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Israel Zangwill (1864-1926)
Israel Zangwill was born in London in 1864 and achieved fame by his writing a
number of novels on Jewish themes. In successive years he published Children of
the Ghetto (1892), Ghetto Tragedies and The King of Schnorrers. Zangwill had
been a leading member of the Order of Ancient Maccabeans, a Zionist society
established in 1891. When Herzl visited London in 1896 he met with Zangwill to
discuss Zionist plans. Zangwill attended the First Zionist Congress and
additional congresses thereafter. He supported Herzl's Uganda plan and following
its rejection, led the Territorialists out of the Zionist organization in 1905.
He established the Jewish Territorialists Organization (ITO) whose object was to
acquire a Jewish homeland where possible. Following the securing of the Balfour
declaration, the ITO fell into decline and by 1925 it was officially dissolved.
Zangwill supported Zionist efforts in EretzIsrael calling for a radical
approach both as regards the demand for the early establishment of a Jewish
State and the solution of the Arab question. As regards the latter he called for
the transfer of Arabs from EretzIsrael to neighboring Arab states.
Zangwill died in 1926 in Preston, North England.
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