Vladimir Nabokov’s Philo-Semitic Inheritance

July 29 2024

While the Russian-born English-language writer Vladimir Nabokov’s warm attitudes toward Jews, and principled opposition to anti-Semitism, have often been attributed to the fact that he was married to a Jewish woman, Shalom Goldman argues that these feelings went deeper still. Indeed, he claims, they were something of a family legacy:

Nabokov’s parents and grandparents were prominent liberals and advocates for Jewish rights in tsarist Russia. . . . Vladimir’s grandfather Dmitri Nabokov (1826–1904) . . . became an advocate for Jewish rights and an outspoken opponent of Konstantin Pobedonostev, Tsar Alexander III’s reactionary adviser who famously declared of Russian Jews that “one third will be baptized, one third will starve, and one third will emigrate, . . . then we shall be rid of them.” Pobedonostev vilified Dmitri Nabokov for his objections to the persecution of Russian Jews.

Dmitri’s son, Nabokov’s father Vladimir, condemned the publication of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the notorious pamphlet first circulated in 1903. . . . When he condemned the Kishinev pogrom of 1903 and pointed the finger of blame at the politicians and policemen who enabled the attacks, he suffered the consequences of taking a principled stand.

In his fiction, Nabokov links the persistence of anti-Semitism to the rise of totalitarian regimes. Two short stories written in the 1930s, “Cloud, Castle, Lake” and “Tyrants Destroyed,” express the writer’s contempt for the Nazi and Stalinist regimes. . . . The persistence of anti-Semitism, even after the Nazi crimes against the Jews had been revealed, is the theme of another Nabokov short story, “Conversation Piece.”

Read more at Tablet

More about: Philo-Semitism, Russian literature

Expand Gaza into Sinai

Feb. 11 2025

Calling the proposal to depopulate Gaza completely (if temporarily) “unworkable,” Peter Berkowitz makes the case for a similar, but more feasible, plan:

The United States along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE should persuade Egypt by means of generous financial inducements to open the sparsely populated ten-to-fifteen miles of Sinai adjacent to Gaza to Palestinians seeking a fresh start and better life. Egypt would not absorb Gazans and make them citizens but rather move Gaza’s border . . . westward into Sinai. Fences would be erected along the new border. The Israel Defense Force would maintain border security on the Gaza-extension side, Egyptian forces on the other. Egypt might lease the land to the Palestinians for 75 years.

The Sinai option does not involve forced transfer of civilian populations, which the international laws of war bar. As the United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other partners build temporary dwellings and then apartment buildings and towns, they would provide bus service to the Gaza-extension. Palestinian families that choose to make the short trip would receive a key to a new residence and, say, $10,000.

The Sinai option is flawed. . . . Then again, all conventional options for rehabilitating and governing Gaza are terrible.

Read more at RealClear Politics

More about: Donald Trump, Egypt, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula