Israel Zangwill

Born in London in 1864 to immigrant Jewish parents, he grew up in Bristol and London and later taught at the Jews' Free School, where he had once been a pupil. He became one of the earliest widely read English writers to portray Jewish life from the inside, helping bring East End immigrant experience to a broad audience.

His reputation was made by Children of the Ghetto (1892), and he went on to write novels, essays, and plays marked by wit, social observation, and argument. His 1908 play The Melting Pot became especially famous for giving lasting currency to the phrase "melting pot" in discussions of American identity.

He was also active in public life, especially in debates around Zionism and later territorialism, and was closely associated for a time with Theodor Herzl. He died in 1926 in Midhurst, West Sussex, leaving behind work that still stands out for its sharp humor and serious engagement with questions of culture, prejudice, and national belonging.