History, Politics & Society
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Fascinating family history. A fascinating study of a Jewish family emigrating from the Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire and becoming dispersed across the United Kingdom, United States and South Africa, loosing contact while striving to remain in touch. This multigenerational family history is based on family letters. The story is interwoven with the author's own journeys and research to discover more of her family's history.
An interesting and enlightening read. This book gave me a great insight into how immigration affected the lives of three generations of people. The author weaves the history of her own life and travels, into the lives of her parents, grandparents and great grandparents. She manages to show how her family history is relevant to the current day. I found it enlightening and interesting and can recommend it to anyone who wants to develop their knowledge of the journeys of Jewish immigrants over the last century. I emigrated to France from choice 13 years ago and understand some of the challenges of starting again in another country, but it is difficult to imagine how hard this is for those who have been forced to move due to circumstances beyond their control - so many of them separated from their families. I am in awe of their strength and adaptability.
A moving, family history of migration across continents This penetrating, heartfelt story by Alison Marshall of her close-knit family’s migration from the Pale of Settlement in Russia to the USA, South Africa and the UK is an insight into the complex reasons why people decide to leave one country for another. It explains why her Jewish family were either forced or chose to migrate and describes the challenges they met along the way. Her grandfather, Meyer Fortes, left an impoverished background in South Africa to take up a scholarship at the London School of Economics. His letters trace his relationship with his betrothed, Sonia Donen, a young teacher who can only join him some years later to begin their married life together. Their correspondence is feisty, on her part, as she is giving up a lot to join him, and ardent, anguished and hopeful on his. Along the way Alison describes her own fascinating journey as she returns to the birthplaces of her relatives in the former Russian territories of Ukraine, Estonia, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania. She reflects on how their lives must have been in the early part of the 20th century and how little evidence remains of those Jewish settlements today. This story of migration is as relevant today as it was over a hundred years ago when the Fortes family set out on their journeys. Alison's book is in part family memoir, part travelogue and part cultural history reflecting the political changes that have occurred in Eastern Europe up to the present time. It is a great read.
Meticulous analysis of a family archive of letters underpins this engaging work. It is a thought-provoking read that personalises the experience of 19th and 20th century immigrants and powerfully connects historical events to contemporary issues.
Fascinating and readable combination of family history and personal journey Very readable An account of the physical, emotional and literally journey resulting from reading family letters
Meyer Fortes and Sonia Donen grew up in a Jewish immigrant community in South Africa, where they met and fell in love. In 1927, Meyer set off, alone, to study in London. Sonia stayed behind in South Africa and they kept up a lively correspondence to keep in touch. Their letters chart their hopes, fears, disappointments and successes, as Meyer struggles to make a life for himself in London and prepare for Sonia’s arrival.
Members of both their families had undergone their own journeys, fleeing from danger in the Jewish Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire. Meyer’s father, Nathan, had first emigrated to Memphis, Tennessee and spent a period of time in Leeds, UK. Meyer’s half-sister, Annie, had recently travelled back to Memphis, having been briefly incarcerated on Ellis Island, USA, and was temporarily separated from her husband. Sonia, herself, had been a refugee from the Russian Civil War that followed the 1917 Russian Revolution.
The letters offer unique insights into universal challenges, chiming with current affairs and prompting a journey of discovery through eastern Europe. Few traces now remain of this important period of history, overlaid by more immediate, recent conflicts. Some of the contemporary citizens, descendants of those who stayed, are now facing similar challenges to the families who feature in the letters.
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