The Melting Pot

Israel Zangwill (14 February 1864[1] – 1 August 1926; birth date sometimes given as 21 January 1864) was a British author at the forefront of cultural Zionism during the 19th century, and was a close associate of Theodor Herzl. He later rejected the search for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and became the prime thinker behind the territorial movement.

Zangwill was born in Whitechapel, London on 21 January 1864, in a family of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire.[2] His father, Moses Zangwill, was from what is now Latvia, and his mother, Ellen Hannah Marks Zangwill, was from what is now Poland. He dedicated his life to championing the cause of people he considered oppressed, becoming involved with topics such as Jewish emancipation, Jewish assimilation, territorialism, Zionism, and women’s suffrage. His brother was novelist Louis Zangwill.