Israel Zangwill (February 14, 1864 - August 1, 1926) was an early Zionist and writer.

His early life was spent in the East End of London, and he was a teacher in the Jewish Free School there. In later life, his friends included Jerome K. Jerome and H. G. Wells. He wrote a very influential novel Children of the Ghetto (1892), and his play The Melting Pot was a hit in the USA in 1908-1909. He also wrote mystery works, such as The Big Bow Mystery. However, he is best known for coining the slogan, "a land without people for a people without land" to describe the nation that is now Israel.

Zangwill, an English Jew, founded an organization called the Jewish Territorialist Organization in 1905. The aim of the Jewish Territorialist Organization was to create a Jewish homeland in whatever possible territory in the world (and not necessarily in what today is the state of Israel). Zangwill died in 1926 after trying to create the Jewish state in such diverse places as Canada, Australia, Mesopotamia, Uganda and Cyrenaica.

Israel Zangwill was the father of Oliver L. Zangwill , a prominent British psychologist.

External links

• Israel Zangwill and Children of the Ghetto
• Israel Zangwill
• 1911 Encyclopedia
• The Zionist Exposition
• Jewish Virtual Library
• Internet Broadway Database
• Without Prejudice