The Cocktail Party Contrarian: 125 Years After Zola, It Is Time for Americans of All Faiths To Confront Identity Politics and Say More Than ‘J’Accuse’

Also, to remember that those who stood up for Dreyfus liberated all of France.

F. Hamel via Wikimedia Commons
Alfred Dreyfus in captivity on Devil's Island, 1898. F. Hamel via Wikimedia Commons

In January 1898, Emile Zola published an open letter titled “J’accuse” in a French newspaper, L’Aurore. It called out the antisemitism that inspired false charges of treason against a Jewish officer in the French army, Alfred Dreyfus, accused of passing secrets to the Germans. Zola’s morally courageous declaration shamed those who hid their rank bigotry behind a façade of enlightened patriotic allegiance.

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