Zangwill had an extraordinary career. Born in poverty in the East End in 1864, and educated at the Jews' Free School, he grew up to become a novelist, essayist, playwright, and journalist. He was also an active campaigner for political causes as diverse as women's suffrage, pacifism and Zionism. The Zangwill memorial issue of the JFS magazine includes his own account of his first day as a pupil there, along with other material written on him by others.

The image on the left shows a wooden bowl presented to Zangwill in 1915. It was commissioned by the editor of Yiddish newspaper Die Tsayt (The Times) and made by artist Lazar Berson. It commemorates Zangwill's robust treatment, at a public meeting in Kingsway Hall, London, of a heckler who had described him as 'an alien Jew'. The ivory panel contains the text, in English, 'I am a Jew, of course, and proud of it. The advantage of being of Jewish birth brought me into relation with a good deal of suffering all over the world, and I appreciate more than Englishmen possibly may do the great advantage the English enjoy in the possession of liberty in their constitution'

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