Macron warns of rising antisemitism at Dreyfus memorial ceremony

Emmanuel Macron used a tribute to Alfred Dreyfus on the Île de la Cité in Paris to warn that antisemitism was again pressing on French public life, as the government turned the Dreyfus case into an annual national commemoration. The ceremony took place near the Cour de Cassation, where the statue now stands, and followed a decree of July 7 that fixed July 12 as a yearly day to mark the recognition of Dreyfus’s innocence, with similar ceremonies allowed in each department at the prefect’s initiative.

Dreyfus, a Jewish army captain from Alsace, was convicted of treason in 1894 after being falsely accused of passing military secrets to Germany. Intellectuals including Émile Zola argued that the army had made him a scapegoat, and the Court of Cassation cleared him on July 12, 1906, 120 years before Sunday’s ceremony. Charles Dreyfus, Alfred Dreyfus’s grandson, attended the tribute.

In Sarcelles, about 300 people were evacuated on Saturday evening after a suspicious vehicle was found near a synagogue. French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the car contained a military weapon, and prosecutors opened a terrorism investigation while investigators said the motive and suspect had not been identified.

The Interior Ministry recorded 1,320 antisemitic acts in 2025, a level historically high over the past 25 years after a surge that followed the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks and the war in Gaza. Crif and SPCJ counted 1,570 antisemitic acts in 2024, with 65.2 percent targeting people. France is home to Europe’s largest Jewish community, with around 500,000 Jews.