KLC: The Kinloss Learning Centre - Something for Everyone

In Macbeth Shakespeare famously has one of his witches intone “Liver of blaspheming Jew” as she pops another vile ingredient into her steaming cauldron. Othello, realising the extent of his misguided cruelty, calls himself a “Base Judean” who has thrown away a pearl. Yet, despite this, Shakespeare’s Shylock gave the world the “Hath not a Jew eyes?” speech. “If you prick us, do we not bleed?” he demands. “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?

The Jewish money lender in The Merchant of Venice was revolutionary on the Elizabethan stage – a Jew with a plausible motive for standing up to his Christian adversaries, a Jew with feelings and legitimate grievances. In this lecture Peled analyses the contemporary cultural attitude towards Jews in Early Modern England, and how Shakespeare fitted into the conversation. She draws on religious, cultural and historical facts, interspersed with quotes and scenes from Shakespeare, to examine whether the playwright was an anti-Semite, or sympathetic to the plight of the Jew, and how this impacts on the attitude to the Jews in England right down to modern times.

Pamela Peled was born in South Africa and immigrated to Israel at the age of 17. She has a PhD. in English Literature and lectures at Beit Berl College. She is also a journalist and health editor of the Esra Magazine. She has given courses in the USA, Europe and Australia, and leads groups to Stratford-Upon-Avon in England. She also gives courses in Business Management – “Management through Shakespeare.”