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Yesodey Hatorah Girls Protest At William Shakespeare’s Anti-Semitism
WAS William Sahlespear anti-semitic. Nine girls at the Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School in Stamford Hill, north London, refused to answer questions on Shakespeare because they believe he was anti-Semitic.
As a result the school’s ranking has fallen from first to 274th in this year’s table measuring the progress of pupils between the ages of 11 and 14.
Head teacher Rabbi Abraham Pinter says*: “I think this is very positive. I’m really proud that our kids are prepared to take the consequences of their convictions and I think it is something that needs to be encouraged.”
Says the Telegraph: “The view of Shakespeare as anti-Semitic stems from his portrayal of the money lender Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.”
Writes Daniel Hannan:
It’s a delicate question but, on balance, I’m with the pupils at Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School. Shylock, precisely because of the depth of his character, precisely because his motives are made comprehensible, is the most dangerous archetype of the malevolent Jew ever created. He’s not just a nasty piece of work; he possesses the character traits that anti-Semites have projected onto Jews down the ages. He is greedy, legalistic, clever and lacking in compassion: a schemer who secretly loathes the Christians he lends money to.
How would the audience at the time have viewed him?
* Another headmaster who doesn’t give a toss for league tables and encourages his pupils to make a stand…
Posted: 2nd, March 2008 | In: Broadsheets Comments (5) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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March 3rd, 2008 at 2:44 pm
As an ex-pupil of Yesodey Hatorah Boys` School in the early 60`s, my congratulations to Rabbi Pinter for his liberal attitude toward the girls who refused to answer the questions.
Furthermore; I applaud the girls for taking the position they did, and admire their parents and their educators who no doubt laid down the moral and educational for their act.
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:20 am
The Merry Wives of Warsaw Ghetto?
A Krystalnacht’s dream?
Hitler IV (Parts I and II)?
Ahhh… they don’t write ‘em like that any more.
March 3rd, 2008 at 3:56 am
I think the girls are wrong to refuse to answer questions on Shakespeare.
It’s true, he was anti-Semitic (although no more than anyone else was in Elizabethan times). There’s an awful line that occurs in a Romantic speech in Much Ado About Nothing where the hero says that if he couldn’t love the heroine he would be no better than a Jew and it killed the scene stone dead every night. It should have been cut because the effect on the audience was no longer the effect Shakespeare intended.
But prejudice is part of human nature, and there’s isn’t a writer on Earth that hasn’t consciously or unconsciously slagged one social group or another. It’s something we should be aware of and discuss and get over rather than censor and demonise (which is actually the same dynamic that creates bigotry in the first place).
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:38 am
does this mean that i can refuse to answer questions on male/female anatomy because they’re sexist, don’t need to bother with children/gereatrics because they’re inherently ageist, and drugs are made by companies that tested/do test on animals so can leave then out aswell…. that narrows my revision down somewhat.
Now do you think i might get away without writing any patient notes on the grounds of ‘invasion of privacy’??
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Ah The Merchant of Venice