Jews were socially admitted to French high society only as suspected traitors.

Evidence

The main point about the role of Jews in this fin-de-siecle society is that it was the antisemitism of the Dreyfus Affair which opened society’s doors to Jews, and that it was the end of the Affair, or rather the discovery of Dreyfus’ innocence, that put an end to their social glory. In other words, no matter what the Jews thought of themselves or of Dreyfus, they could play the role society had assigned them only as long as this same society was convinced that they belonged to a race of traitors. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 270

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• XREF: Inverts the commonsense idea that tolerance brought Jews in; admission depended on the antisemitic frame — parallels later Islamophobia dynamics where inclusion presumes suspicion.

Related

• Jewish social acceptance depended on being perceived as a race of traitors. (similarity 0.89)
• Assimilated Jews could be seen as antisemites by less-assimilated Jewish communities (similarity 0.78)
• Jewish admission into society hinged on perceived exotic difference, not similarity (similarity 0.78)
• Philosemitism and antisemitism are intertwined responses to Jewish social visibility (similarity 0.78)