The Melting-Pot

"The Melting-Pot" by Israel Zangwill is a play first staged in 1908. It follows David Quixano, a Russian Jewish immigrant who survived a pogrom that killed his family. In America, he composes an "American Symphony" celebrating his vision of a society free from ethnic divisions. When he falls in love with Vera, a Russian Christian immigrant, their romance faces a dramatic confrontation with the past. The play popularized the term "melting pot" as a symbol for American ethnic assimilation. (This is an automatically generated summary.)