Maurice Samuels in NYRB in 2025: ‘Proust’s mother, Jeanne Weil, came from a family of wealthy, well-educated Jews. Like most French Ashkenazi Jews at the time, the Weils traced their origins to Alsace, but Proust’s great-grandfather Baruch Weil moved to Paris, where he quickly became a successful porcelain manufacturer.’

And: ‘It’s clearly unfair of Arendt to blame Proust for not anticipating the Holocaust, just as it’s unfair of critics today to blame Proust for not celebrating Jewish identity in the manner of proud modern Jews.’

Also: ‘Proust often gave voice to nationalist and antisemitic attitudes, but he clearly opposed them in his letters, which help us see the extent to which the Search’s (À la recherche du temps perdu) antisemitism was intended ironically.’

The novelist is a ventriloquist, and minorities (Jews, homosexuals) tend to be excellent ventriloquists, an expression of their attempt to conform.

(a sf 2200)