"One of The Washington Post's Top 10 Books of the Year
\nA New Yorker Essential Read
\nLong-listed for t he 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction
\n"Melting Point is on e of the most original\, enjoyable\, and profound books I've ever read. It is a great work of art." --JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER
\nThis dazzling\, i nnovative family memoir tells the story of a long-lost plan to create a Je wish state in Texas.
\nOn June 7\, 1907\, a ship packed with Russian Jews set sail for a promised land: not Jerusalem or New York\, as many on board had dreamed\, but Texas. This was the beginning of the Galveston Pl an\, a forgotten episode in US history in which ten thousand Jews fled the persecution and brutality of the Russian Empire for the Gulf Coast.
\nIn the wake of a dramatic split in the early Zionist movement\, a group of rebels impatient for an alternative to Palestine formed a rival organi zation. Their motto: "If we cannot get the Holy Land\, we can make another land holy." Led in their search for a temporary homeland by the renowned novelist Israel Zangwill and by Rachel Cockerell's great-grandfather\, Dav id Jochelmann\, they scoured the Earth before reluctantly settling on Galv eston. Zangwill feared the Jewish identity would be lost in the great Amer ican melting pot\, but he saw no other hope.
\nIn Melting Point\, Co ckerell weaves together diaries\, letters\, newspaper articles\, and inter views in a highly inventive style. Constructed entirely of primary sources \, with one flowing into the next\, the book lets long-dead voices reanima te\, jostle for space\, and converge to tell their stories with a novelist ic vividness and detail. We follow Zangwill and the Jochelmann family thro ugh two world wars and to London\, New York\, and Jerusalem as their lives intertwine with those of memorable figures of the twentieth century--Theo dore Roosevelt\, Winston Churchill\, Ernest Hemingway\, and more. Melting Point asks what it means to belong\, what can be salvaged from the obscure d past\, and whether a promised land can ever live up to its promises." - MCPL Catalog
\nJoin our friendly book group! Each month we read eith er a non-fiction (first Wednesday at 3:30) or fiction (third Wednesday at 3:30) selection. Titles are announced a month before\,and copies are avail able at the Circulaiton Desk. Discussion questions are provided with the s election.
\nWant to read more non-fiction? \;Enjoy other non-fiction titles in our MCPL catalog. \;
\nQuestions about this program? \;Contact Che vy Chase Library at: 240-773-9590
\nLooking for more fun things \;to do at MCPL? \;
\nCheck out the library's website to see what you can do with a library card. Don't have a card right now? \; No worries! \; Find out how to \;Get a Library Card.
\n\n
Accommodation Requests
\nPeople who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing should request \;< strong>English-language captioning or sign-language interpretation \;at least five days before the library-sponsored program they plan to attend. Contact the Assistant Facilities and Accessibility Pr ogram Manager at 240-777-0002 with all other accommodation requests.
\n \nhttps://mcpl.libnet.info/event/17826624 URL;VALUE=URI:https://mcpl.libnet.info/event/17826624 ATTACH:https://static.libnet.info/images/events/mcpl/0lectures-and-discuss ions_1_.png END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR