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.