Israel Zangwill

Israel Zangwill
(1864–1926)

ANECDOTE 1...

Andrew Lang wrote to inquire of his friend Israel Zangwill whether he planned to attend a certain event. The reply came back: "If you, Lang, will, I. Zangwill.

ANECDOTE 2...

Zangwill was watching a tedious Sardou melodrama. Halfway through he remarked, "My leg is the only sensible part of my body; it has gone to sleep."


BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE...

British novelist and playwright of Jewish parentage. He depicted Jewish life in a series of novels, beginning with the highly successful "The Children of The Ghetto" (1892). In successive years he published "Ghetto Tragedies" and "The King of Schnorrers." Zangwill had been a leading member of the Order of Ancient Maccabeans, a Zionist society established in 1891. When the leader of the Zionist movement, Theodor Herzl visited London in 1896, he met with Zangwill to discuss Zionist plans. Zangwill attended the First Zionist Congress and additional congresses thereafter. He supported Herzl's Uganda plan and following its rejection, led the Territorialists out of the Zionist organization in 1905. He established the Jewish Territorialists Organization (ITO) whose object was to acquire a Jewish homeland where possible. Following the securing of the Balfour declaration, the ITO fell into decline and by 1925 it was officially dissolved. Zangwill supported Zionist efforts in Eretz-Israel calling for a radical approach both as regards the demand for the early establishment of a Jewish State and the solution of the Arab question. As regards the latter he called for the transfer of Arabs from Eretz-Israel to neighbouring Arab states.