Amalgamation and Regeneration Visions of Future Jewish Inclusion

Jakob Egholm Feldt*

*Corresponding author

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningpeer review

Abstract

This article discusses Israel Zangwill’s play The Melting Pot (1908) and Horace M. Kallen’s essay ‘Democracy versus the Melting Pot’ (1915) as two different visions of future Jewish inclusion. Zangwill’s play and Kallen’s response reflect social changes at the time, and both visions consider Jewish history exemplary for the world-to-come. Both show how conceptions of Jewishness were turned into universalist teleologies, but of different kinds. Zangwill’s play opened in Washington at the height of immigration, urbanisation and social change, and it swiftly exemplified a vision of the American nation in the making, emphasising concepts of amalgamation more than old historical identities. In opposition, Kallen’s response in 1915 emphasised historical identities and rejected the metal melting metaphors, replacing them with a Darwin-inspired spontaneous ‘symphony’. Zangwill and Kallen both imagined the future world as profoundly shaped by Jewishness, albeit with different consequences.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftEuropean Judaism
Vol/bind57
Udgave nummer2
Sider (fra-til)85-100
Antal sider16
ISSN0014-3006
DOI
StatusUdgivet - sep. 2024

Emneord

  • Civil society
  • Horace M. Kallen
  • Israel Zangwill
  • Pluralism
  • The melting pot

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