Endorsements

Zionism at the Ends of the Earth provides a timely and rigorous history of a small but resilient Jewish community over more than a century. Dr Trotter’s impressive scholarship illuminates not only the extraordinary contribution Jews have made to New Zealand over this period, but also how the community is woven into the country’s history more generally.  The result is both absorbing and revelatory. 

Prof Paul Moon ONZM

This book is an outstanding contribution to Jewish studies and Zionism, including the Jewish diaspora internationally and in particular the local Jewish community in New Zealand. While historians have explored Zionism in major centres of Jewish life such as Britain, the United States and Poland, the focus here on New Zealand is highly original and pioneering. Based on her PhD thesis and drawing on previously untapped rich and extensive primary sources, Trotter provides a scholarly and highly accessible story of the introduction of Zionism to New Zealand, the engagement of its leaders with local communities through philanthropy, and tensions and changing relations and interactions over time from the late nineteenth century through to the mid-twentieth century. Always with an eye to the changing international situation, Trotter tells a compelling story of local significance, contributing to New Zealand’s social, political, gender, racial, war and imperial histories. It forms a major contribution to the understanding of New Zealand Aotearoa’s past and to the history of antisemitism.

Prof Linda Bryder