SOURCE: “Israel Zangwill,” in Jewish Book Annual, Vol. 10, 1951–1952, pp. 37–42.

In the excerpt below, Eisenstein briefly discusses two major themes evident in Children of the Ghetto and several of Zangwill's stories: the tragic and noble character of the Jewish ghetto and the insurmountable schism between different generations of Jews.

Two major themes seem to have occupied Zangwill: 1) the nobility and the tragedy of the ghetto; 2) the chasm that separates the generations from one another.

The first of these themes predominates in the Children of the Ghetto. With great tenderness, he described the seemingly bizarre conglomeration of pietists and radicals, charlatans and beggars, scholars and would-be scholars, philanthropists and the humble poor. I say “seemingly bizarre,” because he always probed beneath the surface to uncover their essential humanity. His humor was always gentle, and oblique, never sharp and direct; for he regarded himself as an interpreter of the ghetto to...