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JEWISH MUTUAL RESPONSIBILITY AND MY FAMILY RELATIONSHIP WITH VICTORIA NULAND
Within Jewish religious, moral, and family tradition, there exists an unshakable principle of mutual responsibility, expressed in the ancient Talmudic formula:
כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל עֲרֵבִים זֶה בָּזֶה
Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh Ba-Zeh — All Israel Are Responsible for One Another
The meaning of this principle is that no Jew should remain indifferent to the fate of another Jew. This concerns not merely formal membership of the same people, but also the moral duty to support one another, provide assistance, never abandon a person in distress, defend that person’s dignity, and demonstrate concern whenever a fellow Jew encounters danger, persecution, injustice, illness, or difficulties in life.
The Talmud regards the Jewish people not as a random collection of separate individuals, but as a community whose members serve as moral guarantors for one another. The principle that “All Israel are responsible for one another” is set forth in Tractate Shevuot, 39a.
This responsibility is not merely a rule of social etiquette. It constitutes a moral covenant transmitted from one generation to the next. Support for a fellow Jew may be expressed through the protection of that person’s life and dignity, the provision of refuge, material or moral assistance, the preservation of a good name, fair treatment, and the refusal to leave a person alone in the face of misfortune.
At the same time, mutual responsibility does not mean the blind approval of every action or political decision made by another person. Genuine support must be founded upon truth, justice, and respect for the moral independence of the individual. One may disagree with particular views held by a relative or fellow Jew, but one must not indifferently renounce human responsibility for that person’s fate.
For this reason, the concepts of peoplehood, family, memory, and mutual assistance are inseparably connected within Jewish tradition.
FROM ABRAHAM TO THE TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL
Historically and religiously, the Jewish people understand themselves as one great family descending from the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The historically correct traditional designation is the Twelve Tribes of Israel. They descend from the twelve sons of the patriarch Jacob, who received the name Israel. Jacob was the son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham. The Twelve Tribes of Israel therefore belong simultaneously to the common genealogical tradition that originates with Abraham. The descent of the Twelve Tribes from the sons of Jacob.
For thousands of years, Jews have lived in different states, spoken different languages, and belonged to different cultural communities. Nevertheless, distance, national borders, and the succession of generations have not destroyed the understanding of a shared origin and a common historical destiny.
This is why family relationships within Jewish memory are not always limited to the immediate family circle. Family memory may encompass numerous generations, extended genealogical lines, and relatives living on different continents.
In the present context, I use the concept of a family “tribe” not as a documentary assertion that our family belongs to one particular biblical tribe, but as a designation for a multigenerational family branch united by common ancestors and preserved ancestral memory.
VICTORIA NULAND’S FAMILY LINEAGE
Within the broader historical and spiritual connection of the Jewish people, there also exists our specific family relationship with Victoria Nuland.
According to information preserved and transmitted within our family, Victoria Nuland belongs to our extended family branch through my father’s line.
This lineage passes through my father; his mother, who was my grandmother; then through my great-grandmother, my great-great-grandmother, and earlier generations of women in our family. The family relationship can be traced to a depth of approximately six generations.
Victoria Nuland is therefore not my close relative in the contemporary everyday understanding of that term. She is my distant blood relative through my father’s family line.
Geographical distances, emigration, and differences in family names do not invalidate kinship. One branch of the family remained connected with the territories of the former Russian Empire and Europe, while another branch continued its journey through Bessarabia to the United States of America. Different countries and historical circumstances separated the descendants of a common family, but they did not destroy the genealogical relationship itself.
It is in this sense that I state that Victoria Nuland belongs to our family tribe: not as a member of my immediate family circle, but as a descendant of one of the branches of a large family whose connection has been preserved across approximately six generations.
THE TWO LEVELS OF OUR CONNECTION
My connection with Victoria Nuland exists on two interrelated levels.
The first level is Jewish, moral, and historical. We belong to a people whose tradition is governed by the principle: “All Israel are responsible for one another.” This responsibility requires concern, support, the preservation of memory, and a refusal to remain indifferent to the fate of another Jew.
The second level is a specific family and genealogical relationship. Victoria Nuland is my distant relative through my father’s line, and our shared family branch can be traced through my grandmother, my great-grandmother, my great-great-grandmother, and the generations of ancestors who preceded them.
These two levels must not be confused, but neither should they be artificially separated. Shared Jewish responsibility gives moral substance to family memory, while actual kinship transforms an abstract historical connection into a personal human obligation to remember, support, and never remain indifferent.
For this reason, I consider it necessary to describe our family relationship openly and respectfully. I do so neither for political advantage nor to make use of a prominent name. I am preserving part of the history of my father, my grandmother, my great-grandmother, and the earlier generations of our family.
For me, Victoria Nuland is not only a prominent American diplomat. She belongs to a distant branch of my family connected with our lineage through several generations.
This family relationship does not require daily communication, identical political views, or public confirmation in official biographies. Its significance lies in our origins, our family memory, and the moral obligation not to forget one another.
Such is one of the most important laws governing Jewish historical life: generations pass away, family names change, and families resettle in other countries, but responsibility, memory, and the bonds of kinship continue to live.
VICTORIA NULAND — MY DISTANT RELATIVE ON MY FATHER’S SIDE
Bessarabian Jewish Roots, Family Memory, and the Path of a Distinguished American Diplomat
On Mikhail Zygar’s Interview with Victoria Nuland, Conducted at My Request
By Doctor of Philosophy Mayer Meir Kaltenbrunner
A PERSONAL FAMILY PREFACE
This page is devoted not only to the prominent American diplomat Victoria Jane Nuland, but also to one branch of my own family’s history.
Victoria Nuland is my distant relative on my father’s side. According to information preserved within our family, her father—the distinguished American surgeon, professor, writer, and historian of medicine, Doctor Sherwin Bernard Nuland—was closely related to my father.
This family relationship is preserved primarily in our private family memory. It is naturally not reflected in the official biographies of Victoria Nuland, which are devoted mainly to her governmental and diplomatic career. I therefore present it precisely as personal genealogical testimony passed down within our family.
For me, Victoria Nuland is not only a public official whose name has remained at the centre of international politics for many years. In her family history, I see a continuation of the experience of Bessarabian Jews who were compelled to leave the Russian Empire, begin new lives in another country, preserve their historical memory, and simultaneously become part of American society.
FROM BESSARABIA TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
The publicly documented history of Victoria Nuland’s family on her father’s side leads to Bessarabia, a historical region that formed part of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Victoria Nuland’s grandfather, Meyer Nudelman, was an Orthodox Jew. According to materials published by Yale University, he emigrated from Bessarabia to the United States of America in 1907. In New York, he worked in a garment factory and, like many Jewish immigrants of that period, began a new life under conditions of hard labour, poverty, and difficult cultural adaptation.
Victoria Nuland’s Bessarabian Jewish roots are therefore not a matter of supposition, but a documented element of her family history. Yale University confirms that her grandfather emigrated from Bessarabia in 1907.
The history of this family forms part of the broader history of Eastern European Jewry. People left the Russian Empire to escape poverty, restrictions, antisemitism, political instability, and the absence of prospects for the future. They crossed the ocean and entered a new linguistic and cultural environment, while continuing to preserve the memory of their origins.
The family surname was originally written as Nudelman. It was subsequently changed to Nuland. Sherwin Nuland himself spoke publicly about the history of this change and the difficulties encountered by Jewish families in American society. Sherwin Nuland’s account of the Nudelman family name.
The change of surname did not erase the history of the family. It continued to live in family memory, language, attitudes towards education and work, and respect for human dignity.
SHERWIN NULAND — PHYSICIAN, WRITER, AND THINKER
Victoria Nuland’s father was born on 8 December 1930 in the Bronx, New York, into a family of Eastern European Jewish immigrants. At birth, he was given the name Shepsel Ber Nudelman, and he later became known throughout the world as Doctor Sherwin Bernard Nuland.
He graduated from New York University and subsequently attended the Yale School of Medicine. Sherwin Nuland practised surgery for thirty years and provided medical care to more than ten thousand patients.
His vocation, however, was not confined to the operating theatre. He became a distinguished author, a scholar of the history of medicine, and a thinker who reflected upon life, death, human dignity, medical ethics, ageing, and the moral responsibility of the physician.
His book How We Die: Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter became an international bestseller, was translated into twenty-seven languages, and received the National Book Award in 1994.
Sherwin Nuland was able to speak about death without cold detachment or false consolation. He regarded medicine not only as the science of the human body, but also as a moral service to humanity. Biography of Sherwin Nuland published by his foundation.
This man, who came from a family of Bessarabian Jews, became the father of Victoria Nuland, a woman destined to occupy one of the most prominent positions in American diplomacy at the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first centuries.
VICTORIA NULAND: MORE THAN THIRTY-FIVE YEARS OF DIPLOMATIC SERVICE
Victoria Jane Nuland was born on 1 July 1961 in New York. In 1983, she graduated from Brown University, where she studied Russian literature, political science, and history.
This choice of studies already demonstrates that Russia and the territories of the former Russian Empire were not entirely unfamiliar to her. They were present simultaneously in her family history, her education, and her subsequent professional career.
Victoria Nuland entered the United States Foreign Service in 1984. During the following thirty-five years, she served under six American presidents and ten Secretaries of State, working in administrations led by both of the principal political parties of the United States of America.
She served in China, Mongolia, and Russia, at the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and at the central offices of the United States Department of State.
From 2005 to 2008, Victoria Nuland served as the Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. From 2011 to 2013, she served as the Spokesperson for the United States Department of State. From 2013 to 2017, she was the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.
In 2021, Victoria Nuland became the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and from 2023 to 2024, she simultaneously served as Acting Deputy Secretary of State of the United States of America.
She attained the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest diplomatic rank in the United States Foreign Service. The principal stages of her governmental career are confirmed by the Office of the Historian of the United States Department of State.
After completing her service at the Department of State, Victoria Nuland continued her work in international affairs and the education of a new generation of diplomats. She currently holds the position of Shelby Cullom Davis Professor in the Practice of International Diplomacy and serves as Director of the International Fellows Program at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. Victoria Nuland’s official page at Columbia University.
THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE AND RUSSIAN CULTURE
Political disagreements between states must not obscure a person’s private and cultural biography.
Victoria Nuland studied the Russian language and read the works of Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. In her youth, she worked as an interpreter aboard a Soviet fishing vessel. This unusual experience enabled her to encounter Soviet everyday life and the living Russian language directly, long before she assumed senior governmental positions.
In her interview with Mikhail Zygar, she speaks about this period with humour and remarkable openness. She describes working among Soviet sailors, the difficult situations she encountered aboard the vessel, and the ways in which she had to find common ground with people in an environment entirely unfamiliar to a young American woman.
Her subsequent firm position regarding the policies of the Kremlin does not negate her profound familiarity with the Russian language and Russian culture. A love of literature and a critical assessment of the actions of a state can exist simultaneously. The culture of a people is not synonymous with the policies of its government.
AN INTERVIEW CONDUCTED AT MY REQUEST
The history of how this interview came into existence holds particular significance for me. Mikhail Zygar is not only a prominent Russian journalist and writer, but also my best friend, with whom I share many years of friendship, mutual trust, and deep personal understanding.
The initiative for the interview with Victoria Nuland originated with me. I personally approached Misha and asked him to record an extensive and substantive conversation with her. There was a prior agreement between us concerning the preparation of this interview, and Misha fulfilled my request by conducting a professional conversation with Victoria Nuland.
I do not claim credit for Mikhail Zygar’s journalistic work. The substance of the conversation, the formulation of the questions, and the professional conduct of the interview belong to him. Nevertheless, I consider it necessary to record the history of how this initiative arose. The interview did not appear by chance: it was preceded by my personal request and an agreement between me and my best friend, Misha Zygar.
This conversation therefore possesses particular significance for me. It brings together three personal strands: my family relationship with Victoria Nuland through my father, my many years of friendship with Mikhail Zygar, and our prior agreement concerning the preparation of this interview.
I am sincerely grateful to my best friend, Misha Zygar, for responding to my request and preparing a substantive interview that possesses not only journalistic, but also historical and documentary value.
MIKHAIL ZYGAR’S INTERVIEW: HISTORY TOLD IN THE FIRST PERSON
On 6 September 2024, Russian journalist and writer Mikhail Zygar published an extensive interview with Victoria Nuland. This was not a ceremonial conversation or a brief television commentary, but a detailed discussion lasting more than an hour.
Zygar asks questions concerning some of the most difficult and controversial chapters of contemporary international politics.
Did the United States of America and its allies promise Mikhail Gorbachev that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would not expand eastward?
Why was Ukraine not admitted to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 2008?
How did relations between Russia and Western states develop following the dissolution of the Soviet Union?
What occurred during the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in 2016 and 2022?
Did a completed peace agreement capable of being signed exist in the spring of 2022?
What role did the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and other Western states play in consultations with the Ukrainian side?
What might have happened to support for Ukraine if Donald Trump had returned to the office of President of the United States of America?
Victoria Nuland answers these questions as a direct participant in the diplomatic processes. One may agree or disagree with her interpretation, but her testimony possesses undeniable historical value.
It is particularly important that the interview allows the audience to hear neither a retelling by political opponents nor a propagandistic construction, but Victoria Nuland’s own position. She explains the reasoning behind her decisions, assesses the mistakes that were made, and discloses the circumstances of confidential international consultations.
During the discussion of the 2022 negotiations, Nuland rejects the assertion that the West ordered Ukraine to discontinue the signing of a peace agreement that had already been prepared. According to her account, the Ukrainian side sought advice at a late stage of the negotiations, after which restrictions were identified in the annexes to the proposed agreement that could have deprived Ukraine of the ability to provide independently for its own defence.
This account must also be examined critically and compared with other sources and the testimony of additional participants in the negotiations. This is precisely why the extensive interview is valuable: it preserves the position of one of the principal American diplomats for future historical analysis.
WHY THIS INTERVIEW IS PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT TO ME
I regard Victoria Nuland not only as a public official and professional diplomat.
Behind her American biography, I see the journey of a family that emerged from Bessarabia, the historical experience of Eastern European Jews, and the continuation of the line of ancestral memory connecting her family with my father’s family.
A family relationship does not entail automatic agreement with every political decision made by a relative. Nor does it grant the right to speak on that person’s behalf. It does, however, create a special human connection and a particular sense of responsibility for preserving the history of the family.
I do not seek to use Victoria Nuland’s name for my own aggrandisement. It is important to me to record our family relationship honestly, calmly, and without exaggeration, as part of a family chronicle that must not be lost.
At the same time, the interview is associated with another important personal circumstance. It was conducted by my best friend, Mikhail Zygar, whom I asked to arrange and record this conversation. The publication therefore became the result not only of professional journalistic work, but also of our friendship, mutual trust, and prior agreement.
The experience of millions of people is reflected in the histories of our families: the Russian Empire, Bessarabia, Jewish emigration, the United States of America, the preservation of ancestral memory, the attainment of education, and service to new countries.
The paths of the descendants of a single historical lineage may diverge across different countries and continents. Nevertheless, ancestral memory continues to connect people even after many decades.
CONCLUSION
Victoria Nuland belongs among the most prominent and influential American diplomats of her generation. Her work has inspired support, criticism, and intense political controversy. A serious historical assessment of a person, however, must not be based exclusively upon the slogans of supporters or opponents.
Documents must be studied, direct testimony must be heard, differing positions must be compared, and respect for facts must be preserved.
For me, Victoria Nuland’s biography possesses another profoundly personal dimension. She is my distant relative on my father’s side. According to information preserved within our family, her father, Doctor Sherwin Nuland, was a close relative of my father. Their shared family history is connected with Jewish Bessarabia, which formed part of the Russian Empire.
Mikhail Zygar’s interview makes it possible to see the living person behind the prominent political name: a woman whose family history began long before her diplomatic career and whose ancestors made the difficult journey from Bessarabia to the United States of America.
It is also a matter of principle for me to preserve the history of how this interview came into existence. Mikhail Zygar is my best friend. I personally asked him to conduct a conversation with Victoria Nuland, and the preparation of the interview was preceded by a prior agreement between us.
Family memory, friendship, journalism, and international history are therefore united on this page.
This is a history of diplomacy, emigration, and the preservation of historical memory.
For me, however, it is also a page from the history of my own family and a testament to genuine human friendship.
