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Israel's Zangwill; or, The Return of the King of Schnorrers
in European Judaism
Author:
Eitan Bar-Yosef
Eitan Bar-Yosef
Associate Professor, Ben-Gurion University, Israel
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Abstract
This article explores Israel Zangwill's posthumous presence in Israeli culture, as reflected in various media and discursive arenas: press coverage of his death and Yahrzeits; trends in the translation, publication and staging of his works; the inauguration of streets bearing his name; and references to his views and legacy in various political debates. Demonstrating how the tensions and contradictions so typical of Zangwill's persona were interpreted by cultural commentators or appropriated by opposing political camps, the first part of the article traces and contextualises Zangwill's gradual disappearance from the Israeli cultural mainstream. The second part then moves on to consider Zangwill's unexpected comeback in 2021, when a musical production of The King of Schnorrers, adapted by Nati Brooks, was staged in Tel Aviv. While the renewed interest in Zangwill's work is rooted specifically in the playwright's Anglo-Jewish background, the production employs Zangwill's 1790s Jewish London to consider ethnic tensions in present-day Israel.
Contributor Notes
Eitan Bar-Yosef is Associate Professor in the Department of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. Exploring colonial and postcolonial affinities between British and Israeli cultures, he is the author of The Holy Land in English Culture, 1799–1917: Palestine and the Question of Orientalism (2005) and A Villa in the Jungle: Africa in Israeli Culture (2013, Hebrew).