Utopian colonial settlers: dreaming of Jewish colonies in Northern and Western Australia

Abstract

ABSTRACTDuring the 1930s, the Freeland League for Jewish Territorial Colonisation was searching for a ‘new’ home for the persecuted Jews of Europe. The League’s secretary, Dr Isaac Steinberg, favoured Australia, particularly a parcel of land in the Kimberley region of Western and Northern Australia. But his proposal had unexpected and potentially destructive implications, both for its European advocates and Australian communities who were dealing with their own experiences of displacement. This article will scrutinise the proposed humanitarian Jewish settlement project and its challenges from a variety of perspectives and compare it to an analogous scheme put forward by Melekh Ravitch.