Israel Zangwill and Children of the Ghetto.

Israel Zangwill and Children of the Ghetto. WHEN ISRAEL ZANGWILL'S CHILDREN OF THE GHETTO first appearedin 1892, it created a sensation on two continents and established itsauthor as the preeminent literary voice of Anglo-Jewry. A novel set inthe late nineteenth century, Children of the Ghetto gave readers aninside look into an immigrant community that was nearly as mysterious tomore established, middleclass Jews as it was to the non-Jewishpopulation of Britain; at the same time, it provided a compellinganalysis of the generation caught between the ghetto and modem Britishlife. In a period that saw the development of the working-class noveland the novel of spiritual malaise, Children of the Ghetto encompassedboth. The first half, "Children of the Ghetto," [1] conveyedthe details of poverty without the brutality of, for example, GeorgeGissing's The Nether World neth��er��worldalso nether world ?n.1. The world of the dead.2. The part of society engaged in crime and vice: "In this black-white nether world, nobody judged the customers"(1889). "Grandchildren of theGhetto," the second half, explored a spiritual crisis among youngJews at a time when novels such as Mary Arnold Mary Arnold Prentiss was an amateur American tennis player of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.She was ranked in the U.S. Top 10 every year between 1939 and 1947. Her highest ranking came in 1942 and 1944 when she was ranked No. 5 in both years. (Mrs. Humphry)Ward's Robert Elsmere (188 8) examined its Christian counterpart.For middle-class Jewish readers, Children of the Ghetto's secondhalf would have held the appeal of contemporary realism, satire, orcontroversy. For those who had started out in the East End themselves,the nostalgia of the first part would have had its own attraction. Thusthere were many reasons why, in its British edition, Children of theGhetto became "the first Anglo-Jewish best-seller." [2] As thefirst work of fiction published by the new Jewish Publication Society ofAmerica, [3] Children of the Ghetto was once again a success and, evenmore than in England, a source of controversy. The novel's popular success was aided by highly favorablereviews upon its publication in both Britain and America. Jewish criticstended to be more charitable to Zangwill on issues of artistic form,although they sometimes expressed concern as to how his characters mightreflect on the larger group; correspondingly, non-Jewish reviewersoccasionally revealed their prejudices. However, despite differences inemphasis and tone, disagreements on the artistic merits did not dividestrictly along either religious or national lines. Most reviewersapplauded the picturesque and sentimental scenes of the first volume andsaw them (whether they knew the ghetto or not) as convincinglyrealistic. That the novel was a "panopticon Pa`nop´ti`conn. 1. A prison so contructed that the inspector can see each of the prisoners at all times, without being seen.2. A room for the exhibition of novelties.Noun 1. of Ghetto scenes andcharacters" or even a "bundle of loosely connectedsketches" was to some critics a unique virtue rather than aweakness of structure. [4] Others felt that "in many portions ofChildren of the Ghetto the wood of narrative is hidden by the leafage ofinformation," and "[t]he multitude of characters is at timesso confusing that one loses the thread of the narrative--which at bestis but thin." [5] Often such judgments were the criticalaccompaniment to an ultimately positive assessment: the Athenceum'sreviewer faulted Zangwill for "a want of care in putting the storytogether," but found "truly admirable" the"vividness and force with which [he] brings before us the strangeand uncouth characters with which he has peopled his book." [6]Israel Abrahams Israel Abrahams (b. London, November 26 1858; d. Cambridge, October 6 1925) was one of the most distinguished Jewish scholars of his generation. He wrote a number of classics on Judaism, most notably, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (1896). , in the Jewish Chronicle, praised Zangwill for fillinghis "gigantic canvass" with a "profusion only equalled byDickens"; [7] here the difference in tone between Jewish and otherreviewers is apparent. Critics in the general press (as well as thenon-Jewish writer for the Jewish Quarterly) were nearly unanimous infinding the second half of the novel less compell ing than the first.But in one way or another, most reviewers agreed with the Speaker'sassessment that this was "a remarkable book." [8] However,changing critical standards [9] (perhaps coupled with Zangwill'sincreasingly controversial position in Jewish politics) led to a steepdecline in its reputation until the book became virtually unknown. Thatis unfortunate, because Children of the Ghetto remains an important bookin both Jewish and English literary history. Israel Zangwill was born on January 21, 1864, in Ebenezer Square inLondon's East End. His family had lived in the provinces before hisbirth, and they soon left the metropolis, so that Zangwill spent hisearly childhood in Plymouth and then Bristol, returning to Whitechapelwhen he was eight years old. [10] But although Zangwill himself was notof the 1880 immigrant generation he describes in Children of the Ghetto,he experienced in many ways the East End life of his novel'simmigrant children. [11] Moses Zangwill, Israel's father, supportedhislarge family [12] as a traveling peddler peddleror hawker,itinerant vendor of small goods. In rural America peddlers carried their packs or drove a horse and cart from door to door. and has been regarded as theprototype of Moses Ansell in the novel. As a student and then apupil-teacher in the Jews' Free School Jews' Free School (also known as JFS) is a Jewish secondary school in Kingsbury, north London. It presently accepts both male and female students. At one time it had over 4,000 students attending and was known as "the largest school in the world. in Bell Lane, IsraelZangwill obtained and then supervised the Anglo-Jewish educationprovided for East End youth that forms a background to the lives ofEsther Ansell and her siblings. And as the child of immigrants fromLatvia and Poland living in the provinces, Zangwill could not avoidfacing issues of identity formation in a society that urgedacculturation acculturation,culture changes resulting from contact among various societies over time. Contact may have distinct results, such as the borrowing of certain traits by one culture from another, or the relative fusion of separate cultures. , particularly since--with a pious, traditional father anda less devout, independent-minded mother--the conflicts such issuesgenerated were made vivid in his own home. [13] Zangwill's biography is even more relevant to the inner andvocal debates of the young, middle-class Jews in the second half of thenovel. Like the "grandchildren of the ghetto," and like thedescendants of many Jewish immigrants to Western Europe Western EuropeThe countries of western Europe, especially those that are allied with the United States and Canada in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (established 1949 and usually known as NATO). and Americathroughout the twentieth century, Zangwill sought to define a meaningfulidentity that was both modern and Jewish. After winning the firstRothschild prize for scholastic achievement at the Jews' FreeSchool, he received his degree with triple honors from the University ofLondon For most practical purposes, ranging from admission of students to negotiating funding from the government, the 19 constituent colleges are treated as individual universities. Within the university federation they are known as Recognised Bodies in 1884. In the early 1890s, he was an avid theatergoer and ahabitue ha��bit��u����?n.One who frequents a particular place, especially a place offering a specific pleasurable activity.[French, from past participle of habituer, to accustom, frequent of the Playgoer's Club, whose presidency he assumed in1904. The conflicts, concerns, and questionings of characters such asEsther Ansell and Sidney Graham--even of Raphael Leon and JosephStrelitski--must have been a part of Zangwill's own experience as anonobservant non��ob��ser��vance?n.Failure or refusal to observe, as a religious custom or holiday.nonob��ser Jew, well integrated into English cultural circles, who yetinsisted professionally and personally on being recognized as Jewish. By September 1890, when Zangwill met in London with Judge MayerSulzberger, chair of the publications committee of the JewishPublication Society of America, to discuss the writing of Children ofthe Ghetto, he was already well known as a humorist hu��mor��ist?n.1. A person with a good sense of humor.2. A performer or writer of humorous material.humoristNouna person who speaks or writes in a humorous way , a journalist, and awriter of fiction. As subeditor subeditorNouna person who checks and edits text for a newspaper or other publicationNoun 1. subeditor - an assistant editor of the Jewish Standard The Jewish Standard is a newspaper based in Teaneck, New Jersey, USA, that serves the Jewish community in Bergen County. The Jewish Standard was founded in 1931 and is the oldest Jewish weekly in New Jersey. , Zangwill wroteleaders (editorials) and contributed a weekly column, "Morour andCharouseth," whose satiric commentary and verse were aimed at itsmiddle-class Jewish readership. Many of those same readers would havefollowed with interest his comic newspaper, Ariel modeled on Punch. Theymight also have read his 1888 political novel, The Premier and thePainter, written in collaboration with Louis Cowen under the pseudonym pseudonym(s`dənĭm)[Gr.,=false name], name assumed, particularly by writers, to conceal identity. A writer's pseudonym is also referred to as a nom de plume (pen name). "J. Freeman Bell," a name that evoked their common connectionto the Jews' Free School on Bell Lane, although the book itself wasnot Jewish in content. The novel, of which Zangwill wrote by far thelarger part, was not a great seller at first; perhaps because of the success of Children of the Ghetto and other subsequent fiction, itwentinto several editions by 1899. Formally less effective than Children ofthe Ghetto, The Premier and the Painter shares with it both a satiricemphasis and an interest in East End working-class life. SpecificallyJewish fiction appeared in an early privately published story, MotsoKleis (1882), and in Zangwill's pseudonymous Refers to a pseudonym, which is a fictitious name or alias. Pronounced "soo-don-a-miss." Contrast with anonymous, which means nameless. contributions to TheJewish Calendar Jewish calendarn.The lunisolar calendar used to mark the events of the Jewish year, dating the creation of the world at 3761 b.c.See Table at calendar.Noun 1. , Manual, and Diary: "Under Sentence ofMarriage" (1888), a romantic comedy about middle-class Jews in aprovincial town; "Satan Mekatrig" (1889), a ghetto story witha folkloric, supernatural element; and "Diary of a Meshumad"(1890), the analysis of an apostate's inner conflicts and ultimateloyalty. The subjects and methods of these early tales find echoes inChildren of the Ghetto. In the decade after the novel's success, Zangwill continued toexplore its themes in collections of short fiction: GhettoTragedies(1893; reissued and expanded in 1899: both editions reprinted"Satan Mekatrig" and "Diary of a Meshumad"); TheKing of Schnorrers: Grotesques and Fantasies (1894); Dreamers of theGhetto (1898; a series of fictionalized biographies, rather than shortstories); and Ghetto Comedies (1907). All of these collections, likeChildren of the Ghetto, were eventually published in both Britain andthe United States United States,officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . What is especially significant is that virtually allthe short works collected in these volumes appeared first ingeneral-interest periodicals, not specifically Jewish ones. AlthoughZangwill's greatest distinction and his greatest contribution toEnglish letters came in his fiction on the Jewish experience, Zangwillinsistently refused "to shut myself up in the ghetto" as anauthor. [14] Indeed, while writing Children of the Ghetto, Zangwill wasat work on The Old Maids' Club ( 1892; a collection of silly andsatiric 1890s New Humour), The Big Bow Mystery (1892; a detectivestory detective story:see mystery. detective storyType of popular literature dealing with the step-by-step investigation and solution of a crime, usually murder. ), his weekly comic Weekly Comic (漫画周刊) is a manga magazine based in Malaysia that serializes many of Japan's current popular manga. About Weekly ComicThe Weekly Comic Magazine is published every Saturday in both east and west of Malaysia. periodical Ariel, and considerable otherwriting not specifically Jewish in content. [15] Even after Children ofthe Ghetto appeared, periodic short stories in the Idler continuedZangwill's New Humour trend. His 1895 novel, The Master, a study ofthe artistic, spiritual, and economic travails of a Nova Scotian No��va Sco��tia? Abbr. NS or N.S.A province of eastern Canada comprising a mainland peninsula and the adjacent Cape Breton Island. It joined the confederation in 1867. painterin Paris, delineated the milieu of 1890s bohemia and contributed to thenineties' debate on aestheticism AestheticismLate 19th-century European arts movement that centred on the doctrine that art exists for the sake of its beauty alone. It began in reaction to prevailing utilitarian social philosophies and to the perceived ugliness and philistinism of the industrial age. versus realism. Although farremoved in subject from the fiction of Zangwill's Jewish London,The Master shared with it underlying concerns with identity and truth toself when tradition and modernity intersect in the life of anindividual. The impetus behind the varied body of Zangwill's workwas thus not simply that he wrote fiction on non-Jewish subjects inorder to be recognized as an "English" writer; it was alsothat he wanted his Jewish subject matter to be recogn ized not asmarginal but as a central part of the human experience. The publicationhistory of The King of Schnorrers is a case in point. A picaresque pic��a��resque?adj.1. Of or involving clever rogues or adventurers.2. Of or relating to a genre of usually satiric prose fiction originating in Spain and depicting in realistic, often humorous detail the adventures of a roguish Jewish tale set in eighteenth-century London, The King of Schnorrerssatirizes communal divisions between rich and poor, Ashkenazi andSephardi. Its first appearance, however, was not in a Jewish magazinebut as a serial in the Idler; in volume form, it was yoked with"grotesques and fantasies" on non-Jewish themes. Similarly, inone of the stories in the presumedly "non-Jewish" OldMaids' Club, a would-be suitor SUITOR. One who is a party to a suit or action in court. One who is a party to an action. In its ancient sense, suitor meant one Who was bound to attend the county court, also, one who formed part of the secta. (q.v.) mistakenly enters a Jewish homewhere he becomes the tenth man needed for prayers. Zangwill was ever anidealist, and it was perhaps part of his idealism to insist--through hisaesthetic and commercial choices as an author--that the Jewishexperience be recognized as mainstream. Zangwill continued as a journalist and critic throughout the 1890s,writing overlapping columns for the Critic and the Pall Mall Pall Mall(pĕl mĕl, păl măl), street in the City of Westminster borough, London, England. It is the main thoroughfare of St. James's district. St. James's Palace, Marlborough House, and a number of private clubs are on Pall Mall. Magazine.Blind Children, a volume of poetry written throughout Zangwill'scareer--religious and secular, on Jewish and non-Jewish themes--appearedin 1903. His last two novels were The Mantle of Elijah (1900), anantiwar an��ti��war?adj.Opposed to war or to a particular war: antiwar protests; an antiwar candidate.novel, and Jinny the Carrier (1919), a pastoral novel based onhis 1905 play of the same name. Indeed, these works of fiction are signsof a change, for in the twentieth century, politics and drama becameZangwill's overriding interests. In 1903 Zangwill married Edith Ayrton, a novelist and politicalactivist in her own right. Edith was the daughter of Professor W. E.Ayrton, an electrical engineer and physicist, and Matilda ChaplinAyrton, a medical doctor. After Edith's mother's death, herfather remarried; her stepmother from the age of ten was Phoebe (Hertha)Marks, a Jewish woman who had been the protegee pro��t����g��e?n.A woman or girl whose welfare, training, or career is promoted by an influential person.[French, feminine of prot��g��, prot��g��; see prot��g��.]Noun 1. of feminist BarbaraLeigh Smith Bodichon and who, after studying at Girton College, became ascientist, writer, and lecturer in London. Both Hertha Ayrton and EdithZangwill became active in the suffrage movement, and they enlistedIsrael Zangwill in the cause as well. [16] Although his feminism is notalways apparent in his early fiction, his speeches and articles for thecause were sincere and impassioned. Edith Zangwill joined her husband in his support of pacifism pacifism,advocacy of opposition to war through individual or collective action against militarism. Although complete, enduring peace is the goal of all pacifism, the methods of achieving it differ. andhis work for Jewish nationalism. Edith was not herself Jewish, butIsrael Zangwill was to affirm that her "religious outlook wasnearer his own than that of any Jewess he had met." [17] The coupleshared a faith in universal concepts of morality that they saw asderiving from, but also transcending, Judaism and Christianity.Zangwill's hopes for the development of such a universal religionare set forth in his plays, The Melting Pot melting potAmerica as the home of many races and cultures. [Am. Pop. Culture: Misc.]See : America (1908) and The Next Religion(1912); they are also represented in Strelitski's aims and effortsat the end of Children of the Ghetto. But Zangwill's commitment tothe Jewish people led him to become involved (one might even sayenmeshed en��mesh? also im��meshtr.v. en��meshed, en��mesh��ing, en��mesh��esTo entangle, involve, or catch in or as if in a mesh. See Synonyms at catch. ) in Jewish world politics. Joseph Udelson has pointed out thatZangwill's English birth was important to his becoming thespokesperson for Anglo-Jewry whenever one was called for, even thoughthere were other prominent Jews in England, immigrants, who were morereligiously observant. [18] But Zangwill took his role as a leaderseriously, and in fact his devotion to principle eventually injured hispopular reputation. In 1895, when Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism,visited London to enlist English support for the cause, the influentialGerman writer and Zionist, Max Nordau Max Simon Nordau (July 29, 1849 - January 23, 1923), born Simon Maximilian S��dfeld, S��dfeld Simon Miksa in Pest, Hungary, was a Zionist leader, physician, author, and social critic. selected Zangwill to meet him.Zangwill became an ardent if sometimes critical supporter, representingBritain at several international Zionist conferences. In 1905, afterHerzl's death, Zangwill split with the main-stream of the Zionistmovement Noun 1. Zionist movement - a movement of world Jewry that arose late in the 19th century with the aim of creating a Jewish state in PalestineZionism to form the Jewish Territorial Organization (known as the ITO Ito,city (1990 pop. 71,223), Shizuoka prefecture, central Honshu, Japan, on the Izu Peninsula and the Sagami Sea. It is an important fishing port and hot spring resort. See indium. ),whose goal was to establish a Jewish homeland anywhere that land couldbe obtained, in an effort to rescue Jews suffering persecution inRussia. Although subsequent history suggests that any such settlementoutside Palestine would have been a disaster, Zangwill's plan wasbased on an understanding of the difficulties involved in settlingPalestine, a land that already had a substantial Arab population.Zangwill's 1923 speech in New York City New York City:see New York, city. New York CityCity (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. to the American JewishCongress You may be looking for American Jewish CommitteeThe American Jewish Congress describes itself as an association of Jewish Americans organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad through public policy advocacy, using diplomacy, , Watchman WATCHMAN. An officer in many cities and towns, whose duty it is to watch during the night and take care of the property of the inhabitants. 2. He possesses generally the common law authority of a constable (q.v. , What of the Night?, unsparingly criticized theZionist organizations and declared political Zionism dead.Zangwill's reputation among Jews rapidly declined, although someJewish leaders, including Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, who had chaired theAmerican Jewish Congress at the time of Zangwill's speech, remainedloyal. Rabbi Wise was in England at the time of Zangwill's funeraland delivered the eulogy. In America Zangwill's obituary appearedon the front page of the New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times, an indication of the reputationhe still held in the United States, even after his political heresy.[19] In the last two decades of his life, Zangwill's literaryoutput reflected his political activism. Feminism, pacifism, and hopesfor a world united under one religion were the basis for severalunsuccessful plays that Zangwill wrote and produced. His most successfuldramatic works were Merely Mary Ann (1903), a basically unpolitical un��po��lit��i��cal?adj.Not politically structured, oriented, or focused; not interested in politics.Adj. 1. unpolitical - politically neutralapoliticalnonpolitical - not political romantic comedy with a social-class theme, and The Melting Pot, anidealistic vision of the union, in New York City, of a Russian Jewishrefugee and the daughter of the Russian antisemite who had led thepogrom pogrom(pō`grəm, pōgrŏm`), Russian term, originally meaning "riot," that came to be applied to a series of violent attacks on Jews in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th cent. against his town. But the strain of seeing failure after failureof his other plays, especially those he produced himself, very likelycontributed to the nervous breakdown nervous breakdownn.A severe or incapacitating emotional disorder, especially when occurring suddenly and marked by depression.nervous breakdownat the end of his life. He died ina sanitarium sanitarium/san��i��tar��i��um/ (-tar��e-um) an institution for the promotion of health. san��i��tar��i��umn.See sanatorium. on August 1, 1926. [20] Still, Edith Zangwill wrote afterher husband's death (to family friend Marie Stopes Noun 1. Marie Stopes - birth-control campaigner who in 1921 opened the first birth control clinic in London (1880-1958)Marie Charlotte Carmichael Stopes, Stopes , the Britishbirth control pioneer) that "Israel had been ill and lacking sleepfor three years. It is possible that the theatrical season Noun 1. theatrical season - the season when new plays are producedseason - a period of the year marked by special events or activities in some field; "he celebrated his 10th season with the ballet company"; "she always looked forward to the avocado season" made no difference. At least he was happy & interested while it was goingon." [21] Zangwill wrote Children of the Ghetto on a commission from therecently formed Jewish Publication Society of America (JPSA JPSA Japan Pro Surfing AssociationJPSA Japan Poultry Science AssociationJPSA Joint Program for the Study of AbortionJPSA JP Sercel Associates, Inc. (Hollis, NH)JPsA juvenile psoriatic arthritis ), which waslooking for Looking forIn the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a "Jewish Robert Elsmere." Zangwill agreed to takeon the JPSA's commission only if there were no artistic stringsattached, and Judge Sulzberger complied, granting Zangwill completeauthorial freedom. [22] It is significant that when Lucien Wolf Lucien Wolf (born 1857 in London; died 1930) was an English Jewish journalist, historian, and advocate of Jewish rights. His father had been a wealthy German Jew who acquired political refuge in England as a result of the 1848 revolution. (ajournalist and one of the founders of the Jewish Historical Society ofEngland The Jewish Historical Society of England was founded in 1893 by several Anglo-Jewish scholars, including Lucien Wolf, who became the society's first president. Early president of the JHSE included Hermann Adler, Joseph Jacobs, F. D. Mocatta, and Isidore Spielmann. in 1893) recommended Zangwill to the JPSA, he did so on thebasis of both the mystical story "Satan Mekatrig" and thetightly reasoned "article in the Jewish Quarterly" thatZangwill had written for the periodical's first volume in 1889.[23] The Jewish Quarterly Review The Jewish Quarterly Review (JQR) is the oldest English-language journal of Judaic scholarship, established in 1888 by Israel Abrahams and Claude G. Montefiore as an outgrowth of the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement. was an intellectual journal founded byIsrael Abrahams and Claude Montefiore Claude Joseph Goldsmid Montefiore (1858 - 1938) was son of Nathaniel Montefiore, and the great nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore. Some identify him as a significant figure in the contexts of modern Jewish religious thought, Jewish-Christian relations, and Anglo-Jewish socio-politics. , two of the leaders of the liberalmovement in English Judaism. Wolf described the creation of the journalitself as a manifestation of "spiritual unrest." [24]"English Judaism: A Criticism and a Cl assification" was aresponse to essays by the eminent Jewish scholars, Heinrich Graetz Heinrich Graetz (October 31, 1817 - September 7, 1891) was amongst the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. andSolomon Schechter Solomon Schechter (December 7, 1847-1915) was a Moldavian-born Romanian and English rabbi, academic scholar, and educator, most famous for his roles as founder and President of the United Synagogue of America, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and architect , on the subject "What is Judaism?" Althoughmuch of Zangwill's article is tedious (though not inaccurate)hairsplitting hair��split��ting?n.The making of unreasonably fine distinctions.hairsplit about religious doctrine and types of English Jews,exemplifying the nineteenth-century mania for classification, hisidentification of the Judaism of his day as "transitional" hasgreat relevance both to his own position and to the religious and socialcontext of Children of the Ghetto. [25] In the article, Zangwill eulogized the national dream that"gladdens the simple heart of the Russian pauper An impoverished person who is supported at public expense; an indigent litigant who is permitted to sue or defend without paying costs; an impoverished criminal defendant who has a right to receive legal services without charge. PAUPER. as he sings thehymns of hope and trust after his humble Friday night's meal";yet he described the Jewish culture of his day as one in which "aman who belongs to a synagogue, marries within the pale, subscribes tothe charities and the Jewish Chronicle, fasts on the Day of Atonement Day of Atonementn.See Yom Kippur.[Translation of Hebrew y?m kipp?r.]Day of AtonementNounsame as Yom KippurNoun 1. ,and eats unleavened bread on Passover, over and above fulfilling the notspecifically Jewish duties of a good man and citizen, is almost an idealJew." [26] At the same time, he imagined a hypothetical futureJudaism that, "in view of the possible elimination of circumcision circumcision(sûr'kəmsĭzh`ən), operation to remove the foreskin covering the glans of the penis. It dates back to prehistoric times and was widespread throughout the Middle East as a religious rite before it was introduced among the and Tephillin, of the dietary laws, of even Passover and the beautifulSeder-night, ... may become externally unidentifiable Adj. 1. unidentifiable - impossible to identifyidentifiable - capable of being identified with most of itspreceding phases." [27] In Children of the Ghetto, Zangwillrepresented all three of those states and possibilities. "Childrenof the Ghetto," the first part of the novel, conveyed the poignancyand depth of th e immigrants' faith, but as something that wasdestined des��tine?tr.v. des��tined, des��tin��ing, des��tines1. To determine beforehand; preordain: a foolish scheme destined to fail; a film destined to become a classic.2. to belong to the past. In "Grandchildren of theGhetto," the second part, he anatomized the practices of theexternally "ideal" and the utterly assimilated, even as heexamined the doubts, fears, hopes, and transgressions of the generationthat would (or would not) carry Judaism's future. Apart from Zangwill's religious categorizations, however, onemight ask what characterized the Anglo-Jewish community that Children ofthe Ghetto described. Perhaps most significantly, it was a communitywhose demographics were rapidly changing. The Jews had been expelledfrom England in 1290, although small groups of Iberian Jews Jews had lived in the Iberian peninsula since the Dark Ages, experiencing a Golden Age under Muslim rule. Following the Reconquista and increasing persecution, they were expelled from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497. who had beenconverted to Christianity (and their descendants, still referred to as"conversos" or "New Christians") appeared after 1492to join the small number of unorganized professing Jews who had managedto slip in. Modem Anglo-Jewish history dates from 1656, when OliverCromwell granted such Jews "permission to meet for privateworship," and resettlement Re`set´tle`mentn. 1. Act of settling again, or state of being settled again; as, the resettlementof lees s>.The resettlementof my discomposed soul.- Norris. began. [28] Most of the early immigrantslived in London, and most were Sephardim, Jews from the Iberianpeninsula Iberian Peninsula,c.230,400 sq mi (596,740 sq km), SW Europe, separated from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees. Comprising Spain and Portugal, it is washed on the N and W by the Atlantic Ocean and on the S and E by the Mediterranean Sea; the Strait of Gibraltar , often by way of Italy, Holland, and the Caribbean, whoserituals and history differed from those of the Ashkenazic Jews whofollowed from Germany, Holland, and Poland. In 1695 there were about 800Jews in London , most of them Sephardic; by 1830 there were about 20,000in England, 18,000 of them Ashkenazim and the rest Sephardim. [29] TheSephardic Jews' traditional sense of superiority is touched on inChildren of the Ghetto (and is central to The King of Schnorrers); [30]as the early Central and East European immigrants became established,they in turn began to view with trepidation the large numbers of Jewsfrom Poland and Russia who entered London in the 1880s. The conditions surrounding the entry of these turn-of-the-centuryimmigrants and the responses of the settled Jewish community to them arereflected in the content of Children of the Ghetto; they also form thecontext for understanding the novel's reception. The Jews whoentered Britain in large numbers after 1880 were part of the same waveof immigration immigration,entrance of a person (an alien) into a new country for the purpose of establishing permanent residence. Motives for immigration, like those for migration generally, are often economic, although religious or political factors may be very important. that transformed the Jewish community in the UnitedStates. Lloyd P. Gartner points out that "[i]n 1914, no city otherthan New York and Chicago contained more East European immigrants thanLondon." [31] By 1911 there were 120,000 immigrant Jews alone inEngland, Scotland, and Wales Wales,Welsh Cymru, western peninsula and political division (principality) of Great Britain (1991 pop. 2,798,200), 8,016 sq mi (20,761 sq km), west of England; politically united with England since 1536. The capital is Cardiff. , of whom more than 106,000 were arrivalsfrom Russia and Poland. [32] By some accounts, there were as many as45,000 Jews in the East End alone by 1887. [33] The reasons for the massmigration from Eastern Europe Eastern EuropeThe countries of eastern Europe, especially those that were allied with the USSR in the Warsaw Pact, which was established in 1955 and dissolved in 1991. were a combination of pogroms,persecutions, and economic hardship. Gartner has made clear that despitethe brutality of murder, pillage PILLAGE. The taking by violence of private property by a victorious army from the citizens or subjects of the enemy. This, in modern times, is seldom allowed, and then, only when authorized by the commander or chief officer, at the place where the pillage is committed. , and arson that characterized thepogroms of the 1880s in particular, antisemitic violence was not themajor or the only cause of emigration emigration:see immigration; migration. . Economic pressures resulting fromrapidly increased Jewish populations in Russia and Poland, the economicand residential restrictions imposed by the tsarist regime, and, at thesame time, the openness of Western borders and communities toimmigration all contributed to the decisions of large numbers of Jews toleave Eastern Europe. [34] Although neither the most prosperous nor themost impoverished Jews made up the bulk of the immigrants, those whoarrived in London (as in other English cities) soon found themselves inheavily congested con��gest��edadj.Affected with or characterized by congestion.congestedENT adjective Referring to a boggy blood-filled tissue. See Nasal congestion. urban areas. There they attempted to reestablishfamiliar institutions, worked in sweatshops, and both relied on thecharity and bent under the largesse lar��gessalso lar��gesse ?n.1. a. Liberality in bestowing gifts, especially in a lofty or condescending manner.b. Money or gifts bestowed.2. Generosity of spirit or attitude. of established Anglo-Jewishorganizations. Through a combination that Zangwill referred to asrealism and romance, the first half of Children of the Ghetto delineatestheir existence. Children of the Ghetto has been considered such an accuraterecreation of East End immigrant life that historians have used episodesfrom the novel as illustrations for historical accounts. [35] FashionStreet, Petticoat Lane, Victoria Park, and numerous other addresses inthe novel can be found on a map of London; Royal Street and ZachariahSquare, although fictional in name, have East End counterparts. Thesoup-kitchen scene that opens the novel was anticipated in a poemZangwill wrote on the facility's inauguration in 1888. [36] Hisdepictions of the strikers; the meeting of the "Holy LandLeague"; the life of club, chevra, and tenement; and theeditor's room of the Flag of Judah--this last based onZangwill's experience at the Jewish Standard--have been confirmedby contemporaries such as Joseph Leftwich Joseph Leftwich (1892 - 1984), born Joseph Lefkowitz, was a British-Jewish critic and translator into English of Yiddish literature. He is known particularly for his 1939 anthology The Golden Peacock of Yiddish poetry, and his 1957 biography of Israel Zangwill. as accurate re-creations.Indeed, many of the novel's first readers saw it as a roman a clef ro��man �� clef?n. pl. ro��mans �� clefA novel in which actual persons, places, or events are depicted in fictional guise.[French : roman, novel + ��, with + and claimed to have identified the originals of many characters. Themost significant and lasting identificati on linked the novel'sMelchitsedek Pinchas with Naphtali Herz Imber, the author of the wordsto "Hatikvah," now the national anthem of Israel. [37] M. C.Birchenough, a non-Jew who reviewed Children of the Ghetto for theJewish Quarterly, was content to assert that" [t]hose who can speakwith complete authority on the subject say that the picture is anabsolutely true one in all respects." [38] Children of the Ghetto presents both the ennobling en��no��ble?tr.v. en��no��bled, en��no��bling, en��no��bles1. To make noble: "that chastity of honor . . . spiritual lifeof the poor and the intracommunal conflicts that many in thecontemporary Jewish community considered a private matter. Among suchconflicts were petty squabbles and rivalries among Sephardic, Polish,Lithuanian, and Dutch Jews, or between secular and religious Jews in thelabor and Zionist movements--all tribulations of immigrants amongthemselves, which Zangwill often treats with humor. Other tensions,however, resulted from the immigrants' interactions with a largerJewish community eager for their "anglicization."Zangwill's "Sons of the Covenant," for example, istypical of the small, noisy, Old World chevrot that Anglo-Jewry'sUnited Synagogue For the American Conservative synagogue association, see United Synagogue of Conservative JudaismUnited Synagogue is an organisation of London Jews that was founded with the sanction of an act of parliament, in 1870. sought to replace with large, decorous dec��o��rous?adj.Characterized by or exhibiting decorum; proper: decorous behavior.[From Latin dec houses ofworship, served by Jewish "ministers" in white ties. [39]Ultimately the informal immigrant congregations were organized under theFederation of Minor Synagogues (later called the Federation ofSynagogues), established by Sir Samuel Montagu, First Lo rd Swaythlingand the Member of Parliament from Whitechapel. Montagu, a devout Jewhimself, recognized that West End Judaism would not appeal to theimmigrants, and the Federation allowed its congregations to carry ontheir familiar modes of worship. It began its own effort atanglicization, however, by insisting on the conduct of organizationalbusiness in English; by institutionalizing sanitation, education, andarbitration of disputes; and simply by being an English-sponsoredorganization. [40] Zangwill illustrates, in the thoughts of Reb Shemuel,the tension created by even the most well-meaning efforts from above:"It was the one worry of his life, the consciousness that personsin high quarters disapproved of him as a force impeding theAnglicization of the Ghetto. He knew his shortcomings A shortcoming is a character flaw.Shortcomings may also be: Shortcomings (SATC episode), an episode of the television series Sex and the City , but could neverquite comprehend the importance of becoming English. He had a latentfeeling that Judaism had flourished before England was invented"(138). Similarly, Malka's complaint against the Jews' FreeSchool ("It's English, not Judaism, they teach them"[102-103]) echoes concerns felt by some of the more religiouslyobservant immigrants. The desire to encourage anglicization, however, resulted in largemeasure from external pressures felt by the established Anglo-Jewishcommunity. Recent historians have referred to an "anti-Semitism oftolerance," a pervasive attitude in British culture that encouragedassimilation by welcoming new arrivals as long as they agreed to shedtheir distinctiveness and become "British" as quickly aspossible. [41] Although widely publicized reports of pogroms in theLondon Times and other major publications (including Punch) createdsympathy toward Jewish immigrants, economic pressures, general fears of"difference," and more specific though rarely spokenantisemitic attitudes led to public and parliamentary calls forrestricted immigration. Anti-alien groups organized and theirproceedings, too, received press coverage. [42] Thus West End Jewrybelieved it to be in the immigrants' interest (as well as theirown) to minimize differences and become "English" as quicklyas possible. And thus Zangwill was concerned, in Children of the Ghetto,to show that "Judaea has always been a cosmos in little" (66).This is why, in the nostalgic "Proem pro��em?n.An introduction; a preface.[Middle English proheme, from Old French, from Latin prooemium, from Greek prooimion : pro-, before; see pro- ," we find Dutch Sam, theJewish boxing champion, defending his father-in-law who epitomizes themeek "old do'" man; and why Zangwill, in representingmore contemporary situations, took pains to explicate the Jewish cosmositself. [43] But if Zangwill intended to militate against mil´i`tate a`gainst´v. t. 1. To argue against; to cast doubt on; - used in reference to facts which tend to disprove a hypothesis; as, the absence of a correlation of budget deficits with inflation militates against any causal relation anti-Jewish prejudice,creating goodwill toward the immigrants was only part of his task. In1900 the joumalist G. M. Street would write in the Pall Mall Magazine:"The general question of the worth of the Jewish race to humanity,of the blessings or the reverse it may confer on the nations of theworld, or of the possible danger with which it may threaten them fromthe accumulation of wealth in its hands, is at once too profound and toocontroversial for my pen." Street questioned why "the bulk ofJewish wealth should be derived from financial operations not of benefitto the rest of the community" and stated that the Jews'"higher level of average intelligence ... cannot be an unmixedblessing ... so long as the Jews remain aloof, a community apart inblood." [44] These quotations from an article that purports to be(and in some ways is) sympathetic to the Jews of Britain, indicate whyeven highly "anglicized" middle-class and wealthy Jews--suchas Zangwill hims elf--felt the stigma of alien status. To represent thismore acculturated group both to itself and to its not entirely friendlyneighbors was a job additionally complicated for Zangwill by the factthat even he found much to criticize in his West End coreligionists. Inthis case, there was no veneer of distance or nostalgia to soften thereflection. The Jew in transition and the life of West End Jewry were centralto Zangwili's imaginative concerns from the very start of hiscareer as a writer. Motso Kleis, or the Green Chinee first appeared as aprivately published pamphlet in or around 1882, while Zangwill wasworking as a teacher at the Jews' Free School. [45] In his essay"My First Book," Zangwill reported that Motso Kleis (MatzohBalls) was loudly denounced by Jews, and widely bought by them;.... Owingto owing toprep.Because of; on account of: I couldn't attend, owing to illness.owing toprep → debido a, por causa demy anonymity, I was enabled to see those enjoying its perusal, whowere afterwards to explain to me their horror and disgust at itsilliteracy and vulgarity. By vulgarity vulgar Jews mean the reproductionof the Hebrew words with which the poor and the old-fashioned interlard in��ter��lard?tr.v. in��ter��lard��ed, in��ter��lard��ing, in��ter��lardsTo insert something foreign into: interlarded the narrative with witty remarks. their conversation.... I discovered the MS. when writing Children of theGhetto. The description of market-day in Jewry was transferred bodilyfrom the MS. of my first book, and is now generally admired. [46] This passage suggests, first of all, that Zangwill had alreadyexperienced criticism by the established Jewish community, and, second,that the main objection to the story by Jewish readers (an objectionshared by the authorities at the Jews' Free School, as Zangwillgoes on to describe) was his English rendering of Yiddish speech. ThatZangwill himself shared some of Anglo-Jewry's discomfort with whathe and they called "jargon" is implicit in Adj. 1. implicit in - in the nature of something though not readily apparent; "shortcomings inherent in our approach"; "an underlying meaning"underlying, inherent his reluctance toappend To add to the end of an existing structure. a glossary to Children of the Ghetto and is reflected in theawkwardness of many of his translations. (Interestingly, when the JewishStandard added a Yiddish supplement in May 1891, it felt the need todefend its decision on the ground that by "drawing the Russian Jewsin London closer to their English brethren" it would assistanglicization.) [47] Zangwill was annoyed when the Jewish PublicationSociety of America added a glossary to its first edition of the novel,and despite British reviewers' claims that one was needed to definethe many Y iddish expressions in the text, he refused to create his ownuntil the third, one-volume, edition-and even then he includedetymological et��y��mo��log��i��cal? also et��y��mo��log��icadj.Of or relating to etymology or based on the principles of etymology.et information, to indicate that "many of these despisedwords are pure Hebrew; a language which never died off the lips of men,and which is the medium in which books are written all the world overeven unto this day." [48] In the chapters for which comparison ispossible, there is considerably less Yiddish in every edition of thepublished novel than appeared in the typescript draft sent to JudgeSulzberger. [49] Regarding Motso Kleis, however, it is quite possible that elementsof the story other than language were what really evoked the ire of theAnglo-Jewish elite. The first chapter of Motso Kleis vividly depictswealthy Jews alongside the poor in Petticoat Lane, all buying theirPassover provisions; the chapter was placed nearly verbatim in Childrenof the Ghetto under the title "'For Auld Lang Syne Auld Lang Syneclosing song of New Year’s Eve. [Music: Leach, 91]See : Farewell , MyDear.'" Immediately following this East End scene in MotsoKleis, however, is a narrative involving a Jewish family whoseconversion to Christianity Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person to some form of Christianity. The exact understanding of what it means to attain salvation varies somewhat among denominations. marks the capstone to their accession towealth; a "greener," or new immigrant, who is taken to be animportant Russian rabbi; and the mother of the assimilateddaughter's Christian fiance. When the mother-in-law-to-beunexpectedly arrives at the start of a Passover seder The Passover Seder (Hebrew: סֵדֶר, seeɛɾ, "order", "arrangement") is a Jewish ritual feast held on the first night of the Jewish holiday of Passover (the 15th day of Hebrew month of Nisan). (got up to impressthe supposed rabbi), the family decides to tell her that their guest isChinese and that the Passover foods are all Asian delicacies. When thevisitor discovers the truth, she is revealed to be a thoroughantisemite, and the Jews who are no longer Jews are shown to be fools.The final page of the story presents a poiguant contrast to the West Endsham as the "greener" enjoys bodily and spiritual refreshmentat a true seder in the East End. The self-hating Mayer family of Motso Kleis is far more repellentthan the mildly hypocritical, but still proudly Jewish, Goldsmiths ofChildren of the Ghetto. But in an English society that seemed to acceptJews only conditionally, characteristics of the Mayers may have strucktoo close to home. When acceptance is predicated on fitting in, Jews whohad adopted customs of the surrounding community would have beensensitive about the portrayal of "vulgar,, Jews who sought toabandon their identity by becoming Christians. In fact, as Todd Endelman Todd M. Endelman is the William Haber Professor of Modern Jewish History at the University of Michigan. He specializes in the social history of Jews in Western Europe and in Anglo-Jewish history. has pointed out, actual conversion among wealthy Jews decreased markedlyby the late nineteenth century in England, as opportunities in politics,education, and even club life were opened to Jews who professed theirreligion. At the same time, however, these very opportunities led tointermarriage in��ter��mar��ry?intr.v. in��ter��mar��ried, in��ter��mar��ry��ing, in��ter��mar��ries1. To marry a member of another group.2. To be bound together by the marriages of members.3. , assimilation, and eventual disaffiliation disaffiliationSocial medicine The loss or absence of social cohesion and contact with family and/or former friends and peers. See Homelessness, Mission, Runaway. , withconversion itself increasing in the twentieth century. [50] Jews in themidst Adv. 1. in the midst - the middle or central part or point; "in the midst of the forest"; "could he walk out in the midst of his piece?"midmost of this transition would have found the Mayers to be anunflattering and unwelcome reflection. Moreover, to a middle-class Jewish population eager for acceptanceby its Christian neighbors, the portrayal of the Jew-hating Mrs. Speckle SpeckleThe generation of a random intensity distribution, called a speckle pattern, when light from a highly coherent source, such as a laser, is scattered by a rough surface or inhomogeneous medium. would have seemed at the very least impolitic im��pol��i��tic?adj.Not wise or expedient; not politic: an impolitic approach to a sensitive issue.im��pol . Contemporary anthropologyviewed Jews as a separate race, and gave the imprimatur of science tobigoted big��ot��ed?adj.Being or characteristic of a bigot: a bigoted person; an outrageously bigoted viewpoint.big generalizations.5' Caricatures of greedy Jews were socommon in political cartoons that Zangwill himself published a glaringexample in Ariel. As drawn by George Hutchinson (who was closelyassociated with Zang will and would later illustrate The King ofSchuorrers), a bearded Jew holding a bag of gold tightly in his fist isrepresented in a multi-image two-page foldout fold��out?n.1. Printing A folded insert or section, as of a cover, whose full size exceeds that of the regular page.2. A piece or part, as of furniture, that folds out or down from a closed position. as one of the"fears" for the new year of 1891 Such fears were prominentlydisplayed in Street's "Essay on theJews" nine yearslater. BritishJews' understandable anxiety about how they wererepresented may be epitomized in the choice of a non-Jew to reviewChildren of the Ghetto in the Jewish Quarterly. As a footnote states,"The EDITORS thought that the re aders of this REVIEW might preferto read the impressions made by this book on the mind of one who has noconnection, direct or indirect, with the Ghetto."53 ThatJews wouldprefer to read the impressions of an outsider suggests particularconcern with what those impressions might be.54 In Zangwill's defense, it might be added that, in Children ofthe Ghetto, he did in fact point out the universality of certaindefects, as when Sidney Graham Sidney West Graham is a mathematician interested in analytic number theory and professor at Central Michigan University. His received his PhD, which was supervised by Hugh Montgomery, from the University of Michigan in 1977. , criticizing the superficiality ofJudaism in the West End, "admitted that the same was true ofChristianity" (332). In such narratorial remarks appear the seedsof Zangwill's universalist religious ideology. Still, whilenon-Jews and "the English" in general are discussed byJewishcharacters, virtually no non-Jews appear in the book. In stories of thelate 1890s, such as "Transitional" and"Anglicization," Zangwill would return to the theme ofdisastrous interfaith contact, particularly in the context of romanticrelationships. Such interaction, however, appeared earlier as well, notonly in Motso Kleis but also in a manuscript fragment that has beenconsidered a precursor to Children of the Ghetto. Thus the absence ofnon-Jews in the novel is worth further examination. The manuscript that Edith Zangwill labeled "Apparently thefirst and very early attempt at Children of the Ghetto" has littleto do with the novel except some character names and similar themes.55However, like Moiso Kleir, it shows aJewish protagonist in directinteraction with non-Jews. Moses Hyams is a pious Jew whose success inthejewelry business has brought him a comfortable middie-class life and,for his son and heir, social contact with well-to-do non-Jewish clients.When young Albert Hyams attends a dinner party at the home of the Leithfamily, Zangwill delineates his anxieties and discomforts as he debateswhether to claim vegetarianism vegetarianism,theory and practice of eating only fruits and vegetables, thus excluding animal flesh, fish, or fowl and often butter, eggs, and milk. In a strict vegetarian, or vegan, diet (i.e. rather than admit he will not eatnonkosher meat, his rationalizations when he finally orders the beef("after all, he thought, it was not swine-flesh"), [56] andhis shock and retreat to the Jewish fold when Belle Leith rejects hisdeclaration of love. The fragment is so powerful that one wonders why Zangwill stayedaway from such direct confrontation in Children of the Ghetto. WhileSidney Graham's aborted engagement to Miss Hannibal closelyparallels Albert's thwarted affection, the reader never sees MissHannibal herself, and Sidney's disappointment is ended quickly withhis engagement to the Jewish Addie. Joseph Udelson suggests that scenessuch as those in the Leith dining room brought up so many ofZangwill's own anxieties or disappointments that he shied away fromrepresenting them. [57] However, the negative response to Motso Kleismay have had an even greater influence on Zangwill's decision totreat Jewish-gentile relations more indirectly in the novel.Additionally, the absence of non-Jews in Children of the Ghetto may berelated to what Dan Miron Dan Miron is a noted Israeli Literary scholar. Miron holds the title of Professor emeritus at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and is currently the Leonard Kaye Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature in the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures at has shown to be an even more severe omissionof Christian neighbors in East European shtetl shtetlany small-town Jewish settlement in East Europe. [Jewish Hist.: Wigoder, 552]See : Rusticity fictioin of the earlytwentieth century. According to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. Miron, the impression of insularity thatresults is par t of a larger visionary shtetl myth. [58] Zangwill'smotivation may be analogous to those of the shtetl writers to the extentthat the ghetto portion of the novel is meant to eulogize eu��lo��gize?tr.v. eu��lo��gized, eu��lo��giz��ing, eu��lo��giz��esTo praise highly in speech or writing, especially in a formal eulogy.eu a cultureperceived both as the source of Jewish spiritual identity and as dyingout. Yet the isolation of the grandchildren's world is never total;as the story of Levi Jacobs/Leonard James makes clear, there are alwaystheaters to walk out of and cabs to ride off in, even on the Jewishfestivals. The absence of non-Jews in the West End world of"Grandchildren of the Ghetto" is clearly not therepresentation of a true physical absence. Instead, it reflects whatAbrahams in his review correctly saw as an internalized sense ofisolation or separation experienced by Jews at all levels in Englishsociety, even by those who were materially successful. [59] Thus theWest End Jewish "cousinhood"--however criticized in thenovel--appears as a continuation of, as well as a disjunction disjunction/dis��junc��tion/ (-junk��shun)1. the act or state of being disjoined.2. in genetics, the moving apart of bivalent chromosomes at the first anaphase of meiosis. from, thelife of the immigrant ghetto. Representations of Jews in direct contactwith Christians (such as Albert Hyams's experience at the dinnerparty, in the fragment) would undoubtedly have been of great interest toreaders. Their absence suggests that Zangwill's concern in"Grandchildren of the Ghetto" was with the internal dynamicsshaping the future of Jews in England. Sufficient conflict is thusprovided by the tensions between observant and nonobservant Jews,between the letter and the spirit of the Law, between Jewishness andEnglishness, and between the past and the future. In the context of late-twentieth-century multiculturalism, Zangwillseems both a product of the tumultuous 1890s and a man ahead of histime. Children of the Ghetto is not as easy to categorize asZangwill's later play, The Melting Pot, which came down unabashedly un��a��bashed?adj.1. Not disconcerted or embarrassed; poised.2. Not concealed or disguised; obvious: unabashed disgust. in favor of assimilation. What his earlier novel offers to later debateson ethnicity and multiculturalism is not the "picture of a peculiarpeople Peculiar People,an alternate rendering for the biblical phrase "chosen people" (of Israel), applied to numerous Protestant dissenting sects such as the Plumstead peculiars. " so admired by its first readers, but rather the picture ofa minority culture in a relatively tolerant nation struggling with theinstability of dual identity. As critic Joseph Childers puts it, for thechildren as well as the grandchildren of the ghetto there is "noplace... to be completely English and completely Jewish." [60] Allthe characters in Zangwill's novel are trying to find solid groundon the unstable turf where Englishness and Jewishness meet. RaphaelLeon, foreseeing an orthodoxy based in intellect, is not that farremoved from young Jews today (of all denomina- tions) who seek a moreserious commitment to religious study and practice. But just as Zangwillstepped back from fully endorsing Raphael's vision, so thereemergence of religious commitment, the development of Judaic studiesprograms, and other signs of Jewish renewal Jewish Renewal is a new religious movement in Judaism which endeavors to reinvigorate modern Judaism with mystical, Hasidic, musical and meditative practices. Overview cannot at this point be seenas final or permanent. In the United States and the United Kingdom, bytheir very nature as pluralistic secular democracies, Jews continue tonegotiate the unstable ground as Zangwill rather bravely did in anearlier time. Today, readers can evaluate Zangwill's proposals forthe future of Judaism from the future's perspective. In the ensuingdebates will appear the persistent reflection of the grandchildren ofthe ghetto. MERI-JANE ROCHELSON is Associate Professor of English at FloridaInternational University Florida International University,primarily at University Park, Miami; coeducational; chartered 1965, opened 1972. A research university, it has 18 colleges and schools and many specialized centers and institutes, including those in biomedical engineering, database , and co-editor of Transforming Genes: NewApproaches to British Fiction of the 1890s (7994). She has alsopublished numerous articles and reviews. This essay is adapted from theintroduction to the new Wayne State University Wayne State University,at Detroit, Mich.; state supported; coeducational; established 1956 as a successor to Wayne Univ. (formed 1934 by a merger of five city colleges). Press edition of Childrenof the Ghetto, with permission from the publisher. NOTES The author gratefully acknowledges the permission of the CentralZionist Archives The Central Zionist Archives (CZA) in Jerusalem holds the archives of the Zionist movement from 1880-1970 and documents the growth of the Zionist movement throughout the world. , Jerusalem, the Leeds University Library, and theBritish Library British Library,national library of Great Britain, located in London. Long a part of the British Museum, the library collection originated in 1753 when the government purchased the Harleian Library, the library of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, and groups of manuscripts. to quote from manuscripts and letters in theircollections. (1.) Quotation marks quotation marksNoun, plthe punctuation marks used to begin and end a quotation, either `` and '' or ` and 'quotation marksnpl → comillas fpl are used to distinguish the part of the novelcalled "Children of the Ghetto" from the novel as a whole,whose title is italicized. In the one-volume editions of Children of theGhetto (published in 1893 and after), "Children" and"Grandchildren" are referred to as Book I and Book II. In thefirst American First American may refer to: First American (comics), A superhero from America's Best Comics First American, a division of the now-defunction Bank of Credit and Commerce International. edition (and in some later printings, such as the British"Wayfarer Edition" of 1914), the books were actually printedin two separate volumes, whereas the first Heinemann edition of 1892 wasa three-volume novel The three-volume novel (three-decker) was a major stage in the development of the modern Western novel as a form, being a standard form of publishing for British fiction during the nineteenth century. , with "Children" ending and"Grandchildren" beginning in the midst of volume 2. To avoidconfusion, I have avoided the terms "book" and"volume" and have chosen instead to discuss the two"parts" or "halves" of the novel--while keeping inmind that the first part is slightly longer than the second. Inproviding transliterations of Hebrew and Yiddish words, I followZangwill's spellings in Children of the Ghetto and its glossary.Page references to the novel in this essay and it s notes are to CG: AStudy of a Peculiar People by Israel Zangwill, edited by Meri-JaneRochelson (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998). (2.) Bernard Winehouse, "Israel Zangwill's Children ofthe Ghetto: A Literary History of the First Anglo-JewishBest-Seller," English Literature in Transition 1880--192016(1973):93-117. Winehouse's article gives a detailed andfascinating account of the novel's early history, and I am muchindebted to it. (3.) For a discussion of Children of the Ghetto's importanceto its first American publisher, see Jonathan D. Sarna, JPS JPS Jewish Publication SocietyJPS John Peter Smith (Hospital; Texas)JPS Justice & Public SafetyJPS Jean Piaget SocietyJPS Juvenile Polyposis SyndromeJPS Joint Planning Staff : TheAmericanization of Jewish Culture 1888--1988 (Philadelphia: JewishPublication Society, 1989), pp. 39--42. (4.) "Children of the Ghetto": First Notice, Jewish World(14 October 1892):7; W.D. Howells, "Life and Letters,"Harper's Weekly (1 June 1895):508. (5.) J. A. Noble, "New Novels," Academy (24 December1892):585; "Novels and Stories," Glasgow Herald (20 October1892): 10. (6.) "Novels of the Week," Athenaeum ath��e��nae��umalso ath��e��ne��um ?n.1. An institution, such as a literary club or scientific academy, for the promotion of learning.2. A place, such as a library, where printed materials are available for reading. (5 November1892):626. (7.) I. Abrahams, "Children of the Ghetto," JewishChronicle (14 October 1892):7. (8.) "Fiction," Speaker (22 October 1892): 509. Readersmight also be interested in the following early reviews, not cited inthis introduction: "Novels," Manchester Guardian (18 October1892): 10 (which calls Children of the Ghetto "the best Jewishnovel ever written"); "Recent Novels," Times [London] (22November 1892): 3; "Literary Reviews," Menorah menorahMultibranched candelabra used by Jews during the festival of Hanukkah. It holds nine candles (or has nine receptacles for oil). Eight of the candles stand for the eight days of Hanukkah—one is lit the first day, two the second, and so on. [New York] 14(January 1893): 56; F. de Sola Mendes, "The Children of theGhetto," American Hebrew (6 January 1893): 325--326;"Editor's Study," Harper's New Monthly Magazine 86(March 1893): 638--639; "Children of the Ghetto," Critic [NewYork] (31 August 1895):130. At least nine editions of Children of theGhetto were published in Britain and America between 1892 and 1938, andby 1900 eight reprints of the 1893 Heinemann one-volume edition hadappeared. For the nine editions, see Annamarie Peterson, "IsraelZangwill (1864--1926): A Selected Bibliography," Bulletin ofBibliography 23 (1961):136--137. The eight reprints are noted inWinehouse, "Best Seller," 10 2. By 1921 the work had beentranslated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, andYiddish (it was later also translated into Hebrew); it had beenperformed on the stage in Yiddish and Hungarian, as well as inZangwill's own dramatic adaptation and in English"pirated" versions; and its silent screen rights had beensold, in 1914, to the William Fox Company of New York. This informationis derived from a typescript notebook (probably compiled byZangwill's widow or his son Oliver) in the collection of the LondonMuseum of Jewish Life. The notebook was donated as part of a collectionof Israel and Edith Zangwill's papers by Dr. Shirley Zangwill, thewidow of Israel Zangwill's younger son, Oliver. (9.) See, for example, John Gross's comment in 1964:"Zangwill was a brave, shrewd, and intensely serious man, butjudged by respectable standards he was not a very good writer"("Zangwill in Retrospect," Commentary 38 [December 1964]:54).The subsequent discussion, in which Zangwill's "world of thesentimental cockney CockneyBow Bellsfamous bell in East End of London; “only one who is born within the bell’s sound is a true Cockney.” [Br. Hist.: NCE, 347]Doolittle, ElizaCockney girl taught by professor to imitate aristocracy. journalism of the 1880s" is said to offer"little inducement to think hard about the art of the novel"(55) suggests that respectability here equals Jamesian modernism. (10.) Elsie Bonita Bonita (Spanish and Portuguese for "beautiful") is the name of: Bonita Magazine, an international men's magazine Bonita, California Bonita, Louisiana Adams, Israel Zangwill (New York: Twayne, 1971),Chronology. (11.) Joseph H. Udelson, Zangwill's most recent biographer,makes a point of distancing the novelist's own experience from theimmigrant life he describes, as a correction to earlier assumptions(including assertions by Zangwill himself) that Zangwill was a"child of the ghetto." For numerous reasons that I discuss,however, Udelson seems to me to be overcorrecting. See Dreamer of theGhetto: The Life and Works of Israel Zangwill (Tuscaloosa: University ofAlabama Press The University of Alabama Press is a university press that is part of the University of Alabama. External linkUniversity of Alabama Press , 1990), p. 59. (12.) Israel Zangwill was the second of five children. His brotherLouis, with whom he shared a flat during bachelorhood, was also awriter, known as "Z.Z." Brother Mark was an artist whose workincluded the illustrations for Samuel Gordon's 1900 ghetto novel,Sons of the Covenant, and cartoons for Israel Zangwill's comicperiodical, Puck, later known as Ariel. (13.) See Udelson, pp. 60--63; Maurice Wohlgelernter, IsraelZangwill: A Study (New York: Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is an academic press based in New York City and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by James D. Jordan (2004-present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fields of literary and cultural studies, , 1964), pp.16--19; Joseph Leftwich, Israel Zangwill (London: James Clarke &Co., 1957), pp. 72-77, 89-90. (14.) Letter to Clement Shorter, editor of the Illustrated LondonNews Illustrated London NewsHistoric magazine of news and the arts, published in London. Founded in 1842 as a weekly, it became a monthly in 1971. A pioneer in the use of various graphic arts, it was London's first illustrated periodical, the first periodical to make extensive and the Sketch, 27 September 1893, Brotherton Collection, LeedsUniversity Library. The relevant passage is also quoted in Winehouse,"Best-Seller," 110. (15.) Winehouse, "Best-Seller," 100. (16.) Udelson, pp. 149--150; see also Sheila R. Herstein, AMid-Victorian Feminist, Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon (New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, 1985), pp. 184--189. Herstein mentions the fact (alsonoted by Zangwill's biographers) that, because of GeorgeEliot's friendship with Bodichon, Phoebe Marks was at firstconsidered the original of Mirah in Daniel Deronda. Although confirmingthat Eliot had Mirah in mind before meeting Marks, Herstein alsosuggests that Eliot may have "used many of Marks's physicaltraits and mannerisms in drawing Mirah's character" (187).Hertha and William Ayrton's daughter Barbara, Edith'shalf-sister, was named after Barbara Bodichon. She eventually marriedthe writer Gerald Gould, was an activist in the suffrage movement, andremained close to the Zangwill family. (17.) Wohlgelernter, p. 25. (18.) Udelson, p. 76. (19.) New York Times, 2 August 1926. The Times of London alsopublished a long and prominent obituary notice on that date (11). Itincluded a photograph of Zangwill at the center of a full-page pictorialspread that featured "Yachting in Southampton Water" and othersocial notes of the August bank holiday (12). (20.) Udelson, pp. 235-236. (21.) Edith Zangwill to Marie Stopes, August (?) 1926, BritishLibrary Manuscript Collection, file BL Add. Mss. 58497, f. 45. (22.) Winehouse indicates that Esther Ansell's departure for avisit to America is Zangwill's compromise answer toSulzberger's request that he have her emigrate there("Best-Seller," 97). Much has been made of that request inSulzberger's letter of 18 February 1891, which is quoted at lengthin Sarna, p. 40. However, five months later Sulzberger wrote to Zangwillin a way that indicates his suggestions were not intended as mandates:"As regards my contribution to your Proposed Jewish navel, you havemy free leave to "kill" the matter. I have no hope to rank asthe joint author of the forthcoming work, nor any desire to be toldhereafter that I helped to put your genius in a strait-waistcoat, andthat therefore it could not move its arms freely. Upon you will rest theresponsibility of the construction, from the keel up" (Letter, 17July 1891, file A120/462, Central Zionist Archives; a copy is also onfile in the Philadelphia Jewish Archives at the Balch institute, SeriesII, Subseries C, Part II, Mayer Sulzberger Correspondence, Folder 4). In addition, the role given to the United States in this novel isvery much in keeping with Zangwill's longstanding hope for Americaas the home of the future of Judaism. His continued idealism in thisregard is reflected in his famous 1908 play, The Melting Pot. (23.) Lucien Wolf, "Israel Zangwill," Transactions of theJewish Historical Society of England 11 (1924-26): 255. Wolf was aJewish newspaper editor in the early 1890s who became an importantcommunal leader ("Anglo-Jewry's foreign secretary," ashistorian Eugene C. Black has described him; see The Social Politics ofAnglo-Jewry 1880-1920 [Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988], P. 33). Accordingto Wolf, in his article in Transactions, he had recommended Zangwill tothe JPSA after turning down their invitation himself. (24.) Wolf, 254. (25.) Israel Zangwill, "English Judaism: A Criticism and aClassification," Jewish Quarterly Review 1 (1889): 397. (26.) "English Judaism," 403. (27.) "English Judaism," 402, 406-407. (28.) Geoffrey Alderman, Modern British Jewry (Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 1992), p.5; Todd Endelman, Radical Assimilation inEnglish Jewish History 1656-1945(Bloomington: Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is a publishing house at Indiana University that engages in academic publishing, specializing in the humanities and social sciences. It was founded in 1950. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. ,1990), pp. 9-10. James Shapiro persuasively counters the myth that therewere no Jews in England between 1290 and 1656; still, he numbers Jews inShakespeare's time as "probably never more than a couple ofhundred...in the whole country" (Shakespeare and the Jews [NewYork: Columbia University Press, 1996], p. 76). (29.) Endelman, p. 34. In presenting migration statistics, Endelmanand Alderman each acknowledge the work of historian V. D. Lipman, AHistory of the Jews in Britain since 1858 (New York: Holmes & Meier,1990). (30.) See also Todd Endelman, "Benjamin Disraeli and the Mythof Sephardi Supremacy," Jewish History 10.2 (Fall 1996): 1-15. (31.) Lloyd P. Gartner, The Jewish Immigrant in England,1870-1914(Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1960), pp. 16-17. (32.) Gartner, p. 49. (33.) William J. Fishman records this figure from CharlesBooth's paper to the Royal Statistical Society, "TheInhabitants :This article is about the video game. For Inhabitants of housing, see Residency Inhabitants is an independently developed commercial puzzle game created by S+F Software. DetailsThe game is based loosely on the concepts from SameGame. of Tower Hamlets (School Board Division), their Conditionsand Occupations, Winter 1886 to Early 1887," May 1887: 45; seeFishman, East End 1888: Life in a London Borough among the Laboring Poor(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988), p. 131. Fishman adds,however, that the figure "may well have been an overestimate." (34.) Gartner, The Jewish Immigrant in England, pp. 40-42; also"The Great Jewish Migration 1881-1914: Myths and Realities,"Kaplan Centre Papers (Cape Town: University of Cape Town Coordinates: “UCT” redirects here. For other uses, see UCT (disambiguation). , 1984), pp.3-4. (35.) See, for example, Eugene C. Black's mention of the PurimBall in The Social Politics of Anglo Jewry, p. 150. Geoffrey Aldermanand Judy Glasman both refer to Zangwill's comments on the UnitedSynagogue; see Alderman, p. 214, and Glasman, "Assimilation byDesign: London Synagogues in the Nineteenth Century," in The JewishHeritage in British History: Englishness and Jewishness, edited by TonyKushner (London: Frank Cass, 1992), p. 174. Finally, William J. Fishman,the preeminent twentieth-century historian of the East End, quotes fromZangwill's romantic "Proem" and names him "the greatchronicler" of the Jewish ghetto (East End 1888, p. 176). (36.) "Opening the Soup Kitchen-Wednesday Evening"describes the crowds of the poor waiting to be served and thedignitaries who kept them waiting with lengthy speeches ("Morourand Charouseth," Jewish Standard [21 December 1888]: 10). InDecember 1892, Zangwill criticized the length of oratory at another suchopening: "If the six gentlemen who spoke will listen to a speechfrom me at the conclusion of the next Day of Atonement [a fast day](before having their "breakfast," but after I have had mine,)I will gladly devote a good deal of my time to convincing them of theheinousness of their conduct" ("Chatter about Charity,"Jewish Chronicle [December 23, 1892]: 6). (37.) See Leftwich, pp. 64--69; Winehouse, "Best-Seller,"98--99. Both Leftwich and Winehouse report Imber's annoyance atbeing portrayed as a frequently inebriated inebriated (i·nēˑ·brē·āˈ·td),adj intoxicated. opportunist op��por��tun��ist?n.One who takes advantage of any opportunity to achieve an end, often with no regard for principles or consequences.op (acharacterization supported by various sources). Winehouse adds that he"is said to have sued somebody" (99) who made the connection,particularly since it is suggested in the novel that Pinchas translatesthe missionaries' texts into Hebrew. Coincidentally, both"Imber" (Yiddish) and "Zangwill" (Hebrew) have thesame meaning: ginger. (38.) M. C. Birchenough, " Children of the Ghetto,"Jewish Quarterly Review 5 (1893): 331. Although this faith in realism asaccuracy may seem to be naive (as well as seeming to ignore the gauze gauze(gawz) a light, open-meshed fabric of muslin or similar material.absorbable gauze? gauze made from oxidized cellulose. ofnostalgia that frequently softens Zangwill's picture), accuraterepresentation was Zangwill's goal. A realist in the George Eliottradition, Zangwill viewed the novel as a way to achieve sympatheticunderstanding. It is telling that, while not a disciple of Zola, heallows Esther Ansell to express admiration for "the modemrealism...in literature" (377). Her elaboration that (in visualart) "I like poetic pictures, impregnated im��preg��nate?tr.v. im��preg��nat��ed, im��preg��nat��ing, im��preg��nates1. To make pregnant; inseminate.2. To fertilize (an ovum, for example).3. with vague romanticmelancholy," echoes Zangwill's statement in the"Proem" that "this London Ghetto of ours is a regionwhere, amid uncleanness and squalor, the rose of romance blows yet alittle longer in the raw air of English reality" (61). It is worthnoting that the lengthy, elegiac el��e��gi��ac?adj.1. Of, relating to, or involving elegy or mourning or expressing sorrow for that which is irrecoverably past: an elegiac lament for youthful ideals.2. description of the ghetto that formsmost of the "Proem" in published versions of the novelappeared in Z angwill's typescript at the beginning of a chaptercalled "Petticoat Lane," the first part of "Malka"in the present edition. The change in placement signals that Zangwillrecognized the difference in tone between the more sustained narrativeand what be came the "Proem," but he also saw how valuable theProem's intense nostalgia could be in coloring the reading of allthat followed. The inherence of romance in Jewish epistemology, andhence in a larger Jewish reality, is emphasized in the recounting ofJewish legends in the chapter "Esther and Her Children."Children of the Ghetto itself becomes part of a verbal and literaryheritage that shapes the Jewish worldview world��view?n. In both senses also called Weltanschauung.1. The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world.2. A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or a group. , as it includes such storiesand even repeats Jewish jokes. Still, by means of this polyglot pol��y��glot?adj.Speaking, writing, written in, or composed of several languages.n.1. A person having a speaking, reading, or writing knowledge of several languages.2. mixtureof realism and romance, Zangwill managed to convey some unsettling un��set��tle?v. un��set��tled, un��set��tling, un��set��tlesv.tr.1. To displace from a settled condition; disrupt.2. To make uneasy; disturb.v.intr. contemporary truths. (39.) Glasman, "London Synagogues"; Black, pp. 52--53. (40.) Black, pp. 61--63. (41.) Bryan Cheyette quotes the term "Anti-Semitism ofTolerance" in "From Apology to Revolt: Benjamin Farjeon, AmyLevy and the Post-Emancipation Anglo-Jewish Novel, 1880--1900,"Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England 29 (1982--86):255. The phrase was originated by Bill Williams, historian of theManchester Jewish community. For its consequences on Anglo-Jewishhistoriography and cultural conservation, see the articles by Kushnerand Williams in Kushner, ed., Jewish Heritage, pp. 78--105, 128--146. (42.) Sympathetic articles include "The Persecution of theJews [of Corfu]," Times [London] (23 May 1891): 7, and "ThePersecution of the Jews [of Russia]," (25 May 1891): 5. A few weeksearlier, the Times had published an account of an anti-alien meeting atthe Westminster Palace Hotel, "The Immigration of DestituteAliens," (4 May 1891): 13. Among the proceedings reported was thestatement of Sir William Marriott, MP, "that he had to...and wasshocked with the 'incivilization' in the mode of living hewitnessed." The audience's approval was noted. (43.) Many of the scenes in the first part of the novel illustrate,comment on, and respond to the precariousness of Jewish immigrant lifein an atmosphere of growing anti-alien sentiment. In his delineation ofthe Belcovitch sweatshop sweatshop:see sweating system. , for example, Zangwill took on a subject thatboth fueled British anti-immigrant activities and caused significantdiscomfort to established Anglo-Jewry. His treatment of BearBelcovitch's "contrariety con��tra��ri��e��ty?n. pl. con��tra��ri��e��ties1. The quality or condition of being contrary.2. Something that is contrary.Noun 1. of character" (93) reflects theambivalence of the Anglo-Jewish leadership toward the sweating system,and may be seen as an attempt to create favorable public opinion about asystem that might otherwise appear indefensible. In 1888 twoParliamentary committees investigated the garment factories of the EastEnd and reported on conditions of overcrowding overcrowdingovercrowding of animal accommodation. Many countries now publish codes of practice which define what the appropriate volumetric allowances should be for each species of animal when they are housed indoors. Breaches of these codes is overcrowding. , overwork overworkthe condition produced by working a draft animal or working dog, an eventing or endurance horse too hard. See also exhaustion. , andunderpayment. Although they did not omit mention of sweatingestablishments operated by non-Jews, their reports contributed to thepublic percep- tion that immigrants (specifically Jews) were the primarypractitioners, and indeed the cause, of the sweating system. Thisperception was ratified in the press of both the East and the West End.William Fishman quotes an editorial in the East London Advertiser to theeffect that, "[t]he swarms of foreign Jews, who have invaded theEast End labour market, are chiefly responsible for this system and thegrave evils which are flowing from it. Of course they are numbered amongits victims too: but the brunt of the hardships involved in it fall withtenfold severity upon the English men and women who cannot live on thesame paltry pittance pit��tance?n.1. A meager monetary allowance, wage, or remuneration.2. A very small amount: not a pittance of remorse. as their foreign rivals" (East LondonAdvertiser, 3 March 1888, quoted in Fishman, East End 1888, p. 62). Similarly, "Mrs. Jeune," in the English IllustratedMagazine of January 1890, writes: "It must never...be forgottenthat there is another class of worker in the East End who has nosympathy for her English sisters, and whom organized attempt on theirpart to raise wages would benefit by giving her some of the work theyrejected on account of bad pay [sic]--the immigrant from theContinent.... [W]e have allowed them to take a great deal of theemployment which legitimately belongs to our own people out of theirhands. The most formidable of all their industrial competitors are theJews" (Mrs. Jeune, "Competition and Cooperation amongWomen," English Illustrated Magazine 7 [1889-90]: 297). As historian Eugene Black explains, while established Jews felt theneed to combat statements that fueled antisernitism and anti-alienfeeling--and while they believed on humanitarian grounds that the abusesof the sweatshops should not be encouraged--they also recognized thepositive value of these informally run factories to the Jewishimmigrants. With large numbers of workers streaming into the East End,sweaters like Bear Belcovitch created opportunities for employment andeven upward mobility in a comfortably Jewish environment, thus enablingmany new immigrants to survive without depending on charity. Since theycould do little to end the system, "Anglo-Jewry went out of its wayto ensure that sweating was understood to be a national, not merely aJewish, practice and problem" (Black, pp. 39-40). Note alsoFishman's rhetorical question: "How many Gentile employers innon-immigrant trades would be prepared to employ alien Jews, who weregenerally unpopular in a period of economic stress and job competition?" (East End 1888, p. 133). Zangwill, as a novelist, was able toconvey the complexities that were not represented in officialstatements. His depictions of religious rituals and celebrations thatconnected factory owners to workers in Children of the Ghetto were a wayto demystify de��mys��ti��fy?tr.v. de��mys��ti��fied, de��mys��ti��fy��ing, de��mys��ti��fiesTo make less mysterious; clarify: an autobiography that demystified the career of an eminent physician. the Jewish experience and create a basis for sympathy. Similarly, Zangwill's portrayal of the strikers, with theirantireligious Friday night meeting, reflects contemporary events and atthe same time serves as a buffer against readers' more negativeexpectations. The intensive and distressing labor actions of the 1880sand 1890s were bad enough. The International Workers Educational Club inBerner Street--a group Zangwill mentions in his chapters "TheSweater" and "With the Strikers"--scandalized theestablished Jewish community by advertising in the Yiddish-languageradical newspaper "a secular ball to be held on the same day as YomKippur," a fast day and the holiest day of the Jewish year(Fishman, p. 281). Zangwill's satire in "With theStrikers" reflects a suspicion of radical activity evident inZangwill's 1893 play The Great Demonstration and again, two decadeslater, in his aversion to the more violent tactics of the feministmovement. In Children of the Ghetto, however, the slapstick slapstickComedy characterized by broad humour, absurd situations, and vigorous, often violent action. It took its name from a paddlelike device, probably introduced by 16th-century commedia dell'arte troupes, that produced a resounding whack when one comic actor used it to conclusionto the strike meeting may have served most importantly to reassure bothJewish and non-Jewish readers shaken by recent bootmakers',tailors', and bakers' strikes. (44.) G. M. Street, "From a London Attic: An Essay onJews," Pall Mall Magazine 21 (1900): 285 [inclusive pages 284-288]. (45.) Although some of Zangwill's biographers identify LouisCowen as coauthor of the story, Bernard Winehouse has agreed with JosephLeftwich in naming Meyer Breslar as the collaborator (Bernard Winehouse,"The Literary Career of Israel Zangwill from Its Beginnings until1898," Doctoral dissertation, U of London, 1970: 13-14). The story of this publication (and the subsequent trouble it gaveZangwill at the Jews' Free School) is told by Zangwill in "MyFirst Book," Idler 3 (1893): 631-635. In a letter to IsraelSolomons, Breslar states, "As far as I can fix the date ofpublication it was 1880." Most published accounts, however, haveplaced it two years later, which would coincide with Zangwill's ownaccount that he wrote it after the success of "ProfessorGrimmer," the story that won a prize in the Society magazinecompetition in November 1881. In his letter, Breslar corrects a few errors in Zangwill'spublished account and blames him for being self-serving when, after arelated publishing experience, Zangwill allowed Breslar to resign fromhis teaching post at the behest of the authorities while contentedlyholding on to his own position. Zangwill eventually left the schoolafter another dispute with its authorities. Meyer Breslar's letter is bound together with Motso Kleis,"My First Book," and a letter from Zangwill's secretary,R Phillips, in the collection of the Jewish Theological Seminary. I amgrateful to the University of Maryland University of Maryland can refer to: University of Maryland, College Park, a research-extensive and flagship university; when the term "University of Maryland" is used without any qualification, it generally refers to this school library for providing me with amicrofiche Pronounced "micro-feesh." A 4x6" sheet of film that holds several hundred miniaturized document pages. See micrographics. copy. (46.) "My First Book," 632. (47.) "Our Duty to the East End," Jewish Standard (29 May1891): 6. (48.) Zangwill, "Preface to the Third Edition," Childrenof the Ghetto; Winehouse, "Best-Seller," 104--105. The callfor a glossary appeared in several British reviews, most notably in theSpectator ("Recent Novels," [26 November 1892]: 774).Zangwill's prefatory pref��a��to��ry?adj.Of, relating to, or constituting a preface; introductory. See Synonyms at preliminary.[From Latin praef statement in the glossary may be a directrebuttal rebuttaln. evidence introduced to counter, disprove or contradict the opposition's evidence or a presumption, or responsive legal argument. to M. C. Birchenough, who wrote that "flesh and spiritrebel when conversation of an entirely lay nature is invaded byincomprehensible words of a barbarous appearance, and only an occasionalfamily likeness to any of the languages generally included in a moderneducation" (Jewish Quarterly Review 5 [1893]: 333). Significantly,American reviewers expressed gratitude for the JPSA glossary. See"Some New Publications: A Curious Novel of Jewish Life inLondon," New York Times (12 December 1892): 3. For additionaldimensions of Zangwill's ambivalence about Yiddish in the novel,see my article "Language, Gender, and Ethnic Anxiety inZangwill's Children of the Ghetto," English Literature inTransition 188 0--1920 31(1988): 400--402. In an essay titled "The Empire at Home" (in Homes andHomelessness in the Victorian Imagination, edited by Murray Baumgartenand H. M. Daleski, AMS AMS - Andrew Message System Press, forthcoming), Joseph Childers examines thelanguage of Children of the Ghetto in the context of postcolonialdiscourse. He finds that varieties of Yiddish and English in the novelmark the instability of identity in characters who are "at one andthe same time entirely within and entirely outside Englishness."Childers's study builds on the fact that the Jews of the Londonghetto were viewed with the blend of curiosity, fear, and racism thatcharacterized English representations of African and Asian"others." (49.) The typescript itself, which is the earliest known version ofthe novel, covers only the first eleven chapters of the "Childrenof the Ghetto" part and includes a title page, a table of contents(for that part only), and the "Proem." It contains notes inZangwill's hand, including textual revisions, as well as minimalproofreader's marks. Listed in Harry M. Rabinowicz, The JewishLiterary Treasures of England and America (London: Yoseloff, 1962), p.118, the typescript is held by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute ofReligion, New York City, where it is part of the George Alexander KohutCollection of Manuscripts, item Ms.NewYork.JIR JIR Juventud de Izquierda RevolucionariaJIR Journal of Irreproducible ResultsJIR Journal of Improbable ResultsJIR Jumper for Infra Red .K.11. I am grateful toPhilip Miller, Director of the Klau Library at HUC-JIR HUC-JIR Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (since 1875), New York for hisgenerous assistance. (50.) Endelman, Radical Assimilation, pp. 80--81,113. (51.) See John M. Efron, Defenders of the Race: Jewish Doctors andRace Science in Fin-de-Siecle Europe (New Haven: Yale University Press,1994). (52.) Illustration, "Janus: Or, A Look A Head," Ariel;or, the London Puck (3 January 1891): 8--9. (53.) Birchenough, "Children of the Ghetto," 330n. (54.) Zangwill knew he would be inviting careful scrutiny, if notharsh criticism, by attempting to represent West End Jewish life. If hisown experience with Motso Kleis were not enough, he had ample evidencein the reception given to the fiction of some of his contemporaries.Children of the Ghetto closely followed in time such controversialnovels of Anglo-Jewish life as Julia Frankau's (writing as FrankDanby) Dr. Phillips(1887) and Amy Levy's Reuben Sachs (1888).Zangwill himself had joined the uproar against those novels'unflattering depictions of the Jewish middle class when, as humorcolumnist for the Jewish Standard, he lampooned them together in a comicpoem. As the Standard's frequent leader writer he may also havebeen responsible for the editorial that stated, "we ... object tothe bipedal bipedaladjective Capable of locomotion on 2 feet cuttle-fish squirting its nauseous nauseous/nau��seous/ (naw��shus) pertaining to or producing nausea. nau��seousadj.1. Causing nausea.2. Affected with nausea. black fluid on to cleanpaper and calling the result a picture. The writers of the novelsreferred to are not persons whose age and experience of human lifeentitle their opi nions to any respect." (The poetic parodyappeared in "Morour and Charouseth," Jewish Standard 1 March1889:9. The editorial appeared the following week, after Zangwilllearned that some communal leaders had apparently taken the parodyseriously and objected to its content ["A MisunderstoodMarshallik," Jewish Standard 8 March 1889:7].) On the other hand,Amy Levy's suicide may have made him contrite con��trite?adj.1. Feeling regret and sorrow for one's sins or offenses; penitent.2. Arising from or expressing contrition: contrite words. . In 1901 he wrotethat, while Levy was "accused ... of fouling her own nest [,] ...what she had really done was to point out that the nest was fouled andmust be cleaned out." Jewish Chronicle 25 January 1901:19; quotedin Cheyette, "From Apology to Revolt," 260.) The novelMordecai Josephs that causes such Jewish handwringing hand��wring��ingor hand wringing ?n.1. Clasping and squeezing of the hands, often in distress.2. An excessive expression of distress: handwringing by some experts over the state of the economy. in Children of theGhetto appears to be modeled on Reuben Sacks, and Esther Ansell'sneurosis neurosis,in psychiatry, a broad category of psychological disturbance, encompassing various mild forms of mental disorder. Until fairly recently, the term neurosis was broadly employed in contrast with psychosis, which denoted much more severe, debilitating mental and depression--characteristics that substantiate theidentification of Esther with Zangwill himself--even more closely relateher to Amy Levy (see Winehouse, 'Best-Seller," 99). Indeed,the incident that led to the "cuttle-fish" leader isre-created in Children of the Ghetto when a burlesque burlesque(bûrlĕsk`)[Ital.,=mockery], form of entertainment differing from comedy or farce in that it achieves its effects through caricature, ridicule, and distortion. It differs from satire in that it is devoid of any ethical element. on MordecaiJosephs in the Flag of Judah is taken seriously: "Mr. and Mrs.Henry Goldsmith were scandalized, and Raphael had to shield littleSampson by accepting the whole responsibility for its appearance"(418). Zangwill's nouveaux riches Goldsmiths (who hold a Christmerdinner for their Jewish circle, adhere to the rules of kashrnt for thesake of their Irish maid, and "[feel] it very hard that a littlevulgar section should always be chosen by their own novelists"[332]) themselves aroused communal ire, although British Jews were lessvociferous than the American Cyrus Sulzberger in their opposition.(Winehouse writes that "[t]he controversy over the novel continuedin the Jewish press on both sides of the Atlantic for [s]omemonths" ["Best-Seller," 108], but he does not cite anypublished opposition in Britain, nor was I able to find more than Idiscuss in the Jewish Chronicle, the leading Anglo-Jewish paper. TheJewish World had nothing negative to say about "Grandchildren"in its review, which focused on that section's ideological debatesand mentioned the Christmas dinner only as the setting for discussion ofMordecai Josephs ["Children 0f the Ghetto": Second Notice (21October 1892): 3]. Winehouse does report on a conversation recorded byZangwill in his diary between a friend of his and Chief Rabbi MosesGaster: "The latter spoke of Zangwill ... 'as an ungratefulrough diamond.' Zangwill's friend tartly replied to the Rabbithat he should have been grateful for what the author had left out"["Best-Seller," 110]. Cyrus Sulzberger's criticismsappeared in the letters columns of American Hebrew [2 December 1892]:151 and [30 December 18921: 296-297.) Israel Abrahams, for example, inan otherwise favorable review of Children 0f the Ghetto for the JewishChronicle, wrote, "There are several things which we could havewished Mr. Zangwill had left untouched." These include details ofcooking and feeding among the ghetto immigrants (which "leave asense of physical repulsion repulsion/re��pul��sion/ (re-pul��shun)1. the act of driving apart or away; a force that tends to drive two bodies apart.2. instead of sympathetic attraction") andunspecified "aspects of middle-class life of the English Jewswhich, strange to say, Mr. Zangwill has not sense of humour Noun 1. sense of humour - the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous; "she didn't appreciate my humor"; "you can't survive in the army without a sense of humor"sense of humor, humor, humour enough toappreciate fairly." Abrahams remarked that if Zangwill hadpresented scenes i n the lives of non-Jewish neighbors in both the Eastand the West Ends, readers would have recognized in those, too,criticism of "facts which are not Jewish but human." He gentlychastised chas��tise?tr.v. chas��tised, chas��tis��ing, chas��tis��es1. To punish, as by beating. See Synonyms at punish.2. To criticize severely; rebuke.3. Archaic To purify. Zangwill, his friend, for presenting "details [which] areuntrue, though they be almost always true." (Abrahams, 7).Interestingly, Zangwill would echo Abrahams's critique of hisrealism in his own later essay on "The Realistic Novel."Arguing against Zola's position that realist fiction "is basedon 'human documents,' and 'human documents' are madeup of 'facts,"' Zangwill states, in italics, "But inhuman life there are no facts... . Life is in the eye of theobserver" ["The Realistic Novel," in Without Prejudice Without any loss or waiver of rights or privileges.When a lawsuit is dismissed, the court may enter a judgment against the plaintiff with or without prejudice. When a lawsuit is dismissed without prejudice (1891; rpt. Essay Index Reprint Series, Freeport, NY: Books forLibraries Press, 1973), p. 83].) The presumably pre��sum��a��ble?adj.That can be presumed or taken for granted; reasonable as a supposition: presumable causes of the disaster. non-Jewish reviewer forthe Academy, while praising the novel in general, expressed surprise"[t]hat a Jewish club should have given Mr. Zangwill a banquet inrecognition of his services to the race" ( Noble, "NewNovels," 585). (55.) File A120/119, Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem. (56.) CZA CZA Chichen Itza, Mexico (airport code)CZA Chinese Zeolite AssociationCZA Course Zero Automation (Boston, MA Inertial Navigation Units)A 120/119, ms. p.31. (57.) Udelson, pp. 88-89. (58.) Dan Miron, "The Literary Image of the Shtetl,"Jewish Social Studies: History, Culture, and Society n.s. 1.3 (Spring1995): 1-43. (59.) Abrahams, 7. (60.) Childers, "The Empire at Home," last page; italicsin original.