Israel Zangwill
Israel Zangwill (1864-1926) was a notable Jewish author and leader, born in London to Russian Jewish parents who had fled persecution. A dedicated student, he graduated with honors from London University after teaching at the Jews' Free School to support his education. Zangwill gained critical acclaim for his novel "Children of the Ghetto," which not only highlighted Jewish life but also played a role in combating anti-Jewish legislation in England. He authored several other works focused on Jewish themes, including "The Master" and "Dreamers of the Ghetto," which explored the lives of significant Jewish thinkers. Despite his literary success, Zangwill aspired to be a prominent dramatist, producing plays such as "Merely Mary Ann" and "The Melting-Pot," the latter popularizing the concept of America as a melting pot of cultures. His contributions also include "The Big Bow Mystery," regarded as an early example of the locked-room detective genre. Zangwill's work had a lasting impact on Jewish culture and the discourse surrounding immigration and identity in the early 20th century.
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Israel Zangwill
English novelist
- Born: February 14, 1864
- Birthplace: London, England
- Died: August 1, 1926
- Place of death: Midhurst, West Sussex, England
Identity: Jewish
Biography
Israel Zangwill, born in London on February 14, 1864, was one of the outstanding Jewish authors and leaders of his time. His family, Russian Jews, had fled Russia and settled in England before his birth. A graduate of the Jews’ Free School in London, he remained at the school as a teacher in order to finance his studies at London University, which he attended at the same time he was teaching. Despite the rigor of this dual program, Zangwill graduated from the university with highest honors. After graduation he left teaching for a career in journalism. He founded and edited Ariel, the London Puck, and he wrote for various other London periodicals.
His critical fame began with the publication of Children of the Ghetto, the first of his novels of Jewish life. At the time the novel attracted considerable attention largely because of its subject matter, and Zangwill has been credited with the prevention of anti-Jewish legislation by Parliament through its publication. Other novels about Jewish people followed, including The Master and The Mantle of Elijah. Dreamers of the Ghetto is a series of essays on such notable Jewish thinkers and leaders as Baruch Spinoza, Heinrich Heine, and Benjamin Disraeli.
Although he won fame as—and will probably be remembered as—a novelist interpreting Jews and Jewish life, Zangwill wished to excel as a dramatist rather than as a writer of fiction. Some of his most popular plays were dramatizations of his fiction that had been published earlier, such as Merely Mary Ann, his most popular comedy, and Children of the Ghetto. Zangwill’s plays were produced in Jewish communities everywhere, in both Yiddish and English, and he tried for more than a decade to be the great dramatist of the Yiddish theater. Later critics have not been kind to his plays, and even the dramatist admitted that they were less successful artistically than they were popular. In addition to being a writer, Zangwill was an influential Jewish leader and a popular lecturer whose work in the cause of twentieth century Zionism was of considerable historical importance.
Zangwill is also remembered for two other reasons. First, his detective novel, a police procedural titled The Big Bow Mystery, is considered the first full-length treatment of the “locked room” type of story (in which a murder victim is discovered in a room that it seems impossible for the perpetrator to have entered) in detective literature. Second, his play The Melting-Pot popularized the notion of the United States as a crucible, or melting pot, in which the new identity of “real Americans” would emerge from the combination of many European immigrant cultures. Its optimistic, romanticized view of the melting away of differences and hatreds was appreciated by many, including President Theodore Roosevelt, who reportedly declared, “That’s a great play, Mr. Zangwill,” after its Broadway opening.
Bibliography
Adams, Elsie Bonita. Israel Zangwill. New York: Twayne, 1971. Along with a thorough critical analysis of Zangwill’s literary works, Adams provides a brief biography, a chronology, and an annotated bibliography.
Gilman, Sander L. Multiculturalism and the Jews. New York: Routledge, 2006. Study of the representation of Jewish identity and multiculturalism in literature by a preeminent scholar; includes a chapter on Zangwill’s notion of the “melting pot.”
Kahn-Paycha, Danièle. Popular Jewish Literature and Its Role in the Making of an Identity. Lewiston, N.Y.: E. Mellen Press, 2000. Zangwill and Philip Roth are the two major subjects of this study.
Roth, Laurence. Inspecting Jews: American Jewish Detective Stories. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2004. Detailed examination of the figure of the Jewish American detective and of the Jewish American authors who write about him.
Udelson, Joseph H. Dreamer of the Ghetto: The Life and Works of Israel Zangwill. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1990. Udelson views Zangwill’s works as a series of meditations on the nature of Jewish identity. He analyzes the contradictory positions Zangwill entertained from time to time.
Wohlgelernter, Maurice. Israel Zangwill: A Study. New York: Columbia University Press, 1964. Concentrates on Zangwill’s ideas regarding Zionism and religion, as well as art and politics. One chapter analyses the concept of ethnic amalgamation expressed in The Melting-Pot, along with reactions to the play.