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*Migration Histories > Jewish > Settling
* Children of the Ghetto 
 
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'Peripatetic philosophers of the ghetto', from the chapter on Jewish London in G R Sims' Living London
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'Peripatetic philosophers of the ghetto', from the chapter on Jewish London in G R Sims' Living London
* Moving Here catalogue reference (MOL) LIB5333/MH2
Zangwill grew up in London's East End just before the period of mass immigration from eastern Europe, but the area already had a distinctive Jewish character.

In 1892 he published his best-known work, Children of the Ghetto, an epic tale of Jewish life in London, describing both the poverty of the East End and the wealthy lives of the established Jews in the West End. Zangwill drew on his experiences of growing up in Whitechapel to draw a detailed and understanding picture of the lives of the immigrants.

Zangwill's descriptions, some of which follow here, remain some of the most vivid and realistic of immigrant life. All are taken from Children of the Ghetto.


Zangwill on Petticoat Lane

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A poultry slaughterhouse
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A poultry slaughterhouse
* Moving Here catalogue reference (MOL) LIB5333/MH2
The Lane was always the great marketplace, and every insalubrious street and alley abutting on it was covered with the overflowings of its commerce and its mud. Wentworth Street and Goulston Street were the chief branches, and in festival times the latter was a pandemonium of caged poultry, clucking and quacking, and cackling and screaming. A babel of sound, audible for several streets around, denoted market day in Petticoat Lane, and the pavements were blocked by serried crowds going both ways at once.

Zangwill on Jewish cookery

Fish was indeed the staple of the meal. Fried fish, and such fried fish! With the audacity of true culinary genius, Jewish fried fish is always served cold. The skin is a beautiful brown, the substance firm and succulent. Other delicious things there are in Jewish cookery - Lockshen, which are the apotheosis of vermicelli; Ferfel, which are lockshen in an atomic state; and Creplich , which are triangular meat pasties; and there is even gefullte Fisch, which is stuffed fish without bones - but fried fish reigns above all in cold, unquestioned superiority.

Zangwill on the lives of the Jewish immigrants

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Programme for the 1899 stage version of Children of the Ghetto
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Programme for the 1899 stage version of Children of the Ghetto
* Moving Here catalogue reference (JML) 1119.3
Hawkers and pedlars, tailors and cigar-makers, cobblers and furriers, glaziers and cap-makers - this was in sum their life: to pray much and to work long; to beg a little and to cheat a little; to eat not over much and to 'drink' scarce at all; to beget annual children by chaste wives (disallowed them half the year), and to rear them not over-well; to study the Law and the Prophets, and to reverence the Rabbinical tradition and the chaos of commentaries surrounding it; to know no work on Sabbath and no rest on weekday.
It was a series of recurrent landmarks, ritual and historical, of intimacy with God so continuous that they were in danger of forgetting his existence, as of the air they breathed. And so the stuffy room (the synagogue), with its guttering candles and its chameleon coloured ark curtain, was the pivot of their narrow lives.
Children of the Ghetto was an enormous success in both England and America. The story was about a romance between Hannah Jacobs and David Brandon, who were forbidden to marry by Hannah's father, Reb Shemuel, because of a Jewish law. It was translated into many other languages, including Yiddish, performed on stage, and made into a silent film. Its popularity opened the eyes of many non-Jews to the realities of immigrant life, and elicited greater sympathy for Jewish *aliens.

Zangwill however was reluctant to be identified solely with Jewish themes. He wrote stories, essays, and plays on a variety of subjects. These included the first 'locked door' detective story, The Big Bow Mystery, and Merely Mary Ann, a light romantic comedy that was successfully adapted for both stage and screen. *Read Zangwill's correspondence with his literary agent.

Zangwill was also passionately involved in a variety of political causes. Although not a religious Jew, he was an ardent early Zionist, believing that the Jews must have a homeland of their own. He set up the Jewish Territorial Organisation, which helped thousands of Jews to escape persecution in Russia and settle in Galveston, Texas. With his wife Edith, he was also an active supporter of women's suffrage, and a popular and impassioned speaker and writer on the subject.

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Zangwill in correspondence with his literary agent, W M Colles
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Zangwill in correspondence with his literary agent, W M Colles
* Moving Here catalogue reference (JML) 1990.218.3
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Cover of the Jews' Free School Magazine, 1926.
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Cover of the Jews' Free School Magazine, 1926.
* Moving Here catalogue reference (JML) 1987.85.17
In his later years Zangwill suffered from depression, not helped by a string of unsuccessful plays and a split with the Zionist movement. He died in 1926.

The picture on the right shows the cover of the Jews' Free School Magazine, 1926. The issue was dedicated to the memory of Zangwill, a former pupil and teacher. His first works were published while he was at the school, but his writing brought him into conflict with the school authorities, who did not like his sometimes unflattering portrayals of Jewish characters. He resigned to pursue his writing full-time, but continued to hold the school in deep affection, and sent tickets for each of his plays to all the staff.

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Creators: Carol Seigel

 
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