The Dreyfus affair, Clermont-Tonnerre, and other historical French analogies to better understand Trump and the Jews

In medieval and early modern Europe, the Christian ruling class enjoyed the banking services of what were known as "court Jews"—Jewish people acting as financiers in exchange for temporary protection, even while other Jews faced scrutiny and persecution. This protection, however, was never secured; if fortunes changed, they could easily become political and societal scapegoats.

This analogy proves useful for viewing how modern-day Republicans view the Jewish public, according to Joel Swanson, a scholar of modern Jewish intellectual history at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, NY. In Swanson's view, while President Donald Trump's administration is cracking down on diversity and inclusion initiatives across the country, Jewish Americans are receiving special protection and treatment—but how long until the tide changes? He touches on this and more in his latest article on Slate, "What Are We Allowed to Say? How Trump’s Department of Education has made it harder for me to teach Jewish Studies".

On this week's episode of The Jewish Angle, Swanson joins Phoebe Maltz Bovy to get nerdy about European Jewish history and reflect on the lessons we can learn about Jews' modern-day place in North American society.

Credits

• Host: Phoebe Maltz Bovy
• Producer and editor: Michael Fraiman
• Music: "Gypsy Waltz" by Frank Freeman, licensed from the Independent Music Licensing Collective

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