An unpromised land

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 clamoured 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. Leon Gettler's 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.