Editing Max Nordau (section)

=== Dreyfus affair ===

Nordau's conversion to Zionism is in many ways typical of the rise of Zionism amongst Western European Jewry. The [[Dreyfus affair]] was central to [[Theodor Herzl]]'s conviction that Zionism was now necessary.  Herzl's views were formed during his time in France where he recognized the universality of antisemitism; the Dreyfus Affair cemented his belief in the failure of assimilation. Nordau also witnessed the Paris mob outside the École Militaire crying ''"à morts les juifs!"'' ("death to the Jews!").

His role of friend and advisor to Herzl, who was working as the correspondent for the Viennese ''Neue Freie Presse'', began here in Paris. This trial went beyond a miscarriage of justice and in Herzl's words "contained the wish of the overwhelming majority in France, to damn a Jew, and in this one Jew, all Jews".  Whether or not the [[antisemitism]] manifested in France during the Dreyfus affair was indicative of the majority of the French or simply a very vocal minority is open to debate. However, the very fact that such sentiment had manifested itself in France was particularly significant. This was the country often seen as the model of the modern [[Age of Enlightenment|enlightened]] age, that had given Europe the Great Revolution and beginnings of [[Jewish emancipation]].