Melting Point by Rachel Cockerell review – witnesses to history

An ingenious and idiosyncratic book about the search for a Jewish homeland that blends high politics and family memoir

Theodor Herzl, an editor and journalist from Vienna, was beautiful, with the handsome beard and majestic bearing of “one of the ancient Assyrian kings”. Israel Zangwill, from Kilburn, was variously described by contemporaries as “the homeliest man I ever saw” and “one of the worst-dressed men in London”. His novels were bestsellers, but he was so clumsy that when his arrival at a meeting was heralded by a clatter out in the hallway, one of those waiting for him exclaimed: “Israel must be coming. Something’s falling downstairs.”

When Herzl first presented himself at Zangwill’s home in 1895, saying: “Help me to rebuild the Jewish state,” the two of them had no fluent language in common. “I don’t even know whether he understands me,” wrote Herzl. No matter. Their rapport was immediate and lasting, and together they established the Zionist movement. Later, after Herzl died in 1904, Zangwill became leader of ITO – the “territorial” branch of the movement that sought to find an interim Jewish homeland while Palestine remained unattainable.