Lecture | Alfred Dreyfus: The Man at the Center of the Affair

When Jewish art dealer Berthe Weill opened her gallery in 1901, the infamous Dreyfus affair was calling attention to an alarming growth of antisemitism in France, dividing the nation and the Parisian art world alike into two opposing camps. This lecture, by Dr. Maurice Samuels, Professor of French at Yale University and the author of Alfred Dreyfus: The Man at the Center of the Affair (2024), explores Dreyfus’s complex relationship to Judaism and to antisemitism over the course of his life, and the profound effect of the Dreyfus Affair on the lives of Jews around the world.

Before the lecture, visit Make Way for Berthe Weill: Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde at the Grey Art Museum (18 Cooper Square) during special open hours on Monday, October 21 from 5 to 6:15 pm.

Presenter

Maurice Samuels is the Betty Jane Anlyan Professor of French and director of the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism at Yale University. He is the author of four books: The Spectacular Past: Popular History and the Novel in Nineteenth-Century France (Cornell, 2004); Inventing the Israelite: Jewish Fiction in Nineteenth-Century France (Stanford, 2010 / Hermann, 2017); The Right to Difference: French Universalism and the Jews (Chicago, 2016 / La Découverte, 2022); The Betrayal of the Duchess (Basic Books, 2020). Samuels is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and of the New York Public Library Cullman Center Fellowship. Alfred Dreyfus The Man at the Center of the Affair (Yale University Press, 2024) is his latest book.

Visitor Access & Registration

Please REGISTER to attend this event. For attendance without an active NYU ID card, RSVP by October 18 to guarantee building access.

NYU’s Grey Art Museum provides reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities. Requests for accommodations should be submitted at least two weeks in advance. Please email greyartmuseum@nyu.edu or call (212) 998-6780 for assistance.