Rachel Cockerell joins historian Trudy Gold to reveal the astonishing attempt by 10,000 Eastern European Jews in the early 1900s to found a Jewish State in Texas, including her great-grandfather.

‘If we cannot get the Holy Land, we can make another land holy’ Israel Zangwill, 1906

Rachel Cockerell joins historian Trudy Gold to reveal the astonishing moment when 10,000 Russian Jews fled to Texas before WWI – led by Cockerell’s great-grandfather, and the novelist Israel Zangwill. It was part of a search for an alternative Jewish homeland, from Australia to Angola to Antarctica, when Palestine seemed unattainable in the early 1900s. Melting Point – which Jonathan Freedland calls ‘unforgettable’ and Andrew Marr calls ‘truly radical’ – follows Cockerell’s family to Kyiv, Texas, New York, London and Jerusalem, as each chooses to cling to their history or melt into the melting pot.

Buy a copy of Melting Pot by Rachel Cockerell from Blackwells.

This event will last approximately 1 hour, without an interval.

About the speakers:

Rachel Cockerell was born and raised in London, the sixth of seven children. She did her BA at the Courtauld Institute and her MA at City University. She is currently writing her first non-fiction book. Her research has taken her to Texas, Ohio, New York, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Trudy Gold is the former C.E.O of the London Jewish Cultural Centre, and one of the founder members of the British delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. She has taught Modern Jewish History in schools and universities and for adult groups throughout the World. She has coordinated teacher training in Jewish History and Holocaust Studies in Eastern Europe and latterly in China. She is the author of The Timechart History of Jewish Civilisation and the student resources Understanding the Holocaust and the digital resource Lessons of the Holocaust.