JewishGen Talks: The Dreyfus Affair, 130 Years Later

The Dreyfus case was a turning point for French Jews and Jews in general. Theodor Herzl was one of the journalists in Paris for the trial: what he saw and heard led him to conclude that only the creation of a Jewish national home would be the solution, hence the First Zionist Congress in 1897. Antisemitism split non-Jewish French society into two camps, along the lines of political parties and families. This divide, despite the Holocaust and the “never again” mantra continues to reverberate today.

About the Speaker:

Bernard Flam has put the expertise he gained while researching his ancestors to use in helping other Jewish genealogy researchers. For the past fifteen years or so, he has volunteered to lead his weekly Jewish genealogy workshop, “In the Footsteps of Our Families from Yiddishland,” at the Medem–Arbeter Ring Center (Workers’ Circle of France). In addition to the Bund and the SKIF, he specializes in research to uncover the French chapter of Jewish family histories—before, during, and after the Holocaust.

Since 2023, Bernard is the director of the France Research Division of JewishGen, the leading international portal for Jewish genealogy.