Highlights from Melbourne Jewish Book Week

From a German-Jewish family spanning more than 300 years, to the little-known proposal for a Jewish homeland in Texas, to a contemporary pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago, this conversation explores journeys of displacement, resilience and self-discovery. Drawing on family archives, historical research and personal experience, the panel examines how migration shapes identity, how communities preserve memory across generations, and what the search for belonging can teach us about Jewish life, past and present.

On June 7th 1907, a ship packed with Russian Jews sets sail not to Jerusalem or New York, but to Galveston, Texas. In a highly inventive style, Rachel Cockerell uses exclusively source material to capture history as it unfolds. 'Melting Point' follows her great-grandfather David Jochelmann’s family through two world wars, to London, New York and Jerusalem - as their lives intertwine with some of the most memorable figures of the twentieth century. It is a story that asks what it means to belong, and what can be salvaged from the past. Michael Visontay, Commissioning Editor of 'The Jewish Independent', leads a captivating conversation with London-based historian and author Rachel Cockerell.

For almost 20 years, Hamas has ruled Gaza and prepared for a battle that it knew it could not win. As Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib writes in his Jewish Quarterly essay, their path to victory has rested on sacrificing the lives and livelihoods of over 2.2 million Gazans. Ahmed is a Palestinian American humanitarian activist and blogger. In this live Zoom event, he is in conversation with Kylie Moore-Gilbert, renowned Middle East expert, author, academic and former hostage of the Iranian regime.