Why should Zola have stressed the issue of Dreyfus's Judaism less in the letter J'accuse?

Answer 1

It is of course hard to say if he indeed should have, because the letter as it was made a huge impact. But you could argue that using the argument would only lead to vehement denials by the authorities and to making them stick to their guns, while the letter contained already more than enough facts and analysis to clearly show a miscarriage of justice.

A couple of the things that Zola pointed out:

- the graphologists' assertion was that "the lack (!) of resemblance between Dreyfus' writing and that of the names list was "proof" that Dreyfus had somehow managed to forge his own handwriting

- the evidence clearly showed that the names list came from an infantry officer, not an artillery officer such as Dreyfus

- proof was provided that a Major Esterhazy had passed the names list to the Germans; it had been ignored, because his guilt would have implicated gross negligence at the General Staff office

- Dreyfus was denied the right to examine the documentary evidence against him.