Wrestling with Shylock Jewish Responses to The Merchant of Venice

Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice occupies a unique place in world culture. As the fictional, albeit iconic, character of Shylock has been interpreted as exotic outsider, social pariah, melodramatic villain and tragic victim, the play, which has been performed and read in dozens of languages, has served as a lens for examining ideas and images of the Jew at various historical moments. In the last two hundred years, many of the play's stage interpreters, spectators, readers and adapters have themselves been Jews, whose responses are often embedded in literary, theatrical and musical works. This volume examines the ever-expanding body of Jewish responses to Shakespeare's most Jewishly relevant play.

Preface Edna Nahshon; Part I. Introductions: 1. Literary sources and theatrical interpretations of Shylock Michael Shapiro; 2. The anti-Shylock campaign in America Edna Nahshon; Part II. Discourses: 3. Shylock in German-Jewish historiography Abigail Gillman; 4. Yiddish Shylocks in theater and literature Nina Warnke and Jeffrey Shandler; 5. Lawyers and judges address Shylock's case Richard H. Weisberg; Part III. The Stage: 6. David Belasco's 1922 production of The Merchant of Venice Marc Hodin; 7. New York City, 1947: a season for Shylocks Edna Nahshon; 8. The Merchant of Venice in mandatory Palestine and the state of Israel Shelley Zer-Zion; 9. Fritz Kortner and other German-Jewish Shylocks before and after the Holocaust Jeanette Malkin; 10. Evoking the Holocaust in George Tabori's productions of The Merchant of Venice Sabine Schülting; 11. The Merchant of Venice on the German stage and the 1995 'Buchenwald' production in Weimar Gad Kaynar-Kissinger; 12. Recasting Shakespeare's Jew in Wesker's Shylock Efraim Sicher; 13. Jewish directors and Jewish Shylocks in twentieth-century England Miriam Gilbert; Part IV. Literature, Art and Music: 14. Zionism in Ludwig Lewisohn's novel, The Last Days of Shylock Michael Shapiro; 15. Jessica's Jewish identity in contemporary feminist novels Michelle Ephraim; 16. Christian iconography and Jewish accommodation in Maurycy Gottlieb's painting, 'Shylock and Jessica' Susan Chevlowe; 17. Shylock in opera, 1871–2014 Judah M. Cohen; Part V. Postscript: 18. Shylock and the Arab-Israel conflict Edna Nahshon; Index.

Edna Nahshon is Professor of Theatre and Drama at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City and Senior Associate at Oxford's Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.
Michael Shapiro is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Illinois. He is a founder and director of the Program in Jewish Culture and Society.