting to maintain unity in his country, does not participate in a national mobilization against antisemitism? Who, on a whim, forbids Israeli companies from participating in a trade fair? And who, instead of thanking Israel for having eliminated the leaders of the Hezbollah terrorist group, responsible, among other things, for the death of 58 of our French soldiers, of the attacks on French soil in the 80s, instead advises [his government] to stop delivering weapons to Israel when defending itself on various fronts?"

“Do you really think that lessons have been learned from the Alfred Dreyfus Affair?”

She did, however, add that the nature of antisemitism is different in type and nature than previously, with more antisemites using the guise of anti-Zionism to push their views.

On the 130th anniversary of his arrest, the levels of antisemitism in society remain high, even if now, in the year following October 7, there has been a particular resurgence.

“My mother, who lived through the Second World War and lost her younger sister in Auschwitz, always said that the filthy beast slumbers but never sleeps,” Perl Ruiz said. 

“Antisemitism will always exist," she concluded.