{"id":58773,"date":"2021-01-05T09:37:36","date_gmt":"2021-01-05T15:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=58773"},"modified":"2021-06-04T10:24:48","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T16:24:48","slug":"british-childrens-author-omits-merchant-of-venice-from-shakespeare-anthology-citing-anti-semitism-as-one-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/british-childrens-author-omits-merchant-of-venice-from-shakespeare-anthology-citing-anti-semitism-as-one-reason\/","title":{"rendered":"British children\u2019s author omits \u2018Merchant of Venice\u2019 from Shakespeare anthology, citing anti-Semitism as one reason"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(JTA) \u2014 A popular British children\u2019s author omitted \u201cThe Merchant of Venice\u201d from his adaptation of William Shakespeare plays for young audiences.<\/p>\n<p>One reason: anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_61660\" style=\"width: 244px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Shakespeare.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-61660\" class=\"wp-image-61660 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Shakespeare-234x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"234\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Shakespeare-234x300.jpeg 234w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Shakespeare-799x1024.jpeg 799w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Shakespeare-768x984.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Shakespeare-1199x1536.jpeg 1199w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Shakespeare-1599x2048.jpeg 1599w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Shakespeare.jpeg 1943w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 234px) 100vw, 234px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 234px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 234\/300;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-61660\" class=\"wp-image-61660 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Shakespeare-234x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"234\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Shakespeare-234x300.jpeg 234w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Shakespeare-799x1024.jpeg 799w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Shakespeare-768x984.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Shakespeare-1199x1536.jpeg 1199w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Shakespeare-1599x2048.jpeg 1599w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Shakespeare.jpeg 1943w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 234px) 100vw, 234px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-61660\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Portrait of William Shakespeare by Chandos at the National Portrait Gallery in London. (via Wikipedia)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cYes, there was some worry that this might be the first time an 8-year-old reads about a Jew,\u201d Michael Morpurgo told The Guardian on Monday about the decision not to include the play in the \u201cTales from Shakespeare\u201d anthology for children older than 6.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA story that the Nazis used to portray Jewish people in a bad light \u2013 that is not something you put in front of an 8-year-old as their first example of an extraordinary group that has contributed so much to the world and suffered so much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Morpurgo, the author of &nbsp;\u201cWar Horse\u201d&nbsp;and&nbsp;\u201cKensuke\u2019s Kingdom,\u201d was quoted by The Times of London as saying that \u201cThe play can be antisemitic \u2026 I did feel this was Shakespeare\u2019s play and I could not tell it honestly. It would be offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He told The Guardian that The Times had played up the weight of anti-Semitism in his decision.<br \/>\nIt is \u201cnot a play I enjoy myself. I didn\u2019t \u2018refuse\u2019 to include the play, no one told me to do it \u2013 I sat down quietly and decided the 10 I would do,\u201d he said. Calling his decision censorial is \u201ccompletely wrong and a knee-jerk reaction,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The play is about a merchant who fails to pay back a large loan to a greedy Jewish moneylender named Shylock.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"British%20children%E2%80%99s%20author%20omits%20%E2%80%98Merchant%20of%20Venice%E2%80%99%20from%20Shakespeare%20anthology%2C%20citing%20anti-Semitism%20as%20one%20reason\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":61660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7135,26,7122],"tags":[11097,8790,8795,8788,163],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58773"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58773"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61662,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58773\/revisions\/61662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}