Book Review: "Melting Point: Family, Memory and the Search for a Promised Land" by Rachel Cockerell
US Publication Date May 2025
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.