Before taking this course, I was under the impression that anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism were the same thing; however, in the conference YPS emphasized that there is a distinction between the two. While both anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism refer to hostility directed at those identified as Jews, anti-Judaism refers to negative attitudes displayed toward adherents of the Jewish religion. In contrast, anti-Semitism takes on a more political and racial tone by not discriminating against Jews based on their religion per se, but rather attacking them based on supposedly inherited and genetic racial characteristics. Jews make it clear that anti-Semitism is a relatively modern concept. This was demonstrated by the gradual transformation of the French population's attitude towards Jews, which evolved from anti-Judaism to outright anti-Semitism. The historical record of the Jewish experience in France is full of prejudice, discrimination and violence. The French Enlightenment led to greater tolerance of Jews, and many enlightened Christian thinkers, notably Abbé Grégoire and Count Mirabeau, began to call for the emancipation of the Jews (PPT 3). Despite this, even the most progressive thinkers had Christian prejudices. Although Jews were characterized negatively, they were generally believed to have redeeming qualities. Many philosophers believed that Jews could be improved, “fixed,” and ultimately integrated into French society (PPT 3). For example, in an essay entitled "Essay on the physical, moral and political regeneration of the Jews", Abbé Grégoire argued that the persecution of the Jews was at the origin of Jewish degeneration, and that great...... newspaper .. Once eradicated, anti-Semitism survived and took root in the French consciousness. World Jewry was stunned that such an event could have occurred in France, the birthplace of liberty, equality and fraternity, and the first country to emancipate its Jews. The fact that the public, including nobles and members of the clergy, viewed Dreyfus, an assimilated Jew, as an outsider suggested that assimilation was no longer a legitimate strategy for combating anti-Semitism. and the old anti-Judaism was that proponents of these racist theories believed that Jews were inherently evil and could not be reformed by society. My exploration of French Jewish history and the events surrounding the Dreyfus affair have highlighted the distinction between theological anti-Judaism and modern, racial anti-Semitism.