Shakespeare |
The Merchant of Venice and Huckleberry Finn
There can be little doubt that that childish idiot Shakespeare
(1654-1616) made a major contribution to the persecution of the European Jews
when he wrote his contemptible play, “The Merchant of Venice.” This play was
Hitler’s favorite, as can well be understood by reading it or seeing it
performed. More recently, this anti-Jewish hate propaganda was made into a movie
in 2004. Here the actor Al Pacino displays his talent as an agent of hate in the
most effective manner now possible. On the stage, the play is not nearly as
effective as in a film, because stage plays have a far smaller audience than the
movies and because the play clearly refers to conditions common in the late
Middle Ages.
Yet, movies are always contemporary.
Therefore the audience seeing the Merchant of Venice in a movie theater can
hardly be expected to be historians capable of interpreting its historical
content. In short, this movie incites its viewers against their Jewish
neighbors.
If the Jewish community had any self
respect, large numbers of Jews, and particularly our “major” Jewish
organizations, would have made the same loud objections to this effort to once
more demonize Jews as they always do when the “civil rights” of other people
are involved. Instead, we find Jewish actors playing Shylock, the despicable Jew
who is money mad, revengeful, bloodthirsty, ugly, cruel and filthy. Every
malicious canard ever leveled against Jews since the second century by Barnabas
and continued throughout the ages is found repeated in “The Merchant of
Venice.”
These hate messages, together with
innumerable other forms of hate repeated in novels, plays, sermons, and media of
every kind, led to the slaughter of my family and six million Jews in the
European gas ovens. Yet “The Merchant of Venice” is constantly directed by
Jewish directors and attended by Jewish audiences. Evidently, our self
immolation is viewed as the mark of being
“liberal” by the same people who are voting for those seeking to destroy
Israel now.
Contrast this lemming like conduct to
the Jewish aggressiveness concerning the “N” word. In 2011, New South Books
published an altered edition of “Mark Twain’s” i.e. Samuel Clemens (1835-1910) famous book The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn. This altered edition substitutes the word “nigger,”
which Clemens used incessantly, with the word “slave.” The reason for this
change was the belief that the “N” word is insulting and humiliating and
that such language contributes to the discrimination suffered by our African
American population, such as Barack Obama.
Yet, no one objects when Jews are
defamed and grossly demeaned. For example, in 1995 the “civil rights” leader
Al Sharpton shouted outside “Freddie's Fashion Mart” in Brooklyn, “burn
down the Jew store.” His followers promptly did so and seven employees died in
the fire. Yet, Sharpton continues to be a hero in the Jewish “liberal”
community.
The least we can do therefore is to demand that those who want to
continue producing “The Merchant of Venice” make Shylock a Christian and all
other characters in that play Jews. Then Shylock will at the end have to convert
to Judaism instead of the present content, which disgusts any Jew with even a
modicum of self respect. Shalom u’vracha. Dr. Gerhard Falk is the author of numerous publications, including The American Criminal Justice System (2010). |