ABSTRACT

The Dreyfus affair, which lasted from 1894 until 1906 and was at its height or rather its depth in 1898–1899, divided France into two opposing groups: Dreyfusards and anti-Dreyfusards. During this affair the native French Jews maintained a very low profile, and even the French socialists long avoided becoming involved. The French socialists long avoided any involvement in the affair. They and other progressives and radicals intervened only in the autumn of 1898, when the course of events led the affair to become a genuine threat to the survival of the Republic. Delegates from the different socialist movements convened, and at the end of the year issued a joint manifest in support of Dreyfus. The Dreyfus affair and the anti-Semitism that surfaced in the process came as a greater shock to the native French-Jewish community than to the Jewish immigrants, who had become accustomed to virulent anti-Semitism in their native country.