la Vie des Juifs / Florida pretties up its Shylock Law / Shakespeare's knee-slappin' comedy / If you tickle us, do we not laugh?

Click image, nose gets a little bigger.

The advertising logo for the new production of "Oliver!", the musical comedy based on Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist." Rowan Atkinson was Fagin, the hook-nosed Jew running a gang of orphan child pickpockets, but has been replaced by Omid Djalili in the West End production.

e-mail to pal in Taiwan who sent me news article (below) about removing the word "Shylock" from Florida's anti-usury law:

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Hsieh hsieh Dan!

Forgive delays, besides the usual problems with my disorganized brain, I've been having trouble with my e-mail client. I think a nice fellow from Mumbai or Bangalore named Oscar just fixed it for me. (Then he tried to sell me some Magic Software Elixir.)

Goodness, I lived in Miami for 2 years working on the daily morning tabloid (now gone the Way Of All Dead Tree Media), and never knew about the Shylock Law. What a quaint blast from the Octoroon Past.

Whenever we can, we love to go to the theater festivals in Ontario, either the Stratford or the Shaw. About 5 years ago I finally got to see a traditional "straight" performance of "Merchant" at Stratford. I'd spent a Jewish life waist-deep in the ferocious controversy, but had never actually encountered the Beast face-to-face.

It was [also very recently] that I discovered "Merchant" wasn't one of the Tragedies, but was one of the Comedies! Just like "All's Well That Ends Well" and "Midsummer."

What a Laff Riot "Merchant" turned out to be, a real Knee-Slapper.

(Oh well, you should have seen the wild controversy when the Amherst MA high school decided to cancel "West Side Story" when a Puerto-Rican-American student complained it was antiPuertoRican. I think they substituted "Little Mary Sunshine," the musical with a money-back guarantee to offend no one.)

I'm authentically grateful that I finally got to see a superb performance of "Merchant." One shouldn't let oneself be abducted or seduced into a controversy about antisemitism without actually experiencing what the controversy's over.

So was the dude an antisemite?

I won't make scholarly historical excuses for him -- "Shakespeare was a man of his times and his views reflected the common views of England in his era yadda yadda ..."

Rather, the thing I can never see beyond is Shylock's speech.

SALARIO

Why, I am sure, if he forfeit thou wilt not take his flesh: what's that good for?

SHYLOCK

To bait fish withal: if it feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge! If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge! The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

It's magnificent, among the finest, most powerful, most insightful dialogue Shakespeare ever wrote. If I were ever attacked by my non-Jewish neighbors, and had just one opportunity to defend myself, I would speak it word for word, and not mind a bit that many Jews consider its author an antisemite, and the play an attack on Jews.

No one could have written that speech without a deep understanding of the caustic effects of anti-semitism, or all bigotry, on the human soul. Shylock's speech convinces me Shakespeare was not stuck and mired in the antisemitic past, but was a prophet -- like Melville -- of a finer and more thoughtful human and humanist future.

I wonder what would happen if the most vociferous anti-Shakespeare Jews were forced to tell the truth: Had they actually seen "Merchant"? (Better than reading in college if you're trying to analyze Shakespeare's intent -- he never intended any of his plays to be read as literature, these were exclusively plays to be performed. Two of his actors smuggled scripts out and published them as the First Folio without his permission.)

This -- and "Oliver Twist" -- make one wonder about these never-ending controversies. How truly well-read and well-viewed in the source of the controversy are most members of the lynch mob? Or are most who perpetuate the controversy just passing on what Uncle Marvin told them thirty years ago?

Hope all's well with you, and a belated Gong hee phat choi!

Bob

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Jewish Telegraphic Agency / JTA
(New York City / founded 1919)
Jewish-oriented newswire
Wednesday 25 March 2009

‘Shylock’ hath seen
final days in Florida law

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The Florida Senate unanimously passed legislation eliminating the term "shylock" from state law.

The words "shylock" and "shylocking" are in the text of Florida statutes dealing with loan sharks. Shylock was the Jewish moneylender in William Shakespeare's 16th-century play "The Merchant of Venice" who demanded a pound of flesh as repayment from a debtor.

State Sen. Eleanor Sobel, a Jewish Democrat who represents a district that includes Fort Lauderdale [north of Miami], said she proposed the bill to fix "the mistake that has been left by history," according to media reports. A similar bill is working its way through the Florida House of Representatives.

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St. Petersburg Times
(daily broadsheet / Florida USA)
Tuesday 24 March 2009

Curtain falls on 'shylock'

The Florida Senate unanimously approved Hollywood Sen. Eleanor Sobel's bill to strike the words "shylock" and "shylocking" from the state's criminal usury statutes. The word derives from Shakespeare's Shylock, the villain in The Merchant of Venice who tried to draw a "pound of flesh" for a loan.

The bill "fixes a mistake that has been left by history," Sobel said. The bill should reach the House floor soon.

- 30 -

COMMENTS:

Might as well just cancel the USURY laws since credit card companies etc. have killed all effective regulations to prevent them doing it.

It is now "Citibankery", made all legal and brought to you by Busheconomist voodoo trickle down economic royalism.

Posted by: Double Bu$hed | March 24, 2009 at 02:49 PM

another important bill by one of Broward's finest Jewish liberal politicians.

these people are horrible. how do they ever get elected?

these are the same people who want to pick your pocket for more taxes and cry about how much more money government needs!

what's the old saying "you get what you pay for"?

Posted by: terminator | March 24, 2009 at 02:02 PM

She wants it updated to "madoff," and "madoffing." She wants "Ponzi" stricken because it defames the Italian race.

Posted by: Professor | March 24, 2009 at 12:34 PM

Is there a point to this action, or just more wasted time and tax dollars?

Does our economic recovery depend on this?
Does our historic foreclosure rate have anything to do with this?
Does our nation-leading jobless rate have anything to do with this?
Is there a photo op in this for Chuck?
Does our property insurance problem have anything to do with this?
Does our failing education system have anything to do with this?
Does our failing social programs have anything to do with this?

Please answer these questions, Senator Sobel, or just GET YOUR A S S TO WORK DOING SOMETHING THAT FREAKING MATTERS TO OUR STATE AND ITS FUTURE!

Posted by: The "Forgotten" People | March 24, 2009 at 12:32 PM

Was it because he was a Jew?

Posted by: Lenny | March 24, 2009 at 11:25 AM

====================

Florida Senate:

BILL ANALYSIS AND
FISCAL IMPACT STATEMENT

Prepared By: The Professional Staff of the Banking and Insurance Committee
BILL: SB 318
INTRODUCER: Senator Sobel
SUBJECT: Shylocking/Loan Sharking
DATE: January 23, 2009

I. Summary:

This bill removes the terms “shylock” and “shylocking” from Florida’s criminal usury/loan sharking statute under ss. 687.071 and 772.102 F.S. Additionally, this bill removes from s. 687.071 F.S., the phrase “shall be guilty of” and replaces it with the term “commits” in order to conform to language used in other areas of Florida’s criminal statutes. The removal of this language will have no substantive impact on Florida law, nor will it have a fiscal impact to the state.

This bill amends the following sections of the Florida Statutes: 687.071 and 772.102.

II. Present Situation:

Section 687.071, F.S., is entitled “Criminal usury, loan sharking; shylocking.” This provision defines the terms “shylock” and “shylocking” to be synonymous with the terms “loan shark” and “loan sharking” respectively. Section 687.071, F.S., includes four mentions of either “shylock” or “shylocking.” In each case, the terms are used in conjunction with either the term “loan shark” or “loan sharking.”
Because the terms “shylock” and “loan shark” are defined as synonyms in the definitions section, the use of both terms is repetitious and unnecessary.

The history of the term “shylock” dates back to the late 1500’s when William Shakespeare wrote one of his most renowned plays, The Merchant of Venice. In this play, Shakespeare introduced a character named Shylock, a relentless loan shark who’s widely remembered for demanding that his debtor pay him with a pound of flesh taken from the debtor’s body. In addition to portraying the character as a usurer, Shakespeare’s Shylock was also Jewish. Use of this term may reinforce longstanding anti-Semitic stereotypes.