In the wake of the Dreyfus affair: An Alexandrian Jewish intellectual reconsiders his admiration for France

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 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.