Philo-Semites, Anti-Semites and France’s Jewish
Communities in the late Third Republic (c.1900-1940)

Abstract

This study analyses the attitudes of a wide spectrum of political commentators and the press
on Jews in France between the 1880s and 1930s, and how these debates affected the self-understanding and mutual perspectives of the two distinctive French Jewish communities – the
long-established Jews (known as Israélites) and the foreign Jews (known as Juifs).
The First chapter explains the formation and development of French Jews in the Third French
Republic, demonstrating the relations between distinctive Jewish communities. Next two
chapters explore philo-Semitic and anti-Semitic feelings of the French Right and Left. These
chapters discuss the two opposite views of each political side on Jews and show their
ambivalent positions that coexisted according to their own criteria. The last chapter investigates
the attitudes of Israélites and Juifs to each other and France, particularly in relationship to
Zionist ideas. It explains the precarious situation of Juifs and Zionism as a self-defense strategy
for them against anti-Semitic threats and the indifferent attitude of Israélites
There was not a single opinion from one political or social group regarding Jewish communities
in the Third French Republic. Rather, anti-Semitic and philo-Semitic feelings were distributed
across the French Right and Left. These perspectives also changed continuously during the
Dreyfus Affair, the First World War and the interwar period. In particular, the two Jewish
communities were forced to reconsider their identity following the mass migration of Eastern
European Jews and the rising anti-Semitic climate in French society. This resulted in friction
and tensions between the two Jewish communities.