Journeys of Hope

Much is written these days about immigration but so little about emigration – leaving one’s homeland in search of a better life. The movements of Jewish people from east and central Europe to other parts of the world came to be a defining feature of the early and mid-20th century but the personal realities of these journeys is not widely known. Alison Marshall’s account of her own antecedents’ journeys across continents is clearly set within the treacherous political context of those times. Moving from place to place, adapting to find opportunities amidst unwelcoming conditions, and yet always maintaining contact with each other. It is her skilful weaving together of these personal stories, drawing on her mother’s astounding collection of hundreds of family letters written over decades, which is the genesis of this unique book. Why do people leave their ancestral homelands and journey to foreign countries? The reasons may be different for each person and in different times but the motivation is the same: hope. Even with heartbreaking disappointments and the drudgeries of poorly paid jobs along the way, the idea that there is a better place never leaves until the right place and conditions are found. And they are, in the most surprising of places, often with uplifting outcomes. In another book, each of these travellers, with their own passions, ambitions, and measures of success could be figures of fiction but here we are drawn back to their own letters. Read it to understand the complex political and cultural conditions of their time and find out what drove people to find a new place of security and fulfilment.

I am mainly a fiction book reader, particularly those that are historical in genre, about people and their lives. This book being non fiction therefore is not my usual choice of reading matter, but being a work of family history based on a collection of family letters and ephemera from the late nineteenth, early twentieth century, I was quickly engaged by the story of Meyer and Sonia, the author’s grandparents and the rest of her family. As the author unravels her family’s immigration journeys from the Pale of Settlement in Russia to South Africa, UK and the USA, we get a real insight into their hopes and fears, and the challenges of being an immigrant and refugee, which I found really engrossing. The book also cleverly weaves the author’s own personal journey through Eastern Europe, tracing her family roots against how more recent conflicts have obscured earlier history, giving detailed, well researched historical context whilst also drawing parallels with the modern day refugee crisis. This really helped me to further understand and have empathy with all involved . The book is further enhanced with photographs and endnotes should the reader wish to extend their reading. This was a very enjoyable, well written, interesting read . I recommend it to the wide audience of fiction readers of family stories as well as anyone interested in European and Jewish history and migration.