When the scandalous Dreyfus affair burst open in 1894, anti-semitism took center stage in France, filling the pages of newspapers, journals and novels. Twelve years later, the French Jewish officer who had been convicted on the basis of falsified documents was rehabilitated and the affair was “resolved”. One hundred and fourteen years after that “resolution,” seventy-five years after the end of the Second World War, antisemitism has again taken center stage in France, with a new cast of characters playing out old tropes. Over the last few years, anti-semitic groups and individuals have thrived during a period of social polarisation, economic grievances and concerns around French identity. They have spread their narratives through every channel available, including social media and online platforms. In recent months protests by the “Gilets jaunes” (yellow vests), with their combination of economic frustrations and distrust of mainstream media and political elites, have fuelled conspiracy theories and provided a convenient platform for anti-semitic groups and individuals to spread their conspiratorial narratives. Hearkening back to the Dreyfus affair, this session looks at repetitions and differences underlying old and new anti-semitisms in France.

The three papers selected for this session all reference the context and legacy of the Dreyfus affair and the current climate of unrest in France.

1) In the spirit of “old and new anti-semitisms” bracketing Dreyfus, Maurice Samuels (Yale) in his paper, “A Dress Rehearsal for Dreyfus” will speak on an early 19^th-century “affaire” that sets the stage for the anti-semitic language and conspiratorial passions of the Dreyfus affair at the end of the 19^th century:

In 1832, the Duchesse de Berry fought a guerrilla war against the July Monarchy in the hope of recapturing the throne for her 11-year-old son. Her dream of another Bourbon restoration was dashed, however, by a convert from Judaism named Simon Deutz. After becoming the duchess’s confidant and emissary, he betrayed her to the government, leading to her arrest and imprisonment. This paper analyzes the antisemitic affaire that followed, in which Deutz was denounced in virulently racist and xenophobic terms. How, I ask, did the duchess and Deutz become lightening rods for a set of anxieties about race, class, and gender that the new forces of modernity had crystallized? And how did the rhetoric surrounding the case put in place a way of thinking about Jews and the nation that resonated through the Dreyfus Affair and up to our present moment?

2) In his paper, “Protocols, Bagatelles and Yellow Vests: Reflections on “conspi-racism” Bruno Chaouat (U. of Minnesota) will focus on “conspi-racism” (conspiracy based on race) with reference to the notorious fabricated Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and antisemitic pamphlets of Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1937 – 1941) and speak on conspiracy theories and the Yellow Vests:

The French "Yellow Vests" currently constitute an amorphous, “headless” movement. When observers point out instances of anti-semitism, self-proclaimed spokespeople of the movement dismiss them as marginal rather than structural. As any movement founded on the resentment of the have-nots for the haves, the Yellow Vests share traits with the 19^th-century populism described by Pierre Birnbaum and others. And as with any rebellion against a real or imaginary elite, the movement is vulnerable to anti-semitic propaganda and to conspiracy theories. Taking as a starting point the Yellow Vests and the propagation of fake news on social media, I speculate on metaphysical and social motives underneath conspiracy theory in relation to populist anti-semitism. I will focus especially on the rhetoric of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and on Louis-Ferdinand Celine’s appropriation of the notorious anti-semitic forgery.

3) The third speaker, Nathalie Debrauwere-Miller (Vanderbilt), will speak to the Dreyfus case, Emile Zola, and present-day French anti-semitism in her paper “The Human Beast and the French Yellow Vests”:

From Dreyfus to Finkielkraut, from “death to the Jews” to “God will punish you,” do the numerous insults pronounced against the Jew during the French yellow vests’ demonstrations show a return to the political and cultural determinism (nationalism) of the fin-de-siècle? Or are we at a transitional period from which the awareness of the recrudescence of Anti-Semitism could trigger a new political modernity as in Dreyfus’ and Zola’s time? These questions will occupy the heart of my reflections on the Yellow Vests, the pretext of the anti-racism movement and the inexorable propagation of fake news. Among diverse historical and literary accounts (Zola), I will analyze the documentary, Pourquoi nous détestent-ils (2017).

4) The three papers will be followed by a brief response from Susan Rubin Suleiman (Harvard) and discussion.