REL 2120 Lecture : REL2120 Lecture12
Jordan Hefler
10/4/12
REL 2120
Lecture 12
ENLIGHTENMENT (continued)
Edouard Drumont 1886
• His book became the paramount idea that the Jews dominated an entire
nation, or even the entire world
• This is the idea that the Nazis would revive with catastrophic results
The Dreyfus Affair, 1859-1935
• Alfred Dreyfus was a high ranking French army office, and a secular Jew
whose family did not practice the religion. He was accused of betraying
military secrets to the Germans. He was sentenced to life in prison.
• Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy ended up being the true culprit
• In the paper L’Aurore, Emile Zola accused the French government of anti-
semitism.
• La Libre Parole was published about anti-semitism by Drumont
• It ended up that the document provided wasn’t even in Dreyfus’s
handrwriting.
• Hubert-Joseph Henry forged French documents to cover up, and when
they were discovered he committed suicide
• Dreyfus was finally found innocent in 1906
• Covering the story was Theodore Herzl, an Austrian Jewish journalist
(1860-1904)
o He considered himself an Austrian as a secular Jew, and what he
observed covering the Dreyfus trial shocked him.
o Now, along the streets, the chant “Death to the Jews” could be
heard
• The only solution to anti-Semitism would be the formation of a Jewish
state
• At this time, the Church was headed by Pope Pious X. When Theodor
Herzel visited the Vatican in 1904, the Pope told him the following: “The
Jews have not recognized our lord, therefore we cannot recognize the
Jewish people.”
• Herzle countered that terror and persecution were not the right means by
which to enlighten them, but the pope said: “They had ample time to
acknowledge the Lord without pressure, but they didn’t.”
