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Vevey

A town in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland.

21st Century

Vevey has a synagogue built in the 20th century and a Jewish cemetery.

In 2005 the Jewish cemetery of Vevey was desecrated. This was followed by a statement of the government regarding trivialization of anti-semitic assaults.

Dmitri Nabokov (1934-2012), son of Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov and Jewish born Véra Slonim, passed away in Vevey aged 77. He is said to have been gifted in many areas. Dimitri was a translator and editor. The father Vladimir Nabokov who himself was not Jewish acquired an interest for Judaism and was a loyal supporter of Israel. A native of St. Petersburg, Russia Vladimir Nabokov was born into a family of civil servants of the upper echelons who had fought anti-semitism. Dimitri Nikolaevich Nabokov, the grandfather was Czar Alexander II’s justice minister. While he fought for Jewish rights, his son Vladimir Dmitrievich fought to condemn the pogrom of Kishinev (1903).

History

Prior to the establishment of the Swiss Confederation in 1291, Jews were already living on Swiss territory. As early as the beginning of the 13th century from France and Germany Jews advanced on river to various present day Swiss cities so also to Vevey.

With the oncoming industrialization in Switzerland in the second half of the 19th century, the economy of Vevey greatly developed. The chemical industry was developed which gave rise to fertilizers for the agricultural sector and the paper industry also established itself. In 1866 the renowned food company Nestlé was founded in the town of Vevey. The same year Swiss Jews were granted full civil rights.

Local architect, Eugène Jost (1865-1946), designed several grand structures in Vevey and its surrounding, so also the Belle Époque styled Caux Palace. During WWII the Caux Palace became housing for Jewish refugees and was then acquired by a peace foundation. Jost’s most impressive work includes featured ballrooms, chandeliered lobbies, towers and turrets overseeing mountains and the Lake of Geneva. His structures are built in the Belle Époque style (1871-1914) which followed the Franco-Prussian war (1870-1871) and was the time of the nation-state building of Italy and Germany (1871).