Pressured to be twice as French and twice as patriotic as anyone else, they sought to assimilate themselves as fully as they could. Though formally emancipated by French law since the 1789 Revolution, French Jews remained anxious and insecure. If France was the cradle of modern liberalism and the Enlightenment, it was also a home for virulent ultranationalism and antisemitism. This article will explore the attitudes of Jews in France toward the accusations against Dreyfus and compare them to those of Israelis and Diaspora Jews toward the contemporary charges against Israel in the context of (1) Operation Cast Lead, (2) the BDS movement, and (3) former American President Donald Trump’s policy moves toward Israel and toward American Jews. The system was rigged against Dreyfus the Jew then, as it is against Israel, the Jewish state, today. Yet subsequent events have indicated that the restored Israel has not ended European (and indeed world) antisemitism, often cloaked as anti-Zionism. His idea of a restored independent Jewish homeland came to fruition in 1948.
#Alfred dreyfus father of zionist trial
Theodor Herzl’s experience at the trial of Alfred Dreyfus (and earlier with antisemitism in Vienna) convinced him of the impossibility of Jews being accepted and receiving fair treatment in Europe and played an important role in his conversion from assimilationism to Zionism. Keywords: Theodor Herzl, Dreyfus affair, Zionism, Israel, antisemitism, Operation Cast Lead, BDS movement
We examine this pattern with regard to attitudes toward three events that have confronted Israel in the early years of this century: (1) Operation Cast Lead, and the resultant Goldstone Report and retraction (2) the BDS movement and (3) former American President Donald Trump’s policy moves toward Israel and toward American Jews. This has evoked the same multiplicity of responses on the part of the world Jewish community as it did among French Jews at the time of Dreyfus.
Although the reemergence of Israel (at least in Herzl’s eyes) was aimed at freeing Jews from such unjust accusations, the same European antisemitism has reemerged today toward Israel itself. Most stayed silent, waiting for the storm to pass over others were pro-Dreyfus (i.e., Dreyfusards), some of whom believed in the French state while others did not (espousing either Jewish nationalism within France or Zionism, initially two different movements) and some were anti-Dreyfusards. The false accusation, trial, and punishment of the innocent Jew Alfred Dreyfus in France during the 1890s led to various responses on the part of the French Jewish community.
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