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JL;DR SUMMARY Melting Point, written by British Rachel Cockerell, presents a layered family history that delves into the randomness of Jewish existence in the 20th century, alongside the broader Jewish struggle for identity and place. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish IdentityZionismDiasporaCultural AssimilationAmerican DreamJewish MigrationIsrael ZangwillTerritorialismTheodore HerzlGalveston Plan

Places mentioned

San Francisco, California, United States
"To Jerusalem by Way of American Farms, an article by C. H. Abbott in The San Francisco Call on August 25, 1907."
Galveston, Texas, United States
"Instead, ITO would help them move to the southern and western states through the port of Galveston, Texas, a small coastal city best known for having been completely destroyed by a hurricane six years earlier."
New York, United States
"Instead of building a new country, Russian Jews should continue the mass migration to the US that had begun in 1881but not to New York, where they had been arriving in large numbers for twenty-five years."
Basel, Basel-Stadt, Switzerland
"After Herzls opening speech to the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897, one delegate was seized by an overpowering desire . . . to cry out, loudly, for all to hear: Yechi Ha-melech!"
Greenwich Village, New York, United States
"Melting Point, an innovative family history by the British writer Rachel Cockerell, tells a number of different storiesabout politics and literature; Greenwich Village and Galveston, Texas; big messy households and lonely orphans."
Jerusalem, Israel
"What is the glory of Rome and Jerusalem where all nations and races come to worship and look back, compared with the glory of America, where all races and nations come to labour and look forward! David cries."
London, England, United Kingdom
"The final section of Melting Point is closest to the book Cockerell originally envisioned: a family memoir focused on her grandmother, David Jochelmanns daughter Fanny... lived there together with their husbands and children in a state of chaos that was sometimes jolly."
Israel
"In 1950, Sonias husband, Yehuda, an ardent Zionist, took his wife and children to Israel, never to return."
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Cairo Item ID 57022
Cairo Source ID 11
Retrieved 2025-07-16 05:31:24 UTC
Curated 2025-07-16 08:32:55 UTC