by Will Thomas
8. The role of Jews in socialism and in many social causes is highlighted in The Hellfire Conspiracy. What inspired you to focus on this topic? What are some little-known aspects of social change or of the socialist movement in the late 1800s?
Jews have a long tradition of doing good works for the community, both through donations to public works and through championing causes. The East End of the 1880s had severe social problems, such as poverty, crime, poor working conditions, and crowded tenements, and educated Jews worked to improve all of them. I chose to focus on this subject after studying the historical Jewish figures Israel Zangwill and Amy Levy. Also, most people don’t know that Christian organizations were active in such causes, too—the Salvation Army, for example, was a militant participant in the socialist movement of that era.