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GHETTO TRAGEDIES




The MM Co.




Ghetto Tragedies

BY

I. ZANGWILL

AUTHOR OF "CHILDREN OF THE GHETTO,"
"THE KING OF SCHNORRERS," ETC.




PHILADELPHIA
THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA




COPYRIGHT, 1899,
BY I. ZANGWILL


Norwood Press
J.S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith
Norwood Mass. U.S.A.




PREFACE


The "Ghetto Tragedies" collected in a little volume in 1893 have been
so submerged in the present collection that I have relegated the
original name to the sub-title. "Satan Mekatrig" was written in 1889,
"Bethulah" this year. Anyone who should wish to measure the progress
or decay of my imagination during the ten years has therefore
materials to hand. "Noah's Ark" stands on the firmer Ararat of
history, my invention being confined to the figure of Peloni (the
Hebrew for "nobody"). The other stories have also a basis in life. But
neither in pathos nor heroic stimulation can they vie with the literal
tragedy with which the whole book is in a sense involved. Mrs. N.S.
Joseph, the great-hearted lady to whom "Ghetto Tragedies" was
inscribed, herself walked in darkness, yet was not dismayed: in the
prime of life she went down into the valley of the shadow, with no
word save of consideration for others. I trust the new stories would
not have been disapproved by my friend, to whose memory they must now,
alas! be dedicated.

                                                             I.Z.

  OCTOBER, 1899.




CONTENTS


I
                                                             PAGE
"THEY THAT WALK IN DARKNESS"                                    1

II

TRANSITIONAL                                                   41

III

NOAH'S ARK                                                     79

IV

THE LAND OF PROMISE                                           127

V

TO DIE IN JERUSALEM                                           159

VI

BETHULAH                                                      185

VII

THE KEEPER OF CONSCIENCE                                      249

VIII

SATAN MEKATRIG                                                345

IX

DIARY OF A MESHUMAD                                           403

X

INCURABLE                                                     457

XI

THE SABBATH-BREAKER                                           479




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I

"THEY THAT WALK IN DARKNESS"




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I

"THEY THAT WALK IN DARKNESS"


I

It was not till she had fasted every Monday and Thursday for a
twelvemonth, that Zillah's long yearning for a child was gratified.
She gave birth--O more than fair-dealing God!--to a boy.

Jossel, who had years ago abandoned the hope of an heir to pray for
his soul, was as delighted as he was astonished. His wife had kept him
in ignorance of the fasts by which she was appealing to Heaven; and
when of a Monday or Thursday evening on his return from his boot
factory in Bethnal Green, he had sat down to his dinner in Dalston, no
suspicion had crossed his mind that it was Zillah's breakfast. He
himself was a prosaic person, incapable of imagining such
spontaneities of religion, though he kept every fast which it behoves
an orthodox Jew to endure who makes no speciality of sainthood. There
was a touch of the fantastic in Zillah's character which he had only
appreciated in its manifestation as girlish liveliness, and which
Zillah knew would find no response from him in its religious
expression.

Not that her spiritual innovations were original inventions. From some
pious old crone, after whom (as she could read Hebrew) a cluster of
neighbouring dames repeated what they could catch of the New Year
prayers in the women's synagogue, Zillah had learnt that certain holy
men were accustomed to afflict their souls on Mondays and Thursdays.
From