Israel Zangwill

Israel Zangwill 1864-1926, English author, b. London. He became a journalist and founded Ariel, a humorous paper. Zangwill wrote Children of the Ghetto (1892), later dramatized and performed in England and America, and Dreamers of the Ghetto (1898), a series of biographical studies. His other well-known works are Merely Mary Ann (1893) and The Melting Pot (1914), both dramatized. A prominent Zionist (see Zionism ), he wrote The Principle of Nationalities (1917) and Chosen Peoples (1918). Uneven in value, Zangwill's novels attempt to portray modern Jewish life.

Bibliography: See biography by J. Leftwich (1957).

Zangwill, Israel (1864–1926), a noted Jewish spokesman, writer, and translator. The popular novel Children of the Ghetto (1892) established his reputation by its realistic and sympathetically critical portayal of London's poor Jews. Ghetto Tragedies (1899), Ghetto Comedies (1907), and The King of Schnorrers (1894), a jeu d'esprit, contain vignettes of Jewish life. The historical Dreamers of the Ghetto (1898) testifies both to Judaism's inner strength and to its role in civilization. The War for the World (1916) and The Voice of Jerusalem (1920) combine apologia with polemic. His plays are vehicles for ideas, notably The Melting Pot (1909), which coined the phrase.