Four Lives in One?: (The Story of a Welsh Jew's migration to Australia)

By Dan Bloom

Post World War 2 Wales; High unemployment, declining industries and general poverty were driving migration both to other parts of Britain and overseas. Jews in Wales, like the Blooms, Zemlas, Cohens and Lyons were excluded from many jobs and professions and had since the 1850s become among other things, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, greengrocers, watchmakers and jewelers, all of which were under pressure throughout the 1950s. Family connections in Europe, America and elsewhere spoke of a 'new life' with plenty of opportunity to break away from depressing, grey Britain to somewhere where the grass was greener. By nature Jews in any part of Old Europe were ready and prepared for migration whether forced or by choice - this was the legacy the communities inherited and now that Israel had been reestablished there was a new place of promise to tempt them. The various branches of my family of Cardiff and South Wales were all either direct or indirect immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Old Europe and they brought with them the same fears, paranoia and sense of victim-hood their ancestors had lived with for hundreds of years under the yoke of church domination of one sort or another. There were those that followed the old ways via Judaism in its many forms, there were Socialists that rejected Judaism and idealistic Zionists that rejected it all. To me growing up in that environment I managed to absorb bits and pieces of each of these. Zionism (a socialist, secular movement to re-create the national home of the Jews in Palestine) was a bright light exposing much of the parochialism and dark introspection of post World War 2 British and European Jewry. While many of us as youngsters were captivated by the Zionist ideal many of the adults saw kibbutz life and nation building as beyond their capabilities and skills - few knew anything about farming or agriculture - areas forbidden to Jews in many parts of Europe. So instead of fulfilling the Zionist dream recounted at Passover Seders for almost two thousand years as "Next Year in Jerusalem" many chose to head to Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada. My Mother chose Australia.I chose the title of this book based on my perception that I've lived what now, looking back, appears to be almost four distinct lives at the end of which I died and then was reborn into something totally new... This is a book I've struggled to write dealing with some turbulent emotions along the way. Its taken ten years on and off and has led to many a tear - the very definition of catharsis.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1976866650
• ISBN13: 9781976866654
• Release Date: January 2018
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 0.61 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.0"