Podcast Summary

New Books Network | Episode 164

Maurice Samuels: Jewish Assimilation, Integration and the Dreyfus Affair (JP)
Host: John Plotz
Guest: Maurice Samuels (Yale University)
Date: February 5, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode delves into Jewish integration and assimilation in Western societies, focusing specifically on France’s unique trajectory from the French Revolution through the Dreyfus Affair. Host John Plotz welcomes Maurice Samuels, a leading historian of French Jewry, to discuss Samuels’ recent biography of Alfred Dreyfus and to tackle broader questions about what it has meant—and means—for Jews to integrate into or assimilate with the dominant culture, especially in contexts of antisemitism, nationalism, and the struggle for universal rights.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

Setting the Stage: Why France, Why Dreyfus?

• France is often seen as an exemplary universalist republic conducive to Jewish integration, yet its actual history is complex and riddled with contradictions.
• Maurice Samuels notes that while the U.S. narrative is often about Jews “becoming white,” France offers a different and perhaps more illuminating case due to its early Jewish emancipation and the famous Dreyfus Affair.
• Samuels has written extensively on this topic (Inventing the Israelite, The Right to Difference, Alfred Dreyfus, and Betrayal of the Duchess).

The Dreyfus Affair Revisited ([06:22])

• Alfred Dreyfus: Jewish army captain falsely accused and convicted in 1894 of selling secrets to Germany.
• The case involved a rigged court martial, fabricated evidence, and years of family-led struggle for justice.
• Emile Zola became involved, with his open letter “J’Accuse” igniting public outcry.
• Dreyfus faced a second sham trial before being pardoned in 1899, full exoneration only coming in 1906.

Quote:

"He was given a very short court martial, found guilty based on trumped up evidence ... sent off to serve a life sentence on Devil's Island... His wife and his brother tried to prove his innocence."
—Maurice Samuels (06:22–08:42)

The Birth of the Public Intellectual ([08:54])

• Emile Zola’s involvement and personal risk in the Dreyfus affair is highlighted as the origin of the “public intellectual.”
• Zola’s “J’Accuse” forced a civil trial, uncovering secret evidence and implicating the army in a cover-up.
• He was found guilty of slander and lived in exile.

Quote:

"That notion of the intellectual, of that definition of the intellectual, really dates to the affair."
—Maurice Samuels (10:17)

Jews as Symbols of Modernity and the Roots of French Antisemitism ([11:20])

• Samuels points out how 19th-century French antisemitism linked Jews with the dangers of modernity—capitalism, urbanization, and social change.
• The infamous Edouard Drumont’s “La France Juive” (1886) was foundational to the antisemitic rhetoric that set the stage for the Dreyfus Affair.
• Comparisons are made to the German and English context, including Marx’s writings and English philo-Semitism.

Quote:

"The Jews became a kind of metaphor for modernity... associated with modernity in the writings of antisemites."
—Maurice Samuels (11:20)

French Jewish Communities: Diversity and Emancipation ([16:10])

• France had both Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jewish populations with distinct histories—early expulsion, ghettos, and eventual emancipation.
• France was the first European country to grant Jews full civil rights (1790–91), ahead of England and German states.

Quote:

"All of these Jews were emancipated during the French Revolution ... the first Jews in Europe to gain full civil rights."
—Maurice Samuels (16:10–18:28)

Colonial Paradoxes: Jews, Muslims, and French Universalism ([19:24], [21:45])

• In Algeria, France extended citizenship to Jews in 1870 but denied it to Muslims, creating “test cases” for French universalism but also fueling communal divisions.
• Emancipating Jews allowed the French state to demonstrate its commitment to universal principles, partly because Jews were relatively few.

Quote:

"They did it because the Jews were so different that it allowed them to show just how universalist they could be."
—Maurice Samuels (21:45)

Jewish Difference and the Shift from Assimilation to Integration ([31:34])

• Samuels distinguishes between assimilation (erasing Jewish identity) and integration (maintaining difference while adopting the dominant culture).
• Critiques Hannah Arendt’s view that Jews like Dreyfus abandoned their Jewishness; evidence shows they remained connected, practicing, and self-identified as Jews.
• As Jews “blended in,” antisemitic thought shifted from cultural to biological racism.

Quote:

"Assimilation... connotes giving up any Jewish affiliation or identity, and integration ... maintaining the specificity of your prior identity at the same time."
—Maurice Samuels (31:34)

Frenchness, Secularism, and Ongoing Internal Struggles ([37:46],[38:09])

• The tension between French secularism (laïcité) and religious/ethnic particularity is enduring and was at the heart of the Dreyfus Affair.
• Laïcité originally meant state neutrality and equal treatment of major religions; only after Dreyfus did it become identified with hard-line secularism (e.g., church-state separation in 1905).
• Samuels introduces the concept of “la guerre franco-française,” the ongoing internal war over French identity between universalist and exclusionist (blood/soil) perspectives.

Quote:

"That's, you know, partly... what people call the Franco-French war, la guerre franco-française, is essentially over that question—what kind of nation they are."
—Maurice Samuels (38:09)

From Dreyfus to Léon Blum and Jewish Political Leadership ([42:33])

• The Dreyfus Affair enabled new forms of Jewish integration, exemplified by the rise of socialist leader Léon Blum, France’s first Jewish prime minister.
• Blum’s career was shaped by the Dreyfus Affair and the left’s victory; despite his achievements, he faced virulent antisemitism.

Quote:

"He becomes essentially Prime Minister in France in the 1930s in this popular front against fascism ... French workers are incredibly indebted to him, but ... Bloom was on the receiving end of horrific antisemitism."
—Maurice Samuels (43:50)

Racialization, Replacement Theory, and Contemporary Parallels ([51:05])

• The podcast explores the later application of racial stigmatizing frameworks, comparisons with the Roma and Muslim minorities, and the "great replacement" theory.
• Current French debates about Muslim integration echo the questions once posed about Jews.

Quote:

"You could say that, you know, Muslims are the new Jews in France, that these questions about identity... are now being fought over them."
—Maurice Samuels (51:05)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the origin of the “public intellectual”:
  “That notion of the intellectual... really dates to the affair.” (10:17; Samuels)
• On the Dreyfus family’s religious practice:
  “They were nominally Orthodox... Dreyfus and his wife were married in synagogue... they attended on holidays.” (25:41; Samuels)
• On French laïcité:
  “Laïcité comes to mean something else... now we tend to think that it means... radical exclusion of religion... that’s a relatively recent meaning... it partly comes as a result of the Dreyfus Affair.” (40:27–41:36; Samuels)
• On Jewish leadership in France:
  “He’s the first of actually, like, half a dozen prime ministers of Jewish origin in France... No other country except for Israel has a record like that.” (48:44; Samuels)
• On shifting targets of exclusion:
  “You could say that, you know, Muslims are the new Jews in France, that these questions about identity... are now being fought over them.” (51:05; Samuels)

Key Timestamps

• [04:46] Maurice Samuels outlines the purpose and intervention of his Dreyfus biography.
• [06:22] The Dreyfus Affair: timeline and impact.
• [08:54] Emile Zola, “J’Accuse,” and founding of the public intellectual.
• [11:20] Jews associated with modernity in French (and Marxist) thought.
• [16:10] Roots and emancipation of French Jewish communities.
• [21:45] The French Revolution, Napoleon, and emancipation; colonial paradoxes.
• [31:34] Assimilation vs. integration; critique of Arendt.
• [37:46–38:09] French secularism and the ongoing internal struggle over identity.
• [42:33] Léon Blum’s rise from the Dreyfus Affair; Jewish political leadership.
• [51:05] Muslims as today’s parallel to the “Jewish question” in France.
• [54:45] Book recommendations and closing remarks.

Recallable Book Recommendations

• Five Years of My Life by Alfred Dreyfus
  “Incredibly moving... this was an incredibly... deep thinker, but he was also an incredibly heroic person.” (54:50; Samuels)
• In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
  “The best literary evocation of the Dreyfus affair.” (55:39; Samuels)
• Special mention:
  Sonali Takar’s The Reform of Race (recommended by Plotz) for thinking about antisemitism’s relation to postcolonial thought (55:57).

Tone and Style

The conversation is warm, incisive, and intellectually generous. Both host and guest share personal reflections on Jewishness, family traditions, and their relationships to assimilation and integration, always connecting these to broader historical, political, and theoretical questions.

Conclusion

Maurice Samuels and John Plotz chart the historical arc from France’s first steps toward Jewish emancipation, through periods of integration and violent exclusion, to the Dreyfus Affair and beyond. They dissect the complexities of “universalist” republicanism and its limits, the shifting meaning of secularism, and the ways that Jewish experience foreshadowed contemporary debates about minority identity and belonging in France and the West. The episode offers both a sharp historical narrative and a set of frameworks for thinking about the past’s echoes in today’s struggles over national identity, citizenship, and inclusion.