Shakespeare and the Jews

The Merchant of Venice has long been a problem play for lovers of Shakespeare. How could the greatest playwright in English, renowned for his depth of humanity, create a crude anti-Semitic stereotype like Shylock? The problem has been approached in diverse ways, from branding Shakespeare as an anti-Semite to interpreting his play as a nuanced depiction of Elizabethan anti-Semitism. James Shapiro, a professor of English at Columbia University, sets the problem within a wider field by examining the historical, social, and cultural status of the Jews in Shakespeare's England. He reveals that the Elizabethan view of the Jews was loaded with a complex symbolism that resonates throughout this play.