Purchase this article
USD $22.00
Author:
Jakob Egholm Feldt
Jakob Egholm Feldt
Professor, Roskilde University, Denmark
Search for other papers by Jakob Egholm Feldt in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Jakob Egholm Feldt in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
USD $0.01
All currencies in US Dollar
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.
Contributor Notes
Jakob Egholm Feldt is Professor of History at Roskilde University. His research interests include: the connection between historical identities (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and cultural, historical and social theory; temporality and historical synchronisation; cultural and historical exemplarity and contingency; and civil sphere theory. He also publishes on higher education policy and practice.