In the Wake of the Dreyfus Affair: an Alexandrian Jewish Intellectual Reconsiders His Admiration for France* **

IN THE WAKE OF THE DREYFUS AFFAIR 473

Yaron HAREL Université Bar Ilan, Ramat Gan

IN THE WAKE OF THE DREYFUS AFFAIR: AN ALEXANDRIAN JEWISH INTELLECTUAL RECONSIDERS HIS ADMIRATION FOR FRANCE* **

RÉSUMÉ

Pendant l'automne de l'année 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, un officier juif qui travaillait à l'état major de l'armée française, est accusé de trahison. Le 5 janvier 1895, lors d'une cérémonie humiliante et au milieu des acclamations de la foule, il est dégradé. Peu de temps après, il est exilé dans une île lointaine où des conditions de vie dégradantes lui sont imposées. Le combat légal et public pour la réhabilitation de Dreyfus a duré dix ans et a créé une véritable tempête en France comme à l'étranger. Aujourd'hui, plus de cent ans après, l'affaire est l'objet d'un nombre considérable d'articles et de livres et aucun de ses aspects n'est laissé de côté, à une exception près: le réaction des juifs du Moyen-Orient au sort funeste qui a frappé Dreyfus. Le présent article analyse l'opinion de David Silvera, un intellectuel juif, originaire d'Alep en Syrie, qui, au moment de l'Affaire, séjournait, au titre de ses activités commerciales, dans la ville d'Alexandrie, en Egypte. L'opinion de David Silvera est d'une grande importance puisqu'elle est largement représentative de celle des juifs de sa génération et de sa région, qui, comme lui, ont été imprégnés, dans leur éducation, par les valeurs françaises.

SUMMARY

In the autumn of 1894 Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, serving on the General Staff of the French Army, was charged with treason. On January 5, 1895, in the presence of a cheering crowd, a humiliating ceremony was held in which Dreyfus’ rank was stripped. Some time later, he was exiled to a distant island where he was held under shameful conditions. The legal and public struggle to exonerate Dreyfus, claiming

* My profound thanks to my friend Dr. David Silvera, grandson of David Silvera, whose reaction to the Dreyfus Affair is the subject of this study, for calling my attention to the publication of his grandfather. My thanks also to Professor Simon Schwarzfuchs for his com- ments, and to Professor Arie Shlosberg for encouraging me in this research. ** This article has been written thanks to research grants I received from the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, headed by Professor Dalia Ofer, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and also from the Kaplan Cathedra for the History of Egypt and Israel, headed by Professor Shimon Shamir, Tel Aviv University.

Revue des Études juives, 166 (3-4), juillet-décembre 2007, pp. 473-491. doi: 10.2143/REJ.166.3.2024057

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that the accusation was nothing more than a libel, lasted over ten years and created a storm both inside and outside France. Recently, more than one hundred years later, the affair has generated a bountiful harvest of articles and books dealing with almost every possible aspect. Still, one issue remains that has not been dealt with in the research and that is the reaction of the Jews belonging to Middle Eastern communities to the Dreyfus Affair. This article presents and analyzes the motivation for the response of David Silvera, a Jewish intellectual, native of Aleppo, Syria, who at the time of the Affair was in Alexandria, Egypt, due to his business interests. His response is of great importance, since it is largely representative of the attitude prevailing among those of his generation and in his region, who, like him, were educated in the light of French values.

In the autumn of 1894 Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, serving on the General Staff of the French Army, was charged with treason. He was accused of passing secret military documents to the military attaché of the German Embassy in Paris. It would seem that the trial, which took place behind closed doors, was not conducted according to the accepted standards of a fair legal system. The unanimous sentence found Alfred Dreyfus guilty of treason and ordered that the Jewish officer be stripped of his rank and that he be sent to prison for life. On January 5, 1895, in the presence of a cheering crowd, a humiliating ceremony was held in which Dreyfus’ rank was stripped. Some time later, he was exiled to a distant island where he was held under shameful conditions. The legal and public struggle to exonerate Dreyfus, claiming that the accusation was nothing more than a libel, lasted over ten years and created a storm both inside and outside France. Recently, more than one hundred years later, the affair has generated a bountiful harvest of articles and books dealing with almost every possible aspect. Along with books dealing again and again with the unfolding of the incident and with new discoveries con- nected with each of its stages, many studies have been and are still being written on the question of the attitude of French society toward the affair and the affair’s influence on French society in almost every domain. In this context reactions to the affair of many non-Jewish intellectuals and institutions have been examined. The Jewish aspect of the affair has also been re- peatedly considered in dozens of studies, whether from the standpoint of anti-Semitism or as a chapter in Zionist history. Also examined was the reaction of French Jews and their behavior in the course of the affair along with the question of the reaction of Jewish communities throughout the world1. Still, one issue remains that has not been dealt with in the research

1. Of the immense quantity of research, I shall note here several recently published books and collections containing dozens of articles about various issues and aspects relating to the

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and that is the reaction of the Jews belonging to Middle Eastern communities to the Dreyfus Affair2. In the pages that follow, I shall present and analyze the motivation for the response of David Silvera, a Jewish intellectual, native of Aleppo, Syria, who at the time of the Affair was in Alexandria, Egypt, due to his business interests. His response is of great importance, since it is largely representative of the attitude prevailing among those of his generation and in his region, who, like him, were educated in the light of French values. On January 15, 1898, two days after Emile Zola published his open letter “J’accuse” to the president of the French Republic in L’Aurore in Paris, David Silvera published in Alexandria a pamphlet called 20 Ans dans l’erreur: La France avant et après la mise en scène de l’affaire Dreyfus- Esterhazy. It was a sharp accusation that France had betrayed its values. Along with the accusation, he openly expressed his disappointment at having lived in error for the past twenty years, mistakenly regarding France as a country with unsullied values. Silvera apparently also wrote a pamphlet called Le rôle du cléricalisme dans l’affaire Dreyfus, but no trace is to be found of it3. As noted above, Silvera’s reaction to the Affair, as expressed in the pamphlet to which we have access, can serve as a response representative of that of many Jewish intellectuals from Middle Eastern communities, graduates of the Alliance Israélite Universelle or other French schools, who were raised on the values of French culture. The position they held concerning the official and unofficial behavior of France was com- posed of two elements. First and foremost was the cognitive-evaluative element based on a comparison between the values France stood for and what they perceived as France’s deviation from those values. The second ele-

Affair. The large part contains rich bibliographical lists: R. KOREN, D. MICHMAN (eds.), Les intellectuels face à l’affaire Dreyfus alors et aujourd’hui, Paris, 1998; P.E. LANDAU, L’opinion juive et l’affaire Dreyfus, Paris, 1995; P. PIERRARD, Les chrétiens et l’affaire Dreyfus, Paris, 1998; D. DELMAIRE, Antisémitisme et catholiques — Dans le Nord pendant l’affaire Dreyfus, Lille, 1991; J.F. BRENNAN, The Reflection of the Dreyfus Affair in the European Press 1897-1899, New York, 1998; M. DENIS, M. LAGRÉE et J.Y. VEILLARD (eds.), L’affaire Dreyfus et l’opinion publique, en France et à l’étranger, Rennes, 1995; M. DROUIN (ed.), L’affaire Dreyfus de A à Z, France, 1994; N. KLEEBLATT, The Dreyfus Affair: Art, Truth, Jus- tice, Los Angeles-London, 1987; N.R. DAVISON, “The Jew as Homme/Femme-Fatale: Jew- ish (Art)ifice, Trilby, and Dreyfus,” Jewish Social Studies 8 (2002), pp. 73-111. An excellent summary of the Affair is to be found in J.D. BREDIN, L’Affaire, Paris, 1993. 2. The only Sephardic community whose reaction to the Affair has been studied a little is that of Salonika. See LANDAU (n. 1 above), p. 79; N. DORI, Parashat Dreyfus verishuma Besifrut HaLadino, M.A. dissertation, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 2000. See also N. DORI, “The Dreyfus Affair and Its Reflection on Two Ladino Novels,” Ladinar 3, 2004, pp. 113- 125 (in Hebrew). 3. See M.D. GAON, Yehudei Hamizrah Be’Eretz Israel, Part II, Jerusalem 1938 (5698), p. 483.

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ment was the emotional one. It would be very difficult not to recognize the feelings of frustration, disappointment, anger, and insult as expressed in David Silvera’s pamphlet.

The world of David Silvera

At the end of the seventeenth century Jews of Sephardic origin, who had settled in Italy following the expulsion from Spain and Portugal, began ar- riving in the Middle East. The main impulse for their migration to the large Levantine commercial cities was provided by the capitulation agreements signed between the European powers and the Ottoman Empire. The deci- sion to settle permanently in these commercial and port cities and set up permanent commercial representations in the first half of the eighteenth century stemmed from a complex array of political-economic considerations. Heads of Jewish commercial ventures in the port cities of France and Italy were quick to see the window of opportunity when cities such as Aleppo, Izmir, Istanbul, and Tunis presented themselves as links and me- diators in international commerce between East and West. Of all these cities, Aleppo was one of the central targets for establishing branches of the Jewish commercial houses in Europe. The flourishing economy brought about expansion of the Italian Jewish colony in Aleppo. The success of the first settlers attracted more European Jewish settlers whom the local Jews referred to respectfully as “Senyorés Francos.” The colony of European Jewish merchants in Aleppo was centered around six main patriarchies that included dozens of families. These were mostly from the Silvera, Picciotto, Ankona, Lopez, Belilius, and Altaras families4. It should be noted that the non-Jewish European merchants who lived in Aleppo, even if for a long time, never regarded themselves as Aleppines but rather retained their European identity and allegiance. They saw their residence in the city as transitory, for business purposes only and not as a permanent move. Most did not bother to learn the Arabic language; very few bothered to bring their wives and members of their families to Aleppo, and only a small number married local women. Their homes too were in a separate part of the city and not in the neighborhoods of the local population. It is true that the Jewish European merchants did not live in the Jew- ish neighborhood either and in most spheres of their lives and activities did

4. See Y. HAREL, “Hadahato shel Hehacham Bashi HaHalabi Ha’aharon,” Pe{amim 44, 1989-90 (5750), p. 123. See also ibid., in BiSefinot shel Esh Lama{arav: Temurot BeYahadut Suriya Bitequfat Hareformot HaOthmaniot 1840-1880, Jerusalem, 2003 (5763), pp. 15-29.

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not see themselves as part of the Jewish community but rather as part of the European colony in the city. Moreover, they were not bound by the dis- criminatory Ottoman laws concerning the local Jews but instead acted under the aegis of a European power, especially France5. But the European Jewish merchants in Aleppo differed from the gentile merchants in that they eventually integrated into the local Jewish community. True, at the beginning they too viewed their stay in Aleppo as being temporary, but as time passed, they began to take an active part in religious life within the local Jewish community, whose customs were not foreign to them, and they did not avoid marrying local women, raising children, and becoming established in the community, so that their stay in the city became perma- nent6. From a petition sent by members of the Silvera family in Aleppo at the beginning of the year 1873 to the British Foreign Secretary, with the objective of gaining British protection, we learn many details of the circum- stances of the family’s arrival in Aleppo. We also learn about the genea- logical branch to which David Silvera belongs. According to the writers, the family originated in the British colony of Gibraltar. From there, they moved to Livorno. From Livorno the grandfather of the family, Elias, reached Aleppo. The grandfather retained his British citizenship for many years, but after his death, his sons were obliged, in order to further their commercial interests, to receive the protection of Tuscany. Now, members of the family asked to return to British protection in order to ease the development of their commerce with Great Britain. One of the seven brothers of the Silvera household who applied to the British Foreign Minister was Hillel, father of David Silvera7. David was born in Aleppo on the 21st of Tishrei 18618. The early years of his schooling were spent at the community Talmud Torah, but when he was thirteen, his father sent him to the local Alliance school. There his character and world view were shaped. Apparently, Hillel Silvera was full of admiration for the values of France and desired that they be the founda-

5. See extensively Y. HAREL, “Ma{amadam Vetadmitam shel Benei Picciotto Be{enei Hamoshava HaTzarfatit BeHalab, 1784-1850”, Michael 14, 1997 (5757), p. 163. 6. Y. HAREL, “The Controversy over Rabbi Ephraim Laniado’s Inheritance of the Rabbin- ate in Aleppo,” Jewish History 13, 1999, pp. 83-101. 7. United Kingdom, Public Record Office, Foreign Office Archives (F.O.) 78/2299, members of Silvera family à Son Excellence le Ministre des Affaires Étrangères de Sa Majesté Britannique, Alep, 24 février 1873. The earlier origins of the family were in Portugal. 8. GAON (see n. 3), p. 483. While in the petition to the British Foreign Office, it is said that in May 1873 David Silvera was already eleven years old, he says of himself that in Sep- tember 1877 he was thirteen. See D. SILVERA, 20 Ans dans l’erreur: La France avant et après la mise en scène de l’affaire Dreyfus-Esterhazy, Alexandrie, 1898, pp. 7-8.

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tion of his son’s education. David Silvera quotes his father on the day he, the son, began his studies at the French-spirited Alliance school: C’est dans cette institution que tu devras puiser les connaissances utiles à ton avenir, tu prendras pour guides les principes de la nation dont tu iras apprendre la langue; tu seras libre, juste et généreux, tu deviendras alors ma joie et je quitterai ce monde sans regret, convaincu que j’y ai laissé un fils heureux9. David Silvera expanded his knowledge, became fluent in many lan- guages, and turned to commerce. In the course of his business affairs, he spent long periods of time in Alexandria where he learned of the Dreyfus Affair. This Affair received wide coverage in the Egyptian press which was a leader in Middle East journalism. News agencies provided information in almost real time, and the newspaper editorial boards reacted to the develop- ments of the Affair, each according to its own taste and outlook10. From these newspapers, from the Syrian-Lebanese press, and from that of the European colony in the Middle East, Silvera learned of the Affair and formed his view of its significance for his world view that had regarded France and its values as the beacon lighting the way for the entire world.

The French image and influence in the Middle East

During the nineteenth century Europe extended its influence beyond its borders. Along with the European military and economic control over widespread areas in Asia and Africa, this was also an era of western cultural imperialism. European travelers began to explore the Middle East, and many returned enriched by their impressions of Eastern exoticism, on the one hand, but also astonished at what they perceived as a backward society treading water, on the other. The increased flow of travelers was one of the expressions of European curiosity and the desire to know and understand the people and way of life of those living in the Middle East. This phenomenon also resulted in the development of European research on eastern culture in all areas, such as religion, anthropology, philology, and archeology. An acquaintance with the east and its culture, and the deep conviction that the Western outlook was the normative model worthy of imitation in the rest of the world, gave the Europeans the impression that it was their mission to help the East progress according to the Western model. Also, part of the struggle between the European powers for influence in the Middle East

9. SILVERA (see n. 8), p. 8. 10. S. SEHAYIK, “The Dreyfus Affair in the Arab Press,” Michael 14, 1997, pp. 187-214 (Hebrew).

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took place in the sphere of cultural influence as a means of attracting public support. The military, economic, and technological success of the West aroused wonder in the Middle East. The Islamic world suffered a serious blow with Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt in 1798. For many historians this invasion marks the beginning of a new era in the history of the Middle East. Muslim society, that had been sure of itself and of its superiority over Christian Eu- rope, endured an additional blow with the French takeover of Algeria in 1830. European military and technological superiority underscored the perception of the weakness of Muslim civilization. Increasingly aware of Eu- ropean superiority, large sections of the elite in Middle Eastern society were led to imitate and adopt European values. A new class of intellectuals arose who, with the help of their European teachers, internalized Western values. Upon their return from Europe to the Middle East, members of the clergy, tourists, diplomats, and Muslim students also became carriers of Western culture. Schools and universities were also set up under European influence, the majority by European and American missionaries. Predominant in introducing European culture into the Middle East was France. In the second half of the nineteenth century the use of the French language was so extensive that it became the lingua franca of commerce and of the central cities in the Levant. Knowledge of French also increased the reading of original French literature; many books were translated from French to Turkish and Arabic, thereby deepening the connection of Middle Easterners with French culture. Interest on the part of educated young people was channeled into an appreciation of the intellectual and social expansion of Europe as an attractive, positive challenge, up to a point. The ideas of the French revolution, freedom and equality, captivated Middle Eastern intellectuals who saw in them the secret of Western power. In this way, France became a symbol and model of an advanced modern society11. Above and beyond the French cultural educational activity, there was an additional channel that brought Eastern hearts closer to France and its cultural world. After the revolution, the French purposely broke down the bar- rier of mutual isolationism separating Muslims from Christians that had limited the contact between them to official occasions only. The French were energetic in disseminating the ideas of the revolution throughout the Middle East. For example, in Istanbul, they initiated setting up a new neu- tral society with members who were French, local Christians, and Muslims who discussed the ideas of the age and the problems common to the various

11. See for example M.F. HIJAZI (ed.), Usul al-fikr al-‘arabi al-hadith ‘ind al Tahtawi, Cairo, 1974, pp. 208ff.

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religions and peoples. The ideal presented as a model for imitation drew on the values of the French Revolution. This period is thus characterized by imitation of and enthusiastic admiration for the West. The desire for personal and social success led to studying and copying the West for the pur- pose of learning the secret of its superiority and power. Feelings in the Mid- dle East towards the West and especially towards France were those of admiration and respect12.

The “adopting children of France”

The process of “Jewish colonialism,” as Professor S. Schwarzfuchs re- fers to it, began in the middle of the nineteenth century13. Western Jewish communities in Europe that had, since the second half of the eighteenth century, undergone far-reaching changes in education, emancipation, and deep acculturation, wanted to also instill similar values into Middle Eastern Jews in order to rescue them from what European eyes perceived as their “inferiority”. Central was the objective of making Middle Eastern Jews into citizens with equal rights in their own countries and into useful citizens of society in general. This goal was referred to as “Regeneration” (Régé- nération). The meaning of regeneration was reshaping Middle Eastern Jews in the image of the Jews of France, their ways of thinking, their values, and customs14. The way to achieve this goal was to base Jewish education in the Middle East on new foundations, those which had led Western European Jewry to its new place in the modern era. In 1860 an organization was founded in France that was to consolidate all efforts and set up a comprehensive, all- encompassing system of institutions for education and productivization in the Middle East. This organization was the Alliance Israélite Universelle that indeed fulfilled this role and established a network of modern educa-

12. On the meeting between East and West, its development and significance in detail, see B. LEWIS, The Middle East and the West, London, 1964, pp. 28-26; B. LEWIS, The Emer- gence of Modern Turkey, London, 1962, pp. 40-72; A. HOURANI, A History of the Arab Peo- ples, Cambridge, 1991, pp. 265-310. 13. S. SCHWARZFUCHS, «Colonialisme français et colonialisme juif», in M. ABITBOL (ed.), e e Judaïsme d’Afrique du Nord aux XIX -XX siècles, Jérusalem, 1980, pp. 37-48. 14. A. RODRIGUE, De l’instruction à l’émancipation, Paris, 1989, pp. 16-17. The concept Régénération was at first used to describe the modernization of French Jews. On its changed meanings and importance in the broad French context and in regard to Jews in particular, see Y. COHEN, “Retoriqat Ha’Emantzipatzia shel HaYehudim Uetemunat HeAtid” in Y. COHEN (ed.), Hamahapecha HaTzarfatit Verishuma, Jerusalem, 1991, pp. 147-169.

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tional institutions throughout the lands of the Middle East15. Emissaries of this organization saw their main objective as conveying the values of France and its culture to the Jews in the Middle East. One of the important factors that aided this group’s penetration and the success of its projects inside eastern Jewish communities was the existence of elites who sometimes initiated Alliance activities locally or provided a base of public support for the Alliance in Middle Eastern communities. The central element in these elites were the Francos. These Jews, who remained in close touch with European cities either through commerce or through family ties or consular duties, served as “carriers” in bringing Western culture to the East, and they viewed Europe and its values as the outstanding model according to which Eastern Jewish society should be renewed and remodeled. Their clothes were different; the men were clean-shaven, and their attitudes towards the status of women and appropriate female behavior differed from what was the general rule in the Middle East16. This elite also possessed extensive economic means, a fact that enabled them to exert influence beyond their demographic weight in Jewish society in the Ottoman Empire17. This elite was joined by some of the local elites as well as intellectuals who had previously come into contact individually with general European culture and with the values of the Jewish Enlightenment (Has- kala) movement. Moreover, unlike the Muslim public, for Middle Eastern Jews, Europe was not the enemy. The European Jews were their brothers, members of their people, so that the values they brought with them were met with less suspicion. Alliance emissaries aiming to disseminate the values of Western civilization in the spirit of French culture succeeded to a great extent in their task. France and its values were presented as being the enlightened world of to- morrow come to replace the old, degenerate one where ignorance and injustice held sway18. For Jewish society, as a religious minority suffering from discrimination, it was easier than for the Muslim society to internalize the

15. In recent years an abundance of studies have been written about this organization and its projects. For extensive sources and bibliography see RODRIGUE (above, n. 14) pp. 219-225. 16. On the important place of the Francos in the modernization processes in communities in the center of the Ottoman Empire, see A. RODRIGUE, French Jews, Turkish Jews, Indiana, 1990, pp. 39-40. 17. On the circumstance that the Jewish population in the Ottoman Empire consisted of a number of non-homogeneous elements and its importance in regard to penetration of the En- lightenment to a large part of the Middle Eastern communities, see Y. TSUR, “Haskala in a Sectional Colonial Society — Mahdia (Tunisia) 1884,” in H.E. GOLDBERG (ed.), Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewries — History and Culture in Modern Era, United States, 1996, pp. 146-167. 18. See extensively RODRIGUE (n. 14 above), pp. 75-79.

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French values of liberty, equality and fraternity19. After all, whenever a Muslim authority harassed Jews, the latter turned to the Alliance in the name of the enlightened values it represented, expecting that it would take action on the Jews’ behalf either alone or by applying pressure on the French and other governments. This was a new dimension in the connection between the Jewish communities in the Middle East and those in Europe, based on a call for action in defense of a persecuted minority in the name of the values of human rights. This dimension was introduced by the Alliance instilling the values of the French Revolution into the awareness of its students and through them to other strata in Jewish society20. Middle Eastern Jews considered the Alliance to be the government of the entire Jewish people and their legitimate representative in every matter and in every location. Adolph Crémieux, who headed the Alliance, was imag- ined by these Jews to be king of the Jews. This being the case, principals of the schools, Alliance emissaries, were perceived in practice as the consuls of the “Alliance government” in the region and as the official representa- tives of the Jews, acting in light of French values and heritage. The Alli- ance became the hope of Middle Eastern Jews for rescue from any injustice suffered in the legal system and for emancipation21. For the younger generation, educated in Alliance institutions or those of the French Mission in the Middle East, France personified all that was good in the world. In their youth and even as adults, they admired France blindly. These are the words of David Silvera on his feelings and those of his fellow students while he was studying: … j’aimais déjà la France avec passion. La lecture de l’histoire de la Révolution m’attirait; je la lisais et la relisais sans cesse. Les noms et les œuvres des grands personnages français étaient l’unique sujet de ma conversa- tion. Je voyais en eux, non seulement les sauveurs de leur patrie, mais aussi ceux du monde entier, car j’étais fort dans la conviction que ce qui fut accompli en France le sera tôt ou tard partout. Passer ma vie en France était devenu mon seul rêve. Je ne pouvais pas m’imaginer qu’on pût appeler vie l’existance qu’on traîne hors de ce pays privilégié. Là seulement on peut-être

19. See Y. HAREL, “Mipetihut Lehistagrut: Meni’ei Hatemura Beyahasa shel He’elita Hatoranit Hamizrah Tichonit Le’erkei HaModerna,” AJS Review 26, 2002, pp. 1-58. 20. See for example awareness of rabbis and heads of the Jewish community in Damascus regarding the progress of emancipation as expressed in their letter to the Central Committee of the Alliance from the month of Heshvan, 1880, Archives de l’Alliance Israélite Universelle (A.A.I.U.), Syrie, I.B., 5, Damas. 21. See for example A.A.I.U., I.B., Alep, 1, for the letter of the Khafif brothers to Alli- ance, October 25, 1877, and also a letter from the Rabbinical Court in Halab to Alliance on the eve of Shavuot 1875. Also see RODRIGUE (n. 14 above), pp. 155-158.

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libre, me disais-je, là seulement on est à l’abri de l’injustice, là on est heureux; hésitera-t-on un seul instant, à adorer un pays pareil? Et ce n’était pas moi seul qui pensais ainsi, presque tous mes camarades étaient de cette opinion: aimer la France et la respecter, c’était notre devise à tous. Nous la confondions avec notre pays natal et nous la chérissions au même degré. Ne croyez point que j’exagère, au contraire, je ne saurais dire sans ennuyer mes lecteurs, tout ce que je ressentais pour la France et cela parce que je la croyais la source inépuisable de toutes les vertus et où toutes les nations, toutes sans exception aucune, devraient chercher les éléments nécessaires à leur conservation et à leur existence22. In the research literature, French Jews, due to their love for their country and their identification with its values and its culture, were sometimes referred to as “Les enfants de la France”23. In light of Silvera’s words, it would definitely seem possible to refer to Middle Eastern Jews, students at French educational institutions, as “the adopting children of France.” Be- cause of their love and admiration for France, its culture, and its values on which they were educated, they adopted that country as their spiritual homeland24.

The International Echoes of the Affair

Research divides the Dreyfus Affair into three main periods, and studies have examined the Jewish reaction in each of these periods. The first period began with Dreyfus’ incarceration in autumn of 1894 and lasted until the publication of Émile Zola’s letter J’accuse on January 13, 1898. During this period, there were solitary Jewish and non-Jewish voices inside France itself demanding a retrial for Dreyfus. Only a few argued that he was inno- cent. The second period, during which the affair became a subject arousing tremendous interest in France and throughout the world, lasted from the days following publication of Zola’s letter until the retrial began in Septem- ber 1899. The third period lasted until the final proclamation of the High

22. SILVERA (see n. 8), pp. 8-9. On the admiration of France and its values among the youth in Algeria see S. SCHWARZFUCHS, “The Alliance Universelle Israélite and the French Jewish Leadership vis-à-vis North African Jewry”, in B. PINKUS and I. TROEN (eds.), Na- tional Jewish Solidarity in the Modern Period, Sede Boqer, 1988, p. 82. 23. See for example LANDAU (n. 1 above), p. 10. 24. In this matter I was glad to see recently that I had come to a conclusion similar to that of my friend Y. Tsur. In his book, Qehila Qeru’a — Yehudei Maroqo Vehale’umiut 1943- 1954, Tel Aviv, 2001, p. 401, Tsur observes that the Jews undergoing westernization in Mo- rocco desired French cultural and civil identity to the extent of identifying nationally and therefore declared France to be their “patrie adoptée”.

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Court of Justice that the accusations against Dreyfus had been lacking any foundation from the very beginning. In 1906 Dreyfus’ rank was returned to him, and he was even awarded a decoration25. Our concern here is, therefore, with the second period, at the beginning of which David Silvera’s article was published. This period brought an end to the isolation of the Jews regarding the affair. Many French intellectuals, both Christians and Jews, like Émile Zola, Bernard Lazare, Georges Clémenceau, Charles Péguy, and Lucien Herr, began a public struggle to prove the innocence of Dreyfus, and they demanded that Dreyfus be given the opportunity of a fair trial that would prove his innocence. The position of the Jewish intellectuals was based for the most part on their perception that the French experience was vitally necessary to Jewish existence and integration in European society. After all, France was the first to raise the banner of human and civil rights. France was the first to emancipate the Jews and to make them citizens with rights equal to those of all French citizens. Because of this, Jewish intellectuals interested in assimilation became the biggest supporters of the liberal principles on which the French republi- can regime was based. One of the outstanding expressions of this identification was that many in 1898 joined the human rights association founded by Ludovic Trarieux26. Even if these Jewish intellectuals were basically moti- vated by feelings of solidarity with a member of their people and their religion, their demand for a retrial was made in the name of the principles of the Republic, in the name of the values of France. The actions of Western Jews for the sake of the Jews of Damascus in 1840, undertaken in the name of the values of the Emancipation, have been described in the research as “marching under the banner of victorious liberalism”27. But at the time of the Dreyfus Affair, it seemed that the banner of human rights had been struck; thus Jewish intellectuals in 1898 presented themselves as acting more for the sake of France and in defense of French values than for the Jews and Judaism28.

25. On the division into periods see Y. COHEN, “Mishpat Dreyfus Vehayehudim,” in S. Almog, Antisemitism through the Ages, Jerusalem, 1980, p. 293. 26. See LANDAU (n. 1 above), pp. 68-72; V. DATTA and W.Z. SILVERMAN, “Introduction: New Approaches to Intellectuals and the Dreyfus Affair,” Reflexions Historique 24, 1998, p. 1. On activities of the French intellectuals during the Affair see P. ORY and J.F. SIRINELLI, Les intellectuels en France, de l’affaire Dreyfus à nos jours, Paris, 1986, pp. 13-40. On Ludovic Trarieux and his activity see Drouin (n. 1 above), pp. 414-417. 27. See J. FRANKEL, “The Crisis as a Factor in Modern Jewish Politics, 1840 and 1881- 1882, in B. PINKUS and I. TROEN (eds.), National Jewish Solidarity in the Modern Period, Is- rael, 1988, pp. 38-39. 28. See Trarieux’ words in the Ligue française pour la défense des droits de l’homme et du citoyen, compte rendu de l’Assemblée générale, 23, XII (1898), Paris, p. 20.

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During this period which lasted for two years, the Dreyfus Affair became a burning issue, arousing interest not only in France but throughout the world. Many articles appeared in the European press as well as in journals throughout the world29. Some of the articles exploited the Affair to arouse anti-Semitic feelings against the Jews. That was the case in Russia and also in more distant places that were subject to strong French influence30. It will be recalled that the Dreyfus Affair was accompanied by anti-Semitic activity in France itself, some of it led by the Catholic church which supported Dreyfus’ accusers31. At the same time, a large proportion of newspapers asserted his innocence and stood up against the rising wave of anti-Semitism. Prominent among those writing articles in support of Dreyfus and critical of the French establishment were intellectuals including renowned authors, philosophers, and statesmen. For example, this is what the Norwegian au- thor Biørnstjerne Biørnson had to say: “The entire enlightened world looks toward France with disbelief and heartache.”32 Emilio Castelar, who, while serving as head of the Spanish government about thirty years previously, had proclaimed Spain’s gates open to the Jews — thereby in effect repeal- ing the 1492 order of expulsion — now, in one of the Madrid newspapers, sharply denounced the manifestations of anti-Semitism and the anti-Jewish riots in Paris which were in total opposition to the values of the French Revolution33.

29. On expressions of the Affair in the press in France, Germany, Austro-Hungary, Rus- sia, and Italy, see BRENNAN (n. 1 above) and also P. BOUSSEL, L’affaire Dreyfus et la presse, Paris, 1960. On expressions of the Affair in the British, American, Egyptian, Syrian and Lebanese press see R.L SHERROD, Images and Reflections: The Response of the British Press to the Dreyfus Affaire, unpublished Dissertation, University of Michigan, 1980; E. FELDMAN, “American Editorial Reaction to the Dreyfus Case,” Michael 3, 1975, pp. 101-124; SEHAYIK (n. 10 above). 30. See P. BOYER-VIDAL, L’écho de l’affaire Dreyfus dans la presse réunionnaise 1894- 1910, France, 1997. 31. In France there was a clear division: the Catholics accused Dreyfus whereas the Prot- estants came out in his defense or at least believed in his innocence. See extensively P. PIERRARD, Les chrétiens et l’affaire Dreyfus, Paris, 1998; D. DELMAIRE, Antisémitisme et catholiques dans le Nord pendant l’affaire Dreyfus, Lille, 1991. On the solidarity shown by the Protestants towards the Jews see LANDAU (n. 1 above), pp. 61-64. In the Middle East as well, when convinced of the injustice that had been done to Dreyfus, the editors of the press demanded that his trial be reopened, and they censured the French government. This was true except in regard to the Catholic newspaper Al-Bashir, published in Beirut. Its attitude remained resolutely anti-Jewish, and it persisted in its view that Dreyfus was guilty. See SEHAYIK (n. 10 above), p. 214. 32. Hazvi, 15, 5th of Shvat 5658, Supplement, pages unnumbered. Biørnstjerne Biørnson (1832-1910) awarded Nobel Prize in Literature for 1903. 33. This is taken from Hazvi, 21, the 17th of Adar 5658, Supplement, p. 93. On the reaction of the intellectuals in Spain to the Affair see J.J. LOPEZ, El affaire Dreyfus en España 1894-1906, Murcia, 1981.

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That so many intellectuals, both Jewish and non-Jewish, came out in defense of Dreyfus in the face of the growing anti-Semitic tendencies in French society can be attributed to the great importance of the ties and cultural connections between France and other countries both near and far, or at least with their elites. The arguments that arose about the Affair outside France were the result of the contradiction between the commonly accepted image of France as a light unto the nations (Nation-phare) with its values from the revolution of 1789, on the one hand, and treason and anti-Semitic hatred, on the other. The worldwide echo of the Affair expressed at one and the same time the esteem in which France and French culture were held during that period and the disappointment and frustration to which the Af- fair gave rise. To many, the contradiction appeared scandalous34. The feelings of the Middle Eastern Jewish intelligentsia as expressed in David Silvera’s pamphlet were similar if not identical. It would seem that their uncritical admiration for France, as described above, only increased the hurt and the disappointment. These feelings may also be understood against the background of Jewish apprehension concerning the development of anti-Semitism — with or without open French support — in the Middle East in general and in Syria and Egypt in particular. The impetus during the last decade of the nineteenth century to accuse Middle Eastern Jews of spilling Christian blood for religious purposes (blood libel) came for the most part from anti-Semitic elements inspired by the French clergy but not by official French political elements35. But it should also be noted that there was at that time in France as well as elsewhere an increase in anti-Semitic activity whose echoes resounded as far away as North Africa36.

34. See extensively M. DENIS, M. LAGRÉE et J.Y. VEILLARD (n. 1 above), pp. 344-345; COHEN (n. 25 above), pp. 307-308; LANDAU (n. 1 above), p. 79. 35. On French-inspired antisemitism in the Middle East during the second half of the 19th century, see extensively, HAREL (2003, n. 4 above), pp. 258-268. But it should also be em- phasized that the anti-Jewish actions of members of the French consulates, especially in Da- mascus and Aleppo, were usually not to the liking of the French Foreign Office. Mostly, they were not to the liking of the Foreign Minister Guizot, even though, on more than one occa- sion, he was compelled, due to broad political considerations, to lend his support to his repre- sentatives in Syria. In response to complaints that were received in his office, Guizot asserted several times that the anti-Jewish activity in Damascus was not an expression of the official French attitude towards the Jewish people. Directives to that effect, calling upon French rep- resentatives in Syria not only to refrain from encouraging blood libels but to do everything possible to counter them, were able to moderate somewhat and only temporarily, the activity of the French consular staff resulting from hatred of the Jews. 36. See extensively M. ABITBOL, From Crémieux to Pétain — Antisemitism in Colonial Algeria (1870-1940), Jerusalem, 1994, pp. 55-63; M. ABITBOL, “L’affaire Dreyfus et la montée de l’antisémisme colonial,” Archives juives, 31/2, 1998, pp. 75-87; R. AYOUN, “Les effets de l’affaire Dreyfus en Algérie,” Archives juives, 27/1 (1994), pp. 58-71.

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The admiration of David Silvera and others like him for France stemmed from what they regarded as the victory of the French revolutionary tradition over the monarchical-clerical one. This victory, so it appeared, had pushed anti-Semitism — the old ammunition of the clerics — off to a side. But the increase in clerical anti-Semitism in France raised the question: would France know how to preserve the values of the revolution or would it be anti-Semitic clericalism that would embody French values from that point onward37. This is not merely complaining and not a litany of Jewish trou- bles but rather an accusation that France was betraying its values. Silvera speaks in the name of the values disseminated by France. In other words, he, like a wounded but faithful lover, seeks to restore France to its values. Despite the clear tone of disappointment and separation from France, it was not, in Silvera’s eyes, its values that let France down but rather its rejection of them. For Silvera, the Affair was a French moral-ethical problem, no less, and perhaps even more than just a Jewish problem. At the same time, from his standpoint, the victory of clericalism in France constituted a threat of spreading anti-Semitism throughout the Middle East.

French betrayal according to Silvera

On August 10, 1898, a few days before Silvera’s pamphlet was published, Commandant Esterhazy was acquitted of the charge that he was the traitor and not Dreyfus. Following that and also publication of Emile Zola’s letter in the press, anti-Jewish demonstrations broke out as well as attacks on Jews in Paris and the provincial cities38. These riots were indica- tive of what was happening in 1898, a year described in the research as a time marked by France’s repudiation of human rights and the bankruptcy of the republic39. Facing these events, French Jewry suffered a shock, as did France’s admirers throughout the world. At the time of printing of Silvera’s pamphlet, Reuters News Agency reported that there were violent anti-Semitic riots taking place in France. In Silvera’s view, the actions of the anti-Semites in France were worse than the violations of human rights and persecution that had taken place in the Ottoman Empire, so, at the last moment, he added a paragraph at the opening of his text in which

37. On the energetic character of the struggle of the Jewish press in France against clericalism see COHEN (n. 25 above), pp. 297-298. 38. Hazvi, 15, the 5th of Shvat 1898, Supplement, pages unnumbered. 39. LANDAU (n. 1 above), pp. 54-56.

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he bitterly sets out his attitude towards these events. This is what he wrote: Voilà les horribles scènes d’il y a trois ans reprises mais cette fois-ci, non en Arménie 40 mais en France, dans toute la France. Les émeutiers ne sont pas des Kurdes mais bien des Français, quelle honte! et cependant c’est ainsi, paraît-il, qu’il a plu au ministère Méline41 dans le but de justifier par là ses actes inconsidérés. Beaux moyens de sortir d’embarras; finesse politique recueillie sur les rives du Bosphore42. Silvera’s pamphlet contained a sharp indictment of French betrayal of its values along with expressing disappointment at having lived for the past twenty years in mistaken admiration for France due to his belief in France’s devotion to its values. He was aware of his inability to change the outlook of Dreyfus’ accusers by publishing his pamphlet, and he proclaims that his writing was the result of a shocking personal discovery that during the two best decades of his life he had been duped by France. After describing how much he had admired France during that time, Silvera states that the break- ing point came for him in September 1897 when, with the mounting demand of Dreyfus’ supporters (dreyfusards) to place Esterhazy, the real traitor, on trial, he became aware of the Dreyfus Affair. Silvera read several articles in the French press that accused the military establishment of making Dreyfus a scapegoat, but at first, it was difficult for him to believe that the French establishment would act contrary to its values, and he tended to believe that only the ignorant rabble acted thus. Here is what he wrote: En réalité, j’ai beaucoup hésité avant d’y croire, mais j’ai dû céder devant l’évidence. Je savais qu’il y a en France quelques charlatans qui, au nom de la vérité, prêchent le mensonge le plus grossier, qui, invoquant la justice, en- seignent l’iniquité, et, disant vouloir guérir l’opinion publique de ses défauts, l’empoisonnent mortellement. Mais je croyais que les abois de cette canaille ne pouvaient avoir des auditeurs: j’avais trop de confiance dans les dirigeants de la République et je ne pensais jamais qu’ils pussent laisser durer un pareil état de chose. Combien ces raisonnements étaient loin de la vérité!43 It was difficult for Silvera to accept the position of the Parisian newspapers, whom he said had, for the most part, adopted the false version that

40. In August 1894 an Armenian revolt was cruelly suppressed by Kurdish cavalry. Clashes between Turks and Armenians also occurred in 1895 arousing much bitterness in Europe, especially in England and France. On August 26 1896, in response to an attack by young Armenians on the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul, a massacre of Armenians took place in that city, in the course of which thousands of people were killed. 41. Jules Méline (1838-1925), President of the Council between 1896 and 1898. 42. SILVERA (n. 8, above), unnumbered page. 43. Ibid., p. 9.

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found Dreyfus guilty of treason and exonorated Esterhazy, the real culprit44. It was also difficult for him to accept that the supporters of Dreyfus then were few and had failed to win over public opinion45. Silvera mourns France’s abandonment of its revolutionary image and its return to values of the era of Louis XIV, marked by the extreme religious Catholic fanaticism that led finally to the repeal of the Édit de Nantes. Silvera compares the interrogation conducted against Dreyfus and the legal proceedings to the Catholic Inquisition during the Middle Ages, with one difference — it was not priests but rather senior military officers who de- cided on guilt or innocence behind closed doors, without supervision or re- view46. Silvera is astonished at the fact that the general public, the politi- cians, and the legal community all remained indifferent in the face of this miscarriage of justice in which they themselves were implicated. Silvera goes on to list, one by one and in bitter mockery, the mistakes of the judges who chose to acquit Esterhazy and again convict Dreyfus, and he con- cludes: Voilà ce qui révolte et indigne, voilà ce qui laisse couler les larmes! Où êtes- vous, martyrs de la Révolution? Ah! Si vous viviez encore, si vos yeux pouvaient voir vos arrière-petits-fils détruire tout ce que vous avez bâti au prix de tant de sang! Quelle n’aurait pas été votre douleur! La liberté n’est plus qu’un mot! La fraternité n’a plus de sens! L’égalité a déserté votre France! La justice est mise en déroute et ceux qui ont lutté et qui luttent encore dans le but de conserver intactes vos grandes œuvres sont stigmatisés, poursuivis, battus et s’ils ne sont pas encore découragés, ils sont cependant très inférieurs en nombre par rapport à l’adversaire. Puissent-ils encore avoir assez de force pour vaincre! Puisse la France, grâce à eux, se relever de sa chute! Puissent les Scheurer Kestner et les Trarieux, les Zola et les Monod, les Bernard Lazare, et les Forzinetti faire enfin triompher la justice qui honore les peuples civilisés!47

The Zionist turn

Thus did David Silvera appeal to the French intellectuals while at the same time doubting whether they had the ability to save France from itself. The years in which the Affair unfolded were, for him, years of severe personal crisis. Disabused of his blind faith that France would lead the way to universal human rights, including equal rights for Jews, and would fight

44. Ibid., p. 6. 45. Ibid., p. 10. 46. Ibid. 47. Ibid., p. 12.

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anti-Semitism wherever it was to be found, he was led to search for an al- ternative banner, a new source of belief in a peaceful life as a human being and as a Jew. Many French Jews, in their struggle to clear Dreyfus’ name, fought, in fact, for their Frenchness, for France’s renewed recognition of them as her sons. After years of emancipatory struggle — when it seemed as if at last they had almost been recognized as being French — the con- sciousness of these Jews was unable to encompass the loss of the achieve- ments of the struggle for citizenship. In their view, there was no substitute for the French homeland48. On the other hand, the possibilities for action in the response of David Silvera and others like him did not include anti- French Jewish protest throughout the Middle East or taking other steps that could bring about a change in the situation in France. Yet, according to David Silvera and the other intelligentsia of his generation in Asian and African communities, there were also other possibilities. The Dreyfus Affair played the role of a crisis and a landmark that from the outset and in retrospect had an influence on many French, both Jews and non-Jews, as well as on others outside France. The outstanding example of this is of course Theodore Herzl, who relates to the Affair more than once in his attempt to describe the motivation for his Zionist activity49. Herzl’s initiative swept David Silvera in the direction of Zionism. He took an interest in the new Jewish yishuv in Eretz Israel, in the agricultural character of the settlements, and in the political activity of the Zionist movement. In 1901, three years after publication of the pamphlet in which he tells of his awakening from his admiration for France, David Silvera wrote from Alexandria to his friend in Jaffa, the following: A few days ago I saw a telegram from London in the newspaper in which it was announced that Dr. Hirzil (sic) had traveled to the capital city Constanti-

48. The devotion of French Jews to their homeland and their willingness to blur or even erase their Jewish identity was criticized by Rabbi Jacob Meir during a sermon he delivered in memory of the president of the Alliance Shlomo Haim Goldschmidt in the Mikve Yisrael Agricultural School on the 3rd of Iyar 5658. Among other things, he speaks of the Dreyfus Affair and its significance. According to the rabbi, French values, including emancipation, do not have the power to overcome the phenomenon of hatred of the Jews. The proof of that is, he says, the Dreyfus Affair. In spite of Dreyfus’ allegiance to France, he has been accused of treason and sent to prison in exile. The rabbi argues that the reason for this is the ancient hatred, hatred of the Jewish religion, hatred of the race, or hatred due to jealousy to be found, he says, in the bones of the Frenchmen. See Hazvi, 28, the 7th of Iyar 1898, pages unnumbered. 49. In September 1899 Herzl made the connection between the Dreyfus trial and his Zion- ist initiative for the first time. See J. KRONBERG, “Herzl, the Zionist Movement and the Dreyfus Affair,” in R. KOREN and D. MICHMAN (eds.), Les intellectuels face à l’affaire Dreyfus alors et aujourd’hui, Paris, 1998, pp. 107-119; C. NICAULT, “Theodor Herzl et le sionisme,” in M. DROUIN (ed.), L’affaire Dreyfus de A à Z, France, 1994, pp. 503-507.

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nople with very important people: Minister Rothschild and other Eretz-Israel ministers who wish to lend a large sum of money to the Sultan on condition that he give permission to all our brethren, children of Israel, to come and settle in the cities of Palestine, our holy land. It is my fervent hope that they will achieve their objective and conclude the matter in the most successful way. This will cause my heart together with the heart of sir and the heart of all our brethren to rejoice. And that will encourage me, since I well recognize your warmth and good heartedness, sir, and your great love for the holy Zionist society and surely if there be many like you, our ardent hope is that in time our eyes will see and our hearts will be filled with happiness from building our holy cities and our far flung brothers shall be quickly ingathered from the Diaspora in the near future. Amen. Please, sir, would you be good enough to inform me of the situation of the agricultural settlements and planting and whether or not they have been harmed by the rains… My best wishes to all our brothers in the settlements…50 The yearning for Zion and the return of the Jews to Eretz Israel during the period of the Dreyfus Affair was typical of quite a few Jews and found expression in the pages of newspapers of the time. Here is how Eliezer Ben Yehuda put it, writing in his newspaper Hazvi under the heading “We Are Foreigners”: … Perhaps the Dreyfus case will be a lesson for those among us who do not yet want to open their eyes and see that we are only foreigners, even in a pro- gressive, enlightened, and free country like France. If in this great and gener- ous land such a deed as this is possible, what can we expect in other lands! We are aliens everywhere, and as long as we don’t cease to be foreigners, deeds such as that which befell Dreyfus will not cease to recur from time to time51. David Silvera took a practical Zionist step; he came to Eretz Israel in 1928 and settled in Jerusalem where he died on the 21st of Shvat, 1942. His reaction to the Dreyfus Affair and the awakening anti-Semitism did not at the time arouse much interest, and it has not been mentioned in the research works. But a look at it reveals a new and different voice, clear and distinct, within the choir of voices that echoed in the wake of the Dreyfus Affair — the voice of the “adopting children of France,” who were disappointed with their adopted spiritual homeland. Some, at least, found comfort in returning to their historical homeland.

50. Department of Manuscripts, National and University Library, Jerusalem: V-797/12, David Silvera to Yisrael Elimelech, Alexandria, the 10th of Sivan 1901. 51. Hazvi, 8, the 16th of Kislev 1898, title page.

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