The Melting Pot is a play by
Israel Zangwill, first staged in 1908. It depicts the life of a
Russian-
Jewish immigrant family, the Quixanos. David Quixano has survived a
pogrom, which killed his mother and sister, and he wishes to forget this horrible event. He composes an "American Symphony" and wants to look forward to a society free of ethnic divisions and hatred, rather than backward at his traumatic past.