Melting Point: Family, Memory and the Search for a Promised Land

by Rachel Cockerell

On June 7th 1907, a ship packed with Russian Jews sets sail not to Jerusalem or New York, as many on board have dreamt, but to Texas. The man who persuades the passengers to go is David Jochelmann, Rachel Cockerell's great-grandfather. It marks the beginning of the Galveston Movement, a forgotten moment in history when 10,000 Jews fled to Texas in the lead-up to WWI.

The charismatic leader of the movement is Jochelmann's closest friend, Israel Zangwill, whose novels have made him famous across Europe and America. As Eastern Europe becomes infected by anti-Semitic violence, Zangwill embarks on a desperate search across the continents for a temporary from Australia to Canada, Angola to Antarctica. He reluctantly settles on Galveston, Texas. He fears the Jewish people will be absorbed into the great American melting pot, but there is no other hope.

In a highly inventive style, Cockerell uses exclusively source material to capture history as it unfolds, weaving together letters, diaries, memoirs, newspaper articles and interviews into a vivid account of those who were there. Melting Point follows Zangwill and the Jochelmann family through two world wars, to London, New York and Jerusalem - as their lives intertwine with some of the most memorable figures of the twentieth century, and each chooses whether to cling to their history or melt into their new surroundings. It is a story that asks what it means to belong, and what can be salvaged from the past.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Jewish, Memoir, Audiobook, Politics, Biography

416 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 29, 2024

Reviews

[Ilan Israel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was fascinated by the serendipity involved in Rachel Cockerell’s first work. It was a family biography, based on meticulous research, that took a young British woman on a journey from the pogroms of Czarist Russia, via the Zionist congresses in Basel, to East Africa, then to Galveston Texas and via a digression on the avant-garde theatre of 1920s New York, to London in the Second World War, with trips to Israel and Canada.
The author discovered that her great grandfather, whom she knew very little about, had been a major figure in the early political Zionist movement and responsible for efforts to save persecuted Jews in the Russian empire, including a plan to bring them to the small port of Galveston, Texas to find refuge in the American South and West of the early 20th Century
The form of the book is innovative. The author excludes herself from the narrative, apart from a preface and afterword, and uses historical documents,newspaper reports and recorded interviews to tell her family’s interesting story. She manages to seamlessly stitch together the narrative, so it reads like a historical novel.
For me, I was intrigued by her descriptions of the early Zionist congresses, as I pride myself on my knowledge of the development of the Zionist movement, but the author shone a spotlight on the dramatic early years, and the personalities of the leaders, especially Herzl and the writer, Israel Zangwill.
A beautifully researched and presented family history, which can be seen as a historical saga of lesser known events in the history of the 20th Century.

[Charley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A total gift for anyone out there who revels in the role of being the family archivist. Not many of us have such stories to unfurl and share, in spectacular detail

[Susan Scribner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disjointed and underwhelming. Cockerell uses only primary sources (newspaper articles, speeches, letters, diaries, personal interviews), presented chronologically and thematically. This choice firmly grounds the reader in the time period but does a disservice in its lack of a central narrative voice. You might call the method inventive and radical, as per the book blurbs. Personally it reminded me of long nights confronted by hundreds of note-scrawled index cards as I desperately tried to organize and transform them into a coherent college paper.

The book description itself is misleading. There are three distinct sections, but only the first covers the brief period when there was an attempt to use Galveston, Texas as a Jewish immigrant entry point to America. This was suggested as an alternative to Ellis Island in the hope that it would encourage Jews to settle in Western states instead of overcrowded New York City. To set the stage, Cockerell goes back to the birth of Zionism, led by charismatic Austrian journalist Theodore Herzl and British writer Israel Zangwill. I was not particularly surprised to learn that the British once "offered" part of Kenya to the Zionists as a consolation prize for not giving them Palestine; if you're an imperial colonizer you see no problem is giving away land that was never yours to begin with. Also, given the truism "Two Jews, three opinions," it was a no-brainer to learn that the Zionists became hopelessly divided between those who were amenable to considering alternative locations for the Jewish state and those who refused anything that wasn't the Biblical homeland. As for the family connection, Cockerell's great-grandfather facilitated the emigration of numerous Russian Jews through Galveston, although he is only briefly referenced.

The second section of the book focuses on a group of young New York playwrights, including Cockerell's great uncle, whose alternative theater had a brief, ignominious run in the 1920s. This section is most notable for the critics' gleeful pan of their shows.

The [play] may very well be good something, but it isn't good theater.

The author's name is Em Jo Basshe. It is the kind of play you would naturally expect a man with a name like that to write.

The [main character]suffered almost as much as his audience.*

Finally, we move to Britain in the 1930s and 40s as the author's grandmother and great-aunt raise their families together, surviving WWII and witnessing the birth of Israel. This section has the most intimate feel, as Cockerell personally interviewed several of her surviving relatives.

To her credit, Cockerell does include sources that clearly depict a vibrant Palestinian culture that was erased by the Nabka. But overall I'm left wondering why this book warrants a broad publication run; I'm sure the author's family will find it fascinating but my final impression was a shrug.

*Can't resist one more newspaper quote, about the British author-turned-Zionst Israel Zangwill: I. Zangwill is not a handsome creature. You have seen his pictures. He looks like them.

Advance reader copy provided by Net Galley and publisher.

[Zoë · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would love to know why the author chose to change this from a nonfiction book like she described her first draft as, to this, a book entirely made up of letters, newspapers, diaries. The premise initially sounds interesting, but then you remember why we normally add fresh writing in: so many gaps of understanding, so, so many pacing issues, so much needless repetition.

I also can't help but wonder if the author removed herself from the narrative to try and chase some kind of "neutral" version of a narrative. This book raises some really interesting concepts on the original intentions of the Zionist movement, the motivations behind it's founders and the ideologies of the time - but then does nothing to explore these further, because, by form, it can't. It ends up feeling half baked at best, and borderline plodding at worst. A real shame; I really wanted to like this, and I feel like there was a brilliant book somewhere in here.

[Umar Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found some parts very interesting. Especially the parts focusing on Israel Zangwill and prophetic writing on the nature of assimilation. But the style made for a disjointed reading experience. Perhaps Cockerell should've stuck with her initial plan instead of focusing on letters.

[Jan Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is unique in that the author has composed it entirely in the words of others. She does contribute a preface, epilogue, and acknowledgements in her own words. Otherwise, the book is composed of quotes and excerpts from books, newspapers, letters, diaries, and interviews. It's the author, though, who has put it all together, like a giant word puzzle. Even though it all seems to fall into place, you know it couldn't have been that easy.

The book has garnered many positive reviews, especially for the first part, with varying responses to all the rest. It was Kathryn Schulz's enthusiastic review in the May 5, 2025 issue of The New Yorker that had me looking for this book sooner rather than later. I had it first from the library. By then I knew I had to have this one.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
The title of Ms. Schulz's review is "When the Jews Sought the Promised Land in Texas." The headline is, "Westward Oy."

The first part places Theodor Herzl front and center: he and his contemporaries; his enthusiasm (some say mania); the reactions of others to him; and the annual Zionist congresses, mostly in Basel, Switzerland, from 1897-1904. As journalistic observations at the time indicate, these were the first such gathering of Jews in a couple of millennia.

When Herzl entered a room, he filled it. Heads turned. He had charisma and a commanding presence, based on reactions at the time. Or, he did, once he had became caught up in his Zionism project; before that, I'm not sure. He had trained as a lawyer but became a journalist and a not-so-successful playwright. He is unfailingly described as handsome, but it's hard for me to react that way nowadays, owing to his big beard. I have to take their word for it.

Hertzl was from Austria. He was so assimilated that he didn't have his son circumcised. However, he was attentive to the world around him. The empires were beginning to implode; he observed the political uses of Jew-hatred. He intuited what would happen in the event of interregnum and became convinced time was running out. That set him apart from other would-be Zionist leaders who thought they had all the time in the world. Hertzl burned his candle at both end and was dead at 44 by the end of 1904, but not before that he hobnobbed with royalty, trying every conceivable avenue to get permission to settle Jews in their ancient homeland. This is before WWI, and the area was part of the Ottoman empire. It was not to be: the Sultan said no, so Kaiser Wilhelm lost all interest.

That's a bit of the history. It was the direct observations of the day in real time, though, that made me feel like I'd turned on the news or listened to a podcast.

The author (or, better, composer) lets us surf the observations. At best she could catch a wave of positive comments, reach a crescendo, then slide down the slope of negativity, and reach some conclusive synthesis.

After Herzl's death and the fragmenting of the Zionist movement over Great Britain's offer of territory in Africa, we meet Israel Zangwill, now nearly forgotten, but then the most eminent writer in England, and Herzl's opposite in appearance and manner. He and David Jochelman, the author's great grandfather, spearheaded an alternative movement, the ITA, or Jewish Territorial Organisation, to move beleaguered Russian Jews to America but somewhere other than the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Instead, the ITA project decreed they would go to Galveston, from there to access the American South and West. This project was aided by a wealthy American benefactor, and was active until WWI. We glimpse Jochelman from a distance, as he uses his enthusiasm to round up Russian candidates for the project.

Before resorting to American immigration, Zangwill exhausted other options for a Jewish homeland. The author gives us a tragicomic excursion through the many potential but ultimately unsuitable options that Zangwill and his fellows looked at, options that trill up the scale of hopefulness and, then, once again, down into the slough of despond.

After the close of the Galveston chapter, there's a sortie into New York with the son of David Jochelman's first marriage. The son stayed; the eventual great grandfather Jochelman returned to England where his friend and colleague Israel Zangwill lived.

The son, Emmanuel Jochelman, renamed himself EmJo Basshe, and made a stab at becoming a playwright. The main interest of this section are his colleagues in the arts scene -- and that his one child, "Jo," still spry in her 90s, became an informant for the author. EmJo was her great uncle (half-uncle).

EmJo was another individual who died in his 40s of a heart condition. It's noteworthy that even 100 years ago, that was not so unusual.

Meanwhile, Great-Grandfather Jochelman remarried in England and had two daughters, one of whom was eventually the author's grandmother. Her father had lived in a large house in London with his parents, his aunt and her spouse, and a slew of siblings and cousins, in a chaotic but fondly remembered family that came through the Blitz in one piece, and 1949 the other daughter (author's great aunt) and her family emigrated to Israel.

Vladimir (as he was known at the time) Jabotinsky also makes a brief appearance because the great-uncle-in-law (the one whose family emigrated to Israel) worked for him as his personal assistant. Jabotinsky, remembered today as a right-winger and with a pugnacious face, did not come across that way at all while he was in England. He impresses the personages of the day as fascinating and (like Hertzl) charismatic. The book reflects an episode where he has traveled to Poland to try and convince the Jews to leave, but they don't believe him. And he's heartbroken.

The way Jabotinsky comes across in this book is reflected also in Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict, where he practiced restraint lest any civilians be harmed. He was put out of mandate Palestine by the British in 1929, for a thought crime, really, although one he proclaimed publicly: he said the Arab population was going to have to be met by force and that they would not welcome the Jews, no matter what economic benefit their presence brought, and this was not something the other Jewish leaders or the British could countenance.

The other public person who is misremembered, or, really, hardly remembered at all, except for his play The Melting Pot, is Israel Zangwill, once the most famous English writer.

This book that might have been another family saga but for the author's unique choice to use the words of others, which brings the goings-on to life. We get to time travel and hear/read/see events as they unfold and impress people of the time.

The author's family comes alive in the history as it unfolds.

Before she undertook this book project, she thought Great Grandfather David Jochelman was just some sort of businessman.

She did not know about the history she uncovered. She'd never heard of the Galveston project. Most of the family members who emerged were unknown to her.

Reading Parts 1 and 3 of this book is something of an adventure. For me it slowed down in the middle but still interesting.

You might find this one at your public library. Take a look if you can!

[Robert Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is history as it maybe should be told, from original sources and without any input or interpretation from the author. We ,as readers, can make our own judgments from the information given.
Fascinating stuff, so much that I knew nothing about, a great opportunity to learn. I found the last chapter most powerful given the current, horrific situation in Palestine.
The afterword and acknowledgments added greatly to my respect for the process of writing a work of such epic scale.

[Subramaniam Avinash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shalom! I have mixed feelings about this book. I found the stories about the events and people that led to the creation of Israel deeply interesting. The author's family history, on the other hand, didn't speak to me. The writing, however, is top-notch. That said, the unvarnished praise the book has garnered in the publications I regularly read, I find less than persuasive. All said and done, I quite enjoyed reading this book—just not as much as I thought I might when I picked it up.

[Lachlan Finlayson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am grateful to NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

“On June 7, 1907, a ship packed with Russian Jews sets sail not for Jerusalem or New York, as many onboard have dreamed, but to Texas. The man who persuades the passengers to go is David Jochelmann, the author’s great-grandfather” Extract from the publisher’s description of this part family-memoir, part historical recollection of the near-forgotten Galveston Movement.

This book immediately attracted my attention when I noticed it on NetGalley. First published in the UK last year, it is now due for a US publication in May 2025. I enjoyed a life in Texas for many years, still maintain connections there and visit close friends whenever I can. While I consider myself reasonably well-informed regarding the plight of the Jewish people during the 20th Century, I had no idea of the Galveston Movement, named after the City of Galveston nearby to where I once lived in Houston. This is the fascinating saga of a migration pathway for some 10,000 persecuted, mainly Russian Jews, in the years leading up to World War I. The book explains the reasons for the migration, the strategies considered and the complex mix of emotions for those involved. A saga I hope will appeal to many readers not only for important historical reasons, but also as a moving and personal family memoir.

“This book consists of memories - taken from diaries, letters, memoirs, articles and recordings…(they) tell the entire story through the eyes of those who were there…” Extract from the author’s introduction.

The author writes this book almost entirely using quotes from her research. The quotes, derived from many sources, including Europe, the United States and the Middle East, present words and voices from the distant past up until the present day. Voices that are honest, public as well as private, sincere, moving, heartfelt and even occasionally humorous.

Each quote includes a name, date and source. In totality, they provide a picture of the time, the people and the events, from multiple perspectives, backgrounds and places. Voices from the rich and from the poor, the powerful and the humble, the educated and the ill-informed. The author has selected and presented this material in such a way as to make the material fresh, the voices authentic and the story compelling. And most importantly, it works. Providing an absorbing saga that often caused me to pause, seeking further details from an internet search, before returning to the book.

Whilst the overall story of Jewish persecution and migration is well known, or at least should be for those curious about the past, the Galveston Movement is less well known. A story largely forgotten but one that should be remembered and perhaps, more importantly, a story that places the picture of Jewish migration in the context of long-ago events; a complex story, with some issues unique to the times, while other issues still exist today. And it is a story of the brave and honourable people who should be better remembered today. People who looked to a better future for their people and their religion. A future where they could not only survive but thrive, ideally in their ancestral homeland or perhaps elsewhere, maybe an interim location where death and persecution would not be a constant threat.

The first part of the book is about Zionism, and the pogroms against the Jewish populations of Eastern Europe, particularly Russia. These events threatened the existence of certain Jewish people in the late 19th and early 20th Century. While I had some basic understanding of this time, the book provides a lot more context, brought alive by the method already described. Direct quotations from original sources, including memoirs, speeches, letters, and newspaper articles. Anyone unfamiliar with the time will learn much about the treatment and murder of Jews as well as their long-held desire to return to an historical homeland in Palestine. As an alternative or interim solution to what was called, the Jewish Question, other lands were also considered for those escaping from relentless persecution.

The author allows to reader to understand some of the key issues and personalities of this Movement from over a hundred years ago. Most notably Dr Theodor Herzl,  an Austro-Hungarian journalist, lawyer, writer and political activist, considered the father of modern Zionism. The book also conveys the support from British politicians and media for his vision and also from Europeans, particularly the Swiss who hosted annual Congresses where Jewish people from all over the world would meet, discuss and formulate a strategy.

This part of the book is particularly well presented and gives a vivid picture of the historical issues, plans and passions involved. Various locations are considered for migration, but are mostly ruled out as impractical. A fundamental dilemma arises. While migration away from persecution saves Jewish lives, questions remain. Is it better to wait until circumstances allow a return to the ancestral Palestine homeland ? Or would any homeland be sufficient ? British governments and media are portrayed as largely sympathetic, with significant knowledge of the threats to the Jewish populations in certain places. Equally, perhaps more so, American politicians and media are aware of the pogroms and persecutions. And being a young nation in need of people, the US is open to migration. President Theodore Roosevelt’s reference to the particularly barbaric Kishineff pogrom in the Russian Empire as:

“…a dreadful outrage upon the Jews…”

and referring to the American response:

“ I have never in my experience in this country known of a more immediate or a deeper expression of sympathy…”

The author excels in selecting just the right quote from key people to really set the scene for these times, the tones and attitudes expressed. Quotes from brave, forward-looking people. Not only politicians, but also writers in the media as well as ordinary people in private correspondence. The author is balanced in what is presented. Not all media viewpoints are as benevolent as those of the US White House.

The author’s selection of quotes presents the major issues including a split in the movement to safeguard the Jewish populations and the death of Theodor Herzl at a young age. British writer Israel Zangwill, takes on a leading role in the search for a country willing to provide land for Jewish migration, on either a permanent or temporary basis. Zangwill, although a famous writer in the UK, is soon to become a famous playwright in the US. His role in the history of Jewish migration is largely unknown today. The book addresses his legacy admirably, not only the ideas and actions he promoted, but also his selfless persona and unending commitment. From quotations, Zangwill’s written material and that of others, the reader can better understand this remarkable man.

Simultaneously to events in Europe, there is large, ongoing migration to the United States, particularly New York. This raises other issues. Is the Jewish religion being diminished by American integration ? Will New York become resentful or intolerant of large numbers of migrants ? These different worldviews and themes are presented with care and sensitivity throughout the book, indeed right up until the modern times portrayed towards the end of this book.

Zangwill writes:

“England has got all the Jews she wants, and America is apparently approaching the same way of thinking”

and later:

“If we cannot get the Holy Land, we can make another land holy”

Zangwill’s popularity and success as a playwright provides an opportunity to present his ideas directly to the American people and indeed the President who attends a performance of his new play, The Melting Pot. The book also portrays the role of the existing Jewish population in New York, descendants from earlier migrations, now successful citizens, established businessmen with wealth, able to influence Government policy. The concern that New York cannot handle endless migration is addressed by a proposal for an alternative entry point to the US. Hence the Galveston Movement, named after the port city on the south Texas coast. In the early 20th Century, a thriving area with established transport links to Central and Western States, places in need of migration.

The Galveston Movement in the years leading up to World War I is a success resulting in some 10,000 Jewish migrants passing through the city. Playing a key role in enabling this movement of Jewish is the author’s great-grandfather, Dr David Jochelmann. A man largely forgotten by history, but now brought to life by this book. The author lays out the methods, procedures and outcomes of this migration to the US, away from New York and to Southern, Central and Western states. Although limited in numbers, the movement is a success up until the outbreak of World War I and the disruption of Atlantic travel. The Galveston Movement ends.

The second part of the book is a slight detour away from the theme of Jewish migration. It becomes something of a family history, with a distant, mostly unknown family member, his migration to New York and his embrace of the American lifestyle. In some ways it captures the alternative migration outcome of Jewish migration from Russia and Eastern Europe. One providing safety from persecution but with a diminishing of the Jewish identity in the Melting Pot of America. Indeed, integration, inter-religion marriage, assimilation and embracing America is expected, intended and an accepted aspect of migration. Another quote from President Roosevelt, referring to immigrants, illustrates this point:

“He must revere only our flag; not only must it come first, but no other flag should even come second.”

The third part of the book is also largely family memoir, this time from the perspective of Europe as the authors great-grandfather David Jochelmann becomes a migrant himself, moving to London as the Galveston Movement ends. This part of the book documents the rise of Nazi Germany as a new threat to the Jewish people. Events leading up to and including World War II are seen from the perspective of the authors extended family; David Jochelmann and a multitude of his descendants. Life continues after the war, in different directions for various family members. The establishment of the State of Israel finally happens and the survival of the Jewish people is no longer the issue it was at the beginning of the century.

The final chapters nicely complete the family-memoir aspect of the book. Thoughtful, nuanced, personal and reflective. Family descendants have taken the various pathways envisioned by Theodor Herzl and Israel Zangwill. Europe, the United States and Israel are all destinations for migrants. Jewish society and religion has evolved in different ways depending on many factors including destination and individual circumstances.

In an Afterword the author brings the book to a satisfying conclusion. Her Great-Grandfather’s descendants become interlinked once more as her research finds long-lost relatives and the additional perspectives they bring to the past.

What began as a book about the future of the Jewish people ends with a family, distant geographically but brought closer at least in part by the author, her research and determination to tell this story. A tribute to the well-known and the less-well known people in the past. Brave, visionaries who did what they could to preserve their people and assist them on their way to a better, brighter, safer future.

Abundant Notes are provided on source material as well as a Bibliography of various Archives and Publications available. I enjoyed the Acknowledgements which gave a sense of the time, travel and diligence which enabled the author to produce this excellent book. Not to mention a little luck and happenstance ! The thanks to many people who helped her along the way is heartwarming.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A moving and memorable saga, beginning over a hundred years ago and extending up until today. I wish the author all the very best with the American publication. An historical book, a personal book but perhaps even more importantly, a book so very relevant for today. It deserves a wide readership.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth. The. Hype.

[Sherri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was SUCH an interesting book, and I'm not a big non-fiction reader. I'd give it five stars but unfortunately I got a little glazed over in the middle section...it felt like the story was paused, even though it was still tracing the family history. I don't know how the author made a series of quotes feel like a story but she did, and in a coherent voice. I learned a lot, and it felt particularly relevant now.

[Kathleen Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

The “Melting Point” is a fascinating look at the early leaders of the movement to find a home for European Jews fleeing the pogroms and oppression of Eastern Europe in the late 19th C. Rachel Cockerell’s great grandfather was one of the leaders searching for a home in Africa and North America. She did not know his story, and in her research, discovers stories about prominent Jews looking at resettling in Uganda and Texas. I didn’t know, and I think few did, this history. She also decides, after her first draft is completed, to begin again and tell the story entirely through primary sources. It’s a very original story in both material and format.

[Audrey Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because I thought it would tell me about my grandfather’s journey to America. It did not. The first part of the book weaves “primary sources” together telling the origin story of Zionism. I have read in-depth about the origin of Zionism; reading the primary source material in this book gave me a valuable first person understanding. I enjoyed the first part of the book immensely; its value was worth the time and money invested. The stories in the first part of the book are a part of my permanent memory forever. The rest of the book did not hold my interest to the same degree. Readers - this is a “check out from the library” book. Why buy the entire book, when you read it for free from the library? If you find yourself loving the book, then you can buy it - but do not make that investment without first checking it out. Libraries need you to check out books to keep their circulation numbers sufficient to merit their existence. When you check out library books, you help keep the libraries functioning and funded for those who do not have the choice of buying a book.

[Rebekkah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book, both in form and subject. As I began reading the first part, which details the beginnings of Zionism and the eventual creation of the Galveston Movement, I found myself forgetting that this was a family memoir. It was, by far, the most interesting and successful section of the book. I also really enjoyed the focus on Israel Zangwill. However, I remain torn about the author's decision to depend solely on quotes from primary sources to create the narrative. Parts were immensely readable, particularly when I was able to skim over the provenance of source material. Yet, at times, I found myself wondering: what else did this newspaper article say? How would I understand this quote differently if it hadn't been taken out of its original context and placed alongside other, contemporary newspaper articles/letters/diary entries? What does it mean to pull a quote from a newspaper published in Hull, England, for example, and place it alongside something excerpted from Kansas City paper? Surely, no one would have read those two papers together at the time. I appreciate the questions the author raises about how we write history in using this form, but I also think I would have enjoyed hearing more from her about her experiences—this is, after all, her family's story. Still, the history told here is important, and I think, presented in a way that is accessible and interesting for the lay reader. 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[thewanderingjew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Melting Point: Family, Memory and the Search for a Promised Land, Rachel Cockerell, author narrator, Henry Goodman, narrator.
This book, ostensibly about The Zionist Movement, is very well researched. It contains the actual written words from letters, documents, newspaper articles, diaries and other sources, quoting many people, some known well-known to many of us and some veritably unknown. Rachel Cockerell, the author of the book starts out intending to write a memoir about her family and their relationship to the Zionist Movement, a movement that was begun by Theodore Herzl , in the late 1800‘s and continued by his protégé Israel Zangwill, into the 1900’s, and then, at the time of his death, the effort was picked up and continued by David Jochelmann, a name later spelled with only one “n” to remove its German relationship. David was the patriarch who was the author’s great grandfather, the man who began her family’s involvement in the Zionist Movement. He continued to lead Zangwill’s Galveston Project until shortly before Israel’s founding in 1948, when it was due to shut down as a failure, but instead, the State of Israel was born.
Theodore Herzl hoped to found a Jewish homeland as a place of safety and refuge for those fleeing from Europe’s wars and pogroms. This effort wound its way through the history of both World Wars. One of the projects was the idea of settling people in Galveston Texas. Another was to settle in East Africa, in Uganda or Kenya, which is where they believed they would be going, but which was rejected because it was considered uninhabitable and far too dangerous with the wild animals, unfriendly tribes, some that believed in cannibalism, and the lack of any formal infrastructure. The supporters of Zionism traveled from continent to continent in search of a safe haven. In the end, thousands were finally settled in Galveston. It was an effort that ultimately failed, and was coming to an end right before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, just a few short years after the end of The Holocaust in 1945.
While the well-known Herzl was the initial driving force of the effort, his protégé Israel Zangwill continued it after Herzl’s death and approximately half the book is devoted to the challenges they met and tried to overcome. When Zangwill died, the author’s great grandfather, David Jochelmann was prevailed upon to step in and take over. He continued the effort until the actual homeland was born in Israel. The Jews finally returned to the place they had begun, the place from which they were turned out by their enemies. The fight with their enemies continues to this day.
The Jews involved in the search for a homeland were not very religious Jews, and as a matter of fact, Herzl and Zangwill both married women outside of Judaism. As they settled in America, they became part of the country and lost even more of the identity they feared losing in Europe., They became Americanized and melted into the Melting Pot the country was so proud of possessing. Many were already largely secular Jews and lost even more of the customs that defined them, but they did hold onto their Jewish identity. In the end, WWII taught them that they would always be Jews to the world, regardless of how they lived or practiced their religion.
Although the author actually intended this book to be about her family and its relationship to the Zionist Movement, it was not only devoted to their lives. The many names introduced often clouded the overall message for me. I did enjoy the epistolary style, but would suggest that the print copy would be a far more suitable read for this particular presentation. Although the narrators did a masterful job of interpreting the sources and the tone that was intended, without the visual presentation, it was difficult to know who was authoring the words spoken or even when the author changed. The voice never varied from person to person. It was also difficult to follow the timeline. I came away feeling that rather than being about the history of the Zionist Movement, it was more about the history of the many people who had been involved or had had an interest in the Zionist Movement, almost as if though many influenced it, they remained outside of it.
For all intents and purposes, the book really begins in 1907, with the beginning of the Galveston Movement to settle Jews in Texas and comes to an end shortly before the actual establishment of Israel so many decades and experiences later. The book follows the people involved as they traveled from continent to continent, searching for a homeland. So many well-known names are dropped in the search, and they are what illustrate the times and environment in which they lived. Rather than telling only the story of Jews and their endeavor, it also tells the story of Jews and the famous people of the times with whom they interacted as they searched for their safe haven. Those names and their letters and diaries lent an air of authenticity to this book that is invaluable.
Ze’ev (Vladimir) Zabotinsky and Menachem Begin are two of the more prominent names mentioned, but neither of them seemed to be fully explored. I assume the author wanted the book to be about her family, and how they interacted with many of the intellectual and creative people of the times, like Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos. So while the book was very interesting, it sometimes lacked cohesion and grew unnecessarily confusing. It introduced many unknown people who had a great influence on the establishment of a Jewish homeland but then soon dropped them. I enjoyed the warm presentation of some of the customs of the Jewish people, like the pillows on the chair of the patriarch conducting the Passover Seder or the Yiddish terms used like balaboosta, referring to a wonderful homemaker, or the foods loved, like pickled herring in cream sauce. Perhaps there needs to be a follow up book that more fully explores some of the people and themes introduced.

[Joe Kraus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating narrative experiment, one worth it just for the Dos-Passos-inspired structure, but it may be a bit think as history.

On the plus side, Rachel Cockerell tells her story by letting it tell itself. Rather than narrate, she simply provides excerpts of the sources from which she works. We get an introduction and an afterword, but, otherwise, we don’t hear her voice at all. She’s not playing an instrument; she’s conducting the orchestra.

As I say, that’s fascinating. It’s great to hear the different voices. Sometimes it will be a newspaper report. Other times it’s an excerpt of a speech. Still others, it’s a personal letter. The effect is of watching a jigsaw puzzle come together.

And I do love that. As someone who often wades through sources to try to tease out a through-line narrative, I enjoy the experience of seeing original materials. And I imagine that those less familiar with that experience will appreciate this as well. There is a joy in understanding the story that these sources tell when it’s clear they can’t know the whole of the story (because only we can know the outcome from our later perspective.)

I’ve been cagey about “the story” so far, though, because – beyond being the story of her own family – it’s unclear what the focus should be.

Cockerell traces things back to her great-grandfather, David Jochelman, who married twice and had two families. With that, he became a fierce advocate for Zionism, taking part in some of the early Zionist conferences and gradually finding himself a key sidekick to Vladimir Jabotinsky. (For those unfamiliar with Jabotinsky, he’s the founder of Revisionist Zionism which advocated for no compromise with either the English or the Arabs and which, with a minor hiccup or two, is the intellectual ancestor of Bejamin Netanyahu’s pjilosophy.)

Along the way, he works closely with the playwright/novelist Israel Zangwill. (Humblebrag, I suppose, but my most widely cited academic article is on his famous play, The Melting Pot.)

That’s heady stuff, being entangled with many of the leading voices of the era, and the material Cockerall draws on is generally fascinating. There are lots of intriguing and significant voices, and many talk about her own family.

Then, without much warning, we find our story switching to New York and Jochelman’s son, who goes by the name Emjo Basshe. This Basshe sets out to become an alternative playwright, and he partners with, among others, Dos Passos, whom I regard as one of our most unjustly forgotten American Modernists. He ants to create a new kind of theater, and he has some modest success. Reading the reviews of his productions is a lot of fun, as is reading Dos Passos’ musings to Hemingway about the fading hopes for the project.

We start to get a personal side to all of that through an extensive oral history that Cockerell conducts with Emjo’s daughter, who also took the name Emjo which she shortened to Jo.

Jo sheds light on some of Emjo’s career, but he dies when she’s young, so the story shifts again to her peculiar upbringing as a half-Jew in the American South.

The story then switches again to Jochelman’s second family – which contains Rachel’s grandmother – and their experiences during the Blitz in England.

It’s interesting material, but it feels part of a different story, one that’s been told many times…which is no reason not to tell it again.

The result is that it feels as if some of the material spills outside the original frame – or what seemed the original frame – of the project.

I’m wrestling with some of the same issues that challenge Cockerell here. The central point of all this is that it is her family, that the various spokes of the story connect in her person. As sympathetic as I am to that – and I am very sympathetic since much of my current work turns on a similar compilation of different family members’ experiences – I don’t find it quite all coming together.

If something in this work fails, though, it fails interestingly. It reads quickly, and it offers a wide-range of voices and contexts. There’s a lot that’s striking to it, and I do recommend it as something you have to read in order to understand its admirable ambition.

[Maine Colonial · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a free advance digital review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

A family memoir, a history of the early Zionist era, an examination of assimilation and the maintenance of Jewish identity; this book is all of those things and more, and told in an unusual style in which the entire presentation is in the form of letters, news reports and other documents and document fragments.

The book as a whole relates to the family story of the author, whose ancestors ranged from eastern Europe, to England, and to the United States. Part One is about the early days of Zionism, a movement that arose as a result of pogroms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It may be surprising to learn that one faction of early Zionists was not committed to relocating the diaspora to Palestine, but considered other parts of the world, including Uganda, Australia, Canada and the United States. As a young country at that time, the US was (relatively) welcoming to immigrants, and while New York was the principal landing point, this faction of Zionists organized the transport of over 10,000 Jews to Galveston, Texas, where the immigrants could be transported easily by rain to the midwest and west, which were most in need of immigrants. The author’s great-grandfather, David Solomon Jochelmann (later Jochelman) was instrumental in the so-called Galveston Movement.

Another, indirect, member of the author’s family tree (the son of the author’s great-grandfather by his first wife), Emanuel Jochelmann, who renamed himself Emjo Basshe, was part of the great Jewish migration to New York. This man’s story anchors Part Two, which also addresses the pressure of assimilation.

Part Three takes us back to the author’s great-grandfather, and his immigration to England from Kiev, with his second wife and two children. This part takes on the exterminatory efforts of Nazi Germany, and the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel. It’s also packed with family history, as the author’s grandmother and great aunt, sisters, establish a London household together in the 1940s, bursting with their seven children and other relatives, to be joined for a year by the daughter, Jo, of Emjo Basshe from Part Two.

The author manages to integrate her family’s story with the sweep of history, so that it is appealing both to those wanting to read a personal story and those interested in the history. She gives a good explanation of her decision to use only original sources in the text, rather than using those sources to inform her own words. It’s not entirely successful; for example, she introduces the reader to two preeminent Zionists, Theodor Herzl and Israel Zangwill, and later to banker Otto Kahn, by seemingly endless and somewhat repetitive snippets of news stories and reminiscences about them. I would say that Part One, in particular, is longer than it needs to be because of repetitive sources. On the whole, though, this approach is successful and immerses the reader in the times and places.

[Linda Sander · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1895, Theodor Herzl proposed that due to worldwide discrimination, Jews should work towards eventual settlement in Israel as their permanent home. The obvious problem was that the land of Israel, then known as Palestine, was currently and had been for 100s of years occupied by Palestinians.

Shortly thereafter, Herzl sponsored the first Congress on Zionism. By the time of the 6th annual Congress he was convinced that a Jewish homeland in Israel was out of reach at that time and that all Jews should accept the offer of the British government of land in Uganda in East Africa as a safe place for Jews to live and develop a temporary homeland until such time as settlement in Israel was possible. His proposal was soundly defeated.

Herzl died shortly thereafter, and his friend Israel Zangwill took up the proposal under the banner of the ITO. The ITO found East Africa to be unsuitable, so spent the next few years going from place to place around the world looking for a temporary location for their homeland.

Being unable to find a suitable location where they would be granted autonomy, the organization agreed to participate in the immigration of Russian Jews (40% of all Jews lived in the Russian Pale at that time) to Galveston, Texas in 1908. The author's great-grandfather, David Jochelman, worked with Israel Zangwill to facilitate the immigration of Russian Jews via Galveston, Texas.

Many Americans felt that there were too many Jews coming to New York City. While the American West offered the safety and prosperity denied to Jews worldwide, at the same time, it threatened the very identity of the Jewish people and their religion due to assimilation, which was felt to be inevitable. 10,000 Jews immigrated thru Galveston before the effort was abandoned.

The notion of America as a "melting pot" where peoples from all over the world could come together and blend their cultures into an American culture came from a play written and produced by Israel Zangwill called "The Melting Pot" about a Jewish boy and his Russian Gentile girlfriend coming together peacefully in America.

Part 1 of the Book deals with the history of Zionism to the point of the move to Galveston. Part 2, follows the life and family of Jochelman's son, a playwright in New York City. Part 3 gives the story of the daughters of Jochelman by his second wife. One of Jochelman's granddaughters moved with her family to Israel shortly after declaration of statehood. The time between Galveston and statehood is covered in parts 2 and 3.

The book itself is innovative in style in that it lacks narration or a narrator, presenting instead a sequential collection of excerpts from newspaper stories. letters and diaries which tell the story. It is an innovation that worked well but did result in considerable repetition as to link the various excerpts.

Given that the source of every excerpt is listed in small type immediately before the excerpt so as to provide necessary information without interrupting the flow of the story, it seems unlikely that an audio presentation of the this material could be made to work well.

Overall, this is an interesting and well written book presented in an unusual fashion that allows differing perspectives to be seen and understood without taking a stand, or bias, on any issue. Part 1 is fascinating. Parts 2 and 3 tend to drag a bit but eventually pick up and allow the story of the creation of the nation of Israel to be completed.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Melting Point" is Rachel Cockerell's account of her family history and the broader history and themes that contextualize it. Cockerell is not a historian or a Jewish scholar. She tells the story in a singular way, and it works masterfully. This is one of the most unusual and effective books I've ever read.

The method that Cockerell employs is that she does not write any of the text of her book at all, other than a few pages of foreword and afterword. All of the body text is just a quilt-work of block quotes from primary sources. The sources lay the setting; they fill in the blanks; they argue. They carry the reader fully immersed in the time period and we see the development of history through the sources' eyes.

It was so engrossing I could hardly put the book down.

And that's saying something, considering that her subject matter is a bit blah.

What is Cockerell's family history? Her father's mother's father, David Jochelmann, was a leading Zionist and then a leader of the movement to emigrate Jews to Galveston, Texas. He himself moved from Eastern Europe to London, made friends with assimilationists such as Israel Zangwill, had two marriages, and three children. Among those three children, one became an avant garde playwright in Greenwich Village and intermarried with a gentile actress who hailed from the South. His two daughters lived in London, raising seven children together with their husbands, all living like one family in their father's huge house. However, one of the daughters married an acolyte of Vladimir Jabotinsky, and the other married an English gentile, Hugh Cockerell. Eventually, the Zionist cousins moved to Israel, while the author's family assimilated into gentile English society, until the author was raised with little Jewish identity beyond the knowledge that her father's mother had been Jewish, and her great-grandfather had been a bit of a community activist.

The book's first section tells of Zionist history and the emergence of the Galveston Project. Cockerell's relatives are mentioned, but they seem like characters who mostly remain off stage. The text lays out themes that will matter for later, about the search for a homeland and the meaning of Jewish identity in the face of assimilation. Israel Zangwill, the Zionist who turns into an assimilationist, is an important character.

In the second section, the activities of Jochelmann's playwright son, Emjo Bassche, seems like a detour in the story. Still, it's an interesting read. And in this section, we start to hear the voices of Rachel Cockerell's elderly relatives in the text. What began as a patchwork of primary sources speaking begins to cede to oral history of the author's relatives.

The third section tells the story of Cockerell's father and grandmother. Here, we learn about how her family's Jewish beginnings blended out over the passing of two generations.

There's no question that Rachel Cockerell is the author of this narrative, even when none of the words are hers. The seams of the texts highlight certain themes and downplay others; she seems to present assimilation as one alternative to Zionism and emphasizes voices skeptical about Zionism from the 1940s. In these choices, which really do speak as matters of authorial discretion, we also hear her own subjectivity on the narrative, just like the characters in the text present their narratives with full human subjectivity.

One drawback of the book is that there are some subjects that the source material leaves mysterious, and without the author's direct voice, we don't get to explore these topics directly. The main character, great-grandfather David Jochelmann, becomes somewhat obscured, and we journey through the generation of him raising his children in a dissatisfyingly truncated manner.

That said, this is a story that I would have found forgettable, but when told in this narrative form, it was an incredible read. I loved it and would eagerly read another work of history told in this format.

[Harold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Melting Pot is a strange experimental book with some interesting thoughts and passages, but a weak core. Stylistically is it presented as a series of actual newspaper clips and quotes, perhaps sections of diaries and interviews, which move the narrative along without any prose from the author.. But they do so in fits and starts, sometimes repeating the same territory or slightly out of place, as though the author were making a quilt out of dish towels of various shapes and sizes. Even though it is a quilt it isn’t more interesting than the source material.

Add to that, or perhaps because of it, I am not sure what the book was about. It starts with an introduction to Israel Zangwill, an English and Jewish playwright, leader in the Zionist movement, but really in the movement to settle Jews from the Pale anywhere. Uganda (where the UK will give them land) and the north coast of Africa are considered. For a brief period, from 1909 to 1914 Jews were routed through Galveston Texas with the hope of finding a home in the Southwest and escaping the Progroms, at least until the Jews could have a state of their own.

The book then turns to an American playwright Emjo Basshe, who took up the cudgel then his daughter Emjo, nicknamed Jo, and became a family story of Jo and her English cousins, the author’s grandparents. Some of the passages from diaries and interviews with Jo sing. The prose is wonderful, but I was never sure why I was invited to this party which is clearly more interesting to the author than to me.

The cousins are of the two families living in the same building, one off whom emigrates to Israel just before its independence, and their are two chapters at the end which bookend the Zionist story are present quotes from Newspapers and Magazines and questioning the Jews treatment of the native Arab population.

The book ends with the establishment of the state of Israel, and this reader a bit confused as to what it was all about.

[Bonnie DeMoss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Melting Point explores recent Jewish history and the journey of the author’s family. It starts with the call for Israelites to return to their homeland, or create a new one, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It also includes the Russian persecution of Jews, the Holocaust, and the establishment of an Israeli state in 1948. Part One mostly focuses on the Galveston movement, when thousands of Jews emigrated to Galveston, Texas, between 1907 and 1914. The rest of the book follows Cockerell’s family in New York, London, and Israel.

This nonfiction book is epistolary--completely comprised of letters, articles, diaries, transcripts of recordings, and other source materials. This approach provides a multifaceted viewpoint made up of many different voices and opinions. The switch from Part One, which focuses on the search for a Jewish homeland and Galveston, to the rest of the book, which follows the author’s family and starts with their impact on the history of theater in New York, is a bit jarring at first, but enjoyable. Part Three follows Cockerell’s family in London, and their stories are easy to connect with. The split when part of the family moved to Israel, and the description of life there, is very well done.

I found Part One involving Galveston to be most intriguing, as I had not heard of that movement. The end of the book covers the founding of Israel on May 14, 1948, and the displacement of the Palestinians, but does not mention the war that started the very next day when five neighboring countries attacked, contributing to some of the displacement. While the quotes from articles are just snippets, there is information at the end of the book that will lead to the full article. Overall, this book is well-researched and uniquely presented. My rating is 3.5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book via The Historical Novel Society. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

[Rena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well. This was not what I expected. Because my father's parents ported through Galveston, I was immediately drawn to the purported subject of this book. But only a very small portion of the first third of the content was devoted to the plan to reroute immigrants from overcrowded New York to Galveston and then disperse the immigrants from there.

At first confused, and a bit bored, by what I thought was distraction from the main event, I then assessed the book's form, particularly its limitations. The edited tidbits from primary source materials have been stitched together in a way where the seams are raggedly evident. Lots of repetition, particularly in the early Herzl sections, and I started skimming. Where was Galveston?

Then suddenly, and all too briefly, we readers are pushed onto the boat to America. And before we are ready, we're off the boat and introduced to Rabbi Henry Cohen, who played a pivotal role in welcoming these strangers. With visceral first hand detail, I'm engaged, then dropped. I want to know these authors and the protagonists, follow them beyond the tidbit. I want to continue to care about them. But we're off to the next snippet, yes, cut and stitched together like a would-be tailor learning to sew.

Is this a narrative experiment? Yes. If you're up for that, you may enjoy this approach more than I did. I became more aware that the author was editing my experience in a way I didn't appreciate.

So the bulk of the content wasn't what I signed up for based on the publisher's description, and I grew impatient with the form. This wasn't the book for me. You may have a very different experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wildfire for the Advance Reader Copy.

[Eric Sondermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has been a long time since I have had such mixed feelings about a book.

I struggled through the first 30 or 40 pages as I tried to adapt to the lack of any narrative and the author’s total reliance on first-hand sources. In that way, this is more an anthology of news clippings, diary entries and correspondence than a classical book. Though in time, I got with the program and came to really admire this utterly experimental approach.

The entire first third of the book centers on the early days of the Zionist movement with Herzl one of the main, very compelling characters. I was engrossed and wanted more. Then the final few chapters took place in the late 1940s amidst the end of the British partition and the declaration of Israeli statehood. Again, fascinating, engaging stuff.

That latter section also contains an unexpected twist in which the author largely identifies with displaced Arabs and questions some of the tenets of the Zionist venture.

In between, and for the better part of half of the book, it turned far more into a family memoir with a lot more such detail than I needed. For me, it lost the essential thread.

This could have been a wonderful, gripping account of history from the early conferences in Basel, Switzerland to the ill-fated offer of a homeland in Uganda to the latter-day pogroms to the mass emigration from Eastern Europe to the aftermath of the Holocaust and the rush to Palestine. Or it could have been a rich and enchanting family history.

However, sadly, it seems the author couldn’t decide between these two objectives and the project got somewhat lost betwixt and between.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is quite an unusual book. Sometimes we talk about whether a book is linear or not. If I had to describe the trajectory of this book I might say it is like a bicycle spoke as it goes in different directions and then elsewhere. At any rate, it takes a commitment and you have to trust that there is a method to the madness.
First of all the format itself is unusual as it relies on quotes and passages from primary sources that the author has arranged to tell the story of a certain happening. And I suppose it IS linear in that it starts out sometime around the 1890s and brings us almost to present times. It is the story of the Jews, it is the story of Zionism, it is the story of Judaism, it is the story of one family and it is a story of connections. It's also a story of a certain theatre group and some famous authors. It takes us from Europe and then potentially to Africa. Antarctica is not unmentioned. And Galveston, Texas also has a moment in the sun.
It's an easy read in the sense that you get it in manageable bites. It's a difficult read in that you have to figure out all the connections and remember the names as you jump from place to place. Personally, I loved it and it is fresh and an eye opener. If you're Jewish, it's a must-read.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. It is truly engaging and memorable.

[Zibby Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a poignant family memoir that uncovers the overlooked chapters of Jewish history, specifically the Galveston Movement. At its heart is David Jochelmann, the author's great-grandfather, who persuaded shiploads of Russian Jews in 1907 to bypass the usual destinations of New York or Jerusalem in favor of Texas. Through journals, letters, and newspaper accounts, Rachel reconstructs this often-forgotten migration, tracing her family's journey across two world wars from London to New York and Jerusalem.

What emerges is not merely a record of ships and settlements but a powerful human drama centered on survival, reinvention, and the compromises that come with exile. The story delves deep into the tension of maintaining one's identity while adapting to new environments, a theme that resonates far beyond the Jewish experience.

This book left me reflecting on the choices we make to ensure our families safety, the legacies they leave behind, and the balance between belonging and adapting. It serves as a moving reminder that history is never just a thing of the past—it is something we always carry with us.

To listen to my interview with the author, go to my podcast at:
https://shows.acast.com/moms-dont-hav...

[W.S. Luk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collage of historical documents and interviews tells the story of Rachel Cockerell's family against the backdrop of the 20th-century Zionist movement. I was reminded of Q: A Voyage Around the Queen, which likewise employs a patchwork structure to examine a major historical epoch, but whereas Craig Brown mines this technique for often comedic effect, Cockerell uses it to explore splintered perspectives on topics ranging from Theodor Herzl's activism to American theatre of the 20s and 30s. While this will probably reflect my own ignorance more than anything else, I was also fascinated to learn about less-discussed episodes within the history of modern Zionism, particularly early proposals for a Jewish state in regions from Uganda to Australia, and contemporary criticisms of Israel's foundation and its effects on Palestinians. Against these sweeping topics, Cockerell's family interviews and the details they recount, such as the experience of Passover dinners during the Blitz, shine all the brighter, painting an unusual and compelling portrait about assimilation and identity.

[Book Club of One · Rating 4 out of 5]

What begins as a family history of immigration from Kyiv to London, expands into a history of the Zionist movement and its search for a Jewish state. Rachel Cockerell's Melting Point: Family, Memory and the Search for a Promise Land is about her great grandfather David Jochelmann but also several of the possible Jewish states such as British East Africa, Palestine or Galveston, Texas.

It is this latter location, Texas, that centers much of the book. Jochelmann was a key figure in encouraging the immigration of Russian Jews to Texas, moving them beyond the bastion of New York City. The narrative, drawn from interviews, archival and popular sources offers first person accounts of the Zionist movement, from major figures like Theodor Herzl and Israel Zangwill to her own family's memories.

An important work that explores the late 19th and early 20th century Jewish movement to establish a Jewish state in the face of pogroms, antisemitism and the question of how much to assimilate.

I listened to the book as an Audiobook, the introduction was read by the author, but the book was capably narrated by Henry Goodman.

Recommended to readers of Jewish History, the Zionist movement or immigrant life.


I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

The transition between act one and act two is jarring, and it's even more jarring between act two and three. But eventually it works: Cockrell removes herself from the story, but the sliding doors aspect is maintained without her needing to underline it much at all. Her identity as a Jewish woman in England, rather than a Jewish woman in the United States or Israel, allows her the distance from the other two places that helps to reveal the reasons behind Zionism and the contradictions that have led Zionism to its current problems. There's some funny, interesting, inspiring and heroic people in the beginning of the Zionist movement, and it's basically a tragedy that historical events got in the way of the U.S. becoming the promised land for Jews in the 20th century. It still is the promised land in so many ways, and the primary sources here from the early part of the century, in particular the story of Emjo Basshe, reveal how freedom of expression and freedom of and from religion in the U.S. could both doom the project of a particular Jewish identity and also save it. The current plan for saving a particular Jewish identity feels somewhat doomed, or that project is so destructive to so many other people that it should be doomed.

[Caren · Rating 4 out of 5]

The structure of this intriguing and inventive book was truly “radical in subject, radical in form” (Andrew Marr). In tracing the author’s own family’s history through the 20th century, Cockerell does not “tell” the story but rather allows those who were part of the history to share their perspectives with the reader. From 1907 her family members are part of the history of the Russian Jews who found themselves in America rather than in a land “promised” to the Jews by the Zionists like Herzl and Jabotinsky. Through letters, speeches, newspaper articles, and personal observations, the history of the Zionist movement – its success and its failure – is brought to life by the author to “capture history”. Most significantly, Cockerell presents the settlement of 10,000 Russian Jews in Galveston, Texas before WWI, a chapter in history almost forgotten.

I’d never read any historical account that was presented in such an “immediate” way and commend Cockerell for the brilliant research and the format in which it was presented. However, the latter section of the book, particularly reflecting glimpses of her family’s later life in New York City, did not maintain for me the brilliance of the earlier sections Nonetheless, the author’s achievement is highly significant.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating story, told in an innovative way. Cockerell builds almost 400 pages of narrative without a single authorial contribution - she constructs the tale, which ranges across multiple continents, countries and eras, entirely from secondary sources - in essence a vast and brilliant cut and paste creation.

I think the beauty of the book for me was her deep dive into the people and personalities that were crucial to the birth and realization of the Zionist dream, and her ability to transport you back to that time - to understand the pogroms, prejudices and events that led to the drive to find a homeland for a people that have been persecuted, murdered, and exiled for the past two thousand years. It was a history I’m embarrassed to have known so little about, beyond the broadest of strokes.

The middle section of the book felt a bit off message, and I’ll confess to not really understanding its need for inclusion. But, in the sense that this is a family history as much as a history of a people, it helps explore the confusing and uncertain world of assimilation and resistance.

All in all, a worthwhile story to spend a week with!