From the “I researched and then cut it” files…
John and Eliza were unrecognizable as the street urchins we’d taken in. They were clean, healthy, dressed in the finest clothes money could buy, and we had a governess for them. John was eight and Eliza was five. Despite not really having a schedule, they would still fall asleep during my concerts. I was teaching them both music. I loved them with all my heart. My only regret was that I wasn’t raising them as Jews, but they already had a faith when we found them. My people believe that the righteous of all faiths—or no faith, for that matter—have a place in the World to Come, so my regret was grounded in, as the Talmud says, to replace ourselves on earth and continue the traditions of our fathers and mothers, rather than any kind of fear for their immortal souls. Then again, what with the horrible situation in France with poor Dreyfus, perhaps it was just as well that they were Christian. The papers from France had a tendency to portray Jews as vampires, which gave me a horrible identity crisis of the thank you, Baron, for turning me into an antisemitic stereotype type.
So, let’s talk about it!
(This is another section I cut because my poor Jewish sensitivity reader was starting to find the sheer mass of oppressions triggering, and they also objected to my protagonist allowing someone else to dictate his identity.)
The Dreyfus Affair was a French political scandal that lasted for over ten years. The short version is that a French army captain was convicted of treason–allegedly selling secrets to the Germans–and there was a lot of publicity of this from antisemitic groups and newspapers. It was later found through handwriting analysis that a different man was guilty. Rather than release or retry Dreyfus, the army initiated a cover-up, but the information was leaked. The open antisemitism involved in his trial and conviction–it was implied that he was part of “an international Jewish conspiracy” (sound familiar?)–as well as the publicity around it, shocked the world’s Jews.
Dreyfus was brought back from Devils Island for a retrial. As his trial proceeded, army officials and the royalist Catholic press released startlingly anti-Semitic statements, including a warning that the Jews could face mass extermination. Despite these scare tactics, Dreyfus had the evidence–including the papers, the handwriting, and Henry’s forgeries–working for him during the retrial.
I did a search to see if the Dreyfus Affair was the first instance of the antisemitic Jewish vampire cartoon, but I’m not having a lot of luck. That said, well. Even if it is–vampires became popular in English with Polidori and Le Fanu in the 19th century–blood libel is very, very old. Dating back to at least the 12th century, it’s the accusation that Jews need the blood of Christians as an ingredient in certain rituals. Not only does this not make sense–Jewish rituals predate Jesus, who was a Jew–it ignores that blood is specifically forbidden under kosher law. But logic and reason don’t matter when people need an excuse to commit violence against their neighbors. See this article for more.
