Language:
English
Year of publication:
1995
Titel der Quelle:
Jewish Social Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
2,1 (1995) 1-35
Keywords:
Dreyfus, Alfred,
;
Trials (Treason)
;
Jews History 1800-2000
;
Jews Historiography
Abstract:
The Dreyfus Affair made many prominent French Jewish sociologists (among them Durkheim, Levy-Bruhl, Mauss, Bougle) who were French patriots and universalists in their worldview, but detached from Judaism, speak out in defense of the innocent Jewish officer. A Jewish sociologist of the next generation, Raymond Aron, also evinced a deep interest in the Dreyfus Affair. Dwells on the activities of Durkheim - his public defense of Dreyfus, his participation in the establishment of the Ligue des Droits de l'Homme, his responses to insults in the nationalist press, etc. Although Durkheim severed all his ties with Judaism and couched his protest in universalist and republicanist phrases, his Jewishness emerged in his writings in a transfigured form. He (and other French Jewish sociologists) preserved a hidden faithfulness to Judaism, which made him come to the defense of Russian Jewish immigrants in 1916. Asserts that the Dreyfus Affair affected Durkheim's ideas: in fin-de-siecle France, seized by nationalist and religious hysteria, he was forced to revise his views on civil religion and assimilation.
Note:
On the relationship of Raymond Aron, Emile Durkheim and others to their Jewishness.
URL:
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