In 2025, France declared that July 12 will be the national day of commemoration for Alfred Dreyfus.  The first such day is in 2026, which is the 120th anniversary of the day that France’s highest appeals court recognized Dreyfus’ innocence.  In announcing this day French President Emmanuel Macron said it is “for the victory of justice and truth over hatred and antisemitism.”

Dreyfus was a Jewish officer in the French army who in October 1894 was wrongfully charged, then convicted, of spying for Germany.  The trial was, as they would say in France, a cause célèbre (a legal case that attracts widespread interest), and brought the issue of antisemitism that had been percolating below the surface of French society, to the top.  

French society split between Dreyfusards (those who thought he was innocent) including the novelist Emile Zola whose pamphlet entitled “J’accuse” was ........

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