Amalgamation and Regeneration Visions of Future Jewish Inclusion

Jakob Egholm Feldt*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-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.
Original languageEnglish
JournalEuropean Judaism
Volume57
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)85-100
Number of pages16
ISSN0014-3006
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2024

Keywords

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

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