Rachel Cockerell talks to Matthew Stadlen

Author Rachel Cockerell illuminates the forgotten moment when 10,000 Jews fled from Russia to Texas before World War I led by Cockerell’s great-grandfather, David Jochelmann.

It was known as the Galveston movement. The founder was Jochelmann’s closest friend, Israel Zangwill, once the most famous Jewish novelist in the world, who coined the term ‘melting pot’ to describe America. The movement was part of a wider search for an alternative Jewish homeland, which looked beyond Palestine to Australia, Canada, Mexico, Libya, Iraq and Angola, possibilities that seem slightly surreal in hindsight, but all came close to happening. Cockerell follows the journey of Zangwill and the Jochelmann family through two world wars, to Kyiv, London, New York and Jerusalem, as each chooses whether to cling to their history or melt into their new surroundings.

Cockerell was born and raised in London. Melting Pot is her first book and her research took her to Texas, Ohio, New York, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Here she talks to broadcaster and author Matthew Stadlen.

Part of the festival’s programme of Jewish and Hebrew literature and culture supported by private donors and trusts.