An Unpromised Land

by Leon Gettler

In the 1930s, in the wake of the Nazi ascendancy in Germany, a wave of vicious anti-Semitism swept Europe, as Jews became outcasts in their own lands. As they clamored to escape persecution, the world turned a blind eye to their plight. One man, Isaac Steinberg, had a vision of leading his people from the holocaust to a new paradise on the other side of the world. His enthusiastic and resolute efforts to realise his vision left large cracks in the smug Anglo-centrism that guarded his unpromised land. This lively account of the little-known Kimberley Jewish settlement scheme provides a fascinating insight into a series of events that came very close to changing the course of Australian history.

174 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1993

Reviews

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really recommend this book (it's also available on Audible being read by Leon; he has a lovely Australian-without-being-Ocker voice). I thought I knew the story, which is wonderfully quirky enough in its own right (a proposed Jewish settlement in northern WA in the 1930s), but it also paints a depressingly familiar and not particularly flattering picture of the established Australian Jewish community at the time.

I have often bemoaned the anti-refugee attitudes expressed by so many in our community who are, of course, descended from refugees. But how well-known is it that many pillars of the established Jewish community (you will recognise the names) resisted attempts in the 1930s to settle large numbers of Jewish refugees within Australia?

It is more than likely that this proposed settlement would never have come off, even with the support of the local Jewish community, but it leaves a very bad taste in the mouth that at a time when Jews were being persecuted and murdered in Europe and when Christian church leaders, successful businesses and the WA Government were arguing that Australia had a moral duty and plenty to gain by accepting Jewish refugees, that the established Jewish community lobbied against the scheme.

As a talented journalist, Leon has the skills to synthesise and tell a compelling story that could easily have languished as an obscure academic historic paper.