Editing Dreyfus affair (section)

=== Antisemitic riots ===
[[File:L Agitation-Antisemite.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Antisemitic]] riots in a print from ''[[Le Petit Parisien]]'']]
[[File:1898 anti-semitic riots in Algiers.jpg|thumb|upright|[[1898 Algerian riots|1898 antisemitic riots in Algiers]]]]
Antisemitic disturbances and riots broke out in 1898 in cities across Metropolitan France, mostly in January and February. Antisemitic riots predated the Dreyfus affair, and were almost a tradition in the East, which "the Alsatian people observed upon the outbreak of any revolution in France".<ref name="Sjzakowski-1961">{{cite periodical |last=Sjzakowski |first=Zosa |title=French Jews during the Revolution of 1830 and the July Monarchy |magazine=Historia Judaica |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZhZ7QwAACAAJ |volume=22 |year=1961 |oclc=460467731 |pages=116–120}} as quoted in {{sfnlink|Wilson|2007|p=541}}</ref> But the 1898 disturbances were much more widespread.

There were three waves of unrest in 55 localities: the first ending the week of 23 January; the second wave in the week following; and the third wave from 23–28 February; these waves and other incidents totaled 69 riots or disturbances across the country. Additionally, [[1898 Algerian riots|riots took place in Algeria]] from 18–25 January. Demonstrators at these disturbances threw stones, chanted slogans, attacked Jewish property and sometimes Jewish people, and resisted police efforts to stop them. Mayors called for calm, and troops including cavalry were called in an attempt to quell the disturbances.<ref name="Wilson-2007">{{cite book |editor-last=Strauss |editor-first=Herbert A. |title=Hostages of Modernization: Germany, Great Britain, France |last=Wilson |first=Stephen |chapter=Antisemitism in France at the Time of the Dreyfus Affair |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D8dtAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA541 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D8dtAAAAMAAJ |series=Liverpool scholarship online. |year=2007 |publisher=Littman library of Jewish civilization |location=Oxford |isbn=978-1-8003-4099-2 |oclc=1253400456 |orig-date=1st pub. Rutherford:1982}}</ref>

Zola's ''J'Accuse'' appeared on 13 January, and most historians suggest that the riots were spontaneous reactions to its publication, and to the subsequent Zola trial. The press reported that "tumultuous demonstrations broke out nearly every day". Prefects or police in various towns noted demonstrations in their localities, and associated them with "the campaign undertaken in favor of ex-Captain Dreyfus", or with the "intervention by M. Zola", or the Zola trial itself, which "seems to have aroused the antisemitic demonstrations". In Paris, demonstrations around the Zola trial were frequent and sometimes violent. [[Roger Martin du Gard]] reported that "Individuals with Jewish features were grabbed, surrounded, and roughed up by delirious youths who danced round them, brandishing flaming torches, made from rolled-up copies of ''L'Aurore''.<ref name="Wilson-2007" />

However, the fervid reaction to the Dreyfus affair and especially the Zola trial was only partly spontaneous. In a dozen cities including [[Nantes]], [[Lille]], and [[Le Havre]], antisemitic posters appeared in the streets, and riots followed soon after. At Saint-Etienne, posters read, "Imitate your brothers of Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Toulouse&nbsp;... join with them in demonstrating against the underhand attacks being made on the Nation." In [[Caen]], [[Marseille]], and other cities, riots followed antisemitic speeches or meetings, such as the meeting organized by the ''Comité de Défense Religieuse et Sociale'' in Caen.<ref name="Wilson-2007" />