IDF promotes Alfred Dreyfus descendant to same rank as famed ancestor

Uriel Dreyfus, a relative of Alfred Dreyfus, the French Jewish military officer falsely accused of treason in 1894 due to antisemitism, has been promoted by the Israeli military to the rank of lieutenant colonel – the same rank his ancestor reached over a century ago.

Dreyfus, who serves as a judge on the Judea and Samaria military court, was promoted in a symbolic ceremony led by the Israeli Military Court of Appeals President, Maj. Gen. Orly Markman.

"In a humiliating ceremony, in front of the crowds, his sword was broken. He was accused of treason he did not commit, simply because he was Jewish. He was sent to Devil's Island, the place where hope was supposed to die. But he did not break. He continued to cry out his innocence," Dreyfus said about his ancestor.

Alfred Dreyfus, a patriotic French officer, was falsely accused of spying for Germany against France.

"When I entered the gates of the IDF as a young soldier, I carried this memory with me. I understood that every rank I would receive, every step I would take in the army, would constitute a historical correction. Today, as I receive the rank of lieutenant colonel, I feel that the ranks that were then torn in disgrace are now being proudly sewn anew, on the olive green uniform of the Israel Defense Forces and within the system of belief in the administration of justice in the sovereign Jewish state," Dreyfus said.

The antisemitic trial against Alfred Dreyfus profoundly impacted the worldview of Theodor Herzl, a young Austrian Jewish journalist who later became the father of political Zionism. Shocked by the treatment of a Jewish-born French officer who considered himself fully French, Herzl became convinced that Jews could only achieve true freedom and equality in an independent Jewish state. The State of Israel was proclaimed in 1948, decades after his death.

Dreyfus also reflected on the challenges Israel and the Jewish people have faced since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

"The last few years have been the hardest in our lives. We have lost friends, subordinates, and commanders. In this pain, we must remember the determination of those who came before us. We will survive and win the battles because we have no other country and no other army,” he said.

"Our role in the Courts Unit is sometimes transparent to the public eye, but it constitutes the backbone of Israeli democracy," Dreyfus continued.

"We, my fellow judges and I, defend the place where words are mightier than bullets, and where truth is the supreme commander. This is our professional commitment, and this is our moral mission," he concluded.

In November 2025, France posthumously promoted Alfred Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier general, 130 years after his wrongful conviction.

“The French nation is committed to justice and does not forget. To right a wrong. To honor a soldier. To affirm that antisemitism – whether of the past or the present – has no place and will never have a place in the Republic,” the French Embassy in Israel wrote in a post on 𝕏.