After more than 400 years, Shakespeare's Shylock finally had his day in court at the Pargod Theater on Jerusalem's Bezalel Street on Saturday night, where an intimate crowd gathered to witness the infamous usurer from The Merchant of Venice take his creator to court for his theatrical vilification of the Jew.
An exercise in literary criticism, the mock trial marked the opening of the first annual International Shylock Theater Festival (December 20 to 25), established by Pargod Theater founder Arieh Mark to address the impact of anti-Semitic depictions of the Jew on stage.
"The theater is a powerful instrument, and can sometimes be dangerous in its capacity to create stereotypes and spread hate," says Mark. "The figure of Shylock that Shakespeare included in The Merchant of Venice has contributed significantly to the reinforcement of the negative image of the Jew," he claims.
Despite the debate among literary critics as to whether Shakespeare intended to propagate a negative image of Jews through Shylock, or whether he created the character in order to criticize contemporary Elizabethan anti-Semitism, Mark says the vast majority of staged versions have portrayed Shylock's demise as a happy ending, suggesting that the miserly Jew got his just desserts. Mark even went so far as to suggest that the reason the play continues to get staged is because of the continuing hatred of Jews.
"Nothing has changed since we became a free people," he says in reference to the recent resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe. "In some places, the hatred for Jews is stronger than it was the night before the Holocaust!"
The problem, according to volunteer Noam Urbach, is that Israelis are unaware that this is the case.
"Israeli society, and the country's cultural scene in particular, disregard the phenomenon of anti-Semitism," says Urbach, one of a handful of helpers who got the festival off the ground. "Why? Because it's degrading for Israelis - who see themselves as the 'new Jew ' clean of the past and of the phenomena affecting the Diaspora - to admit that anti-Semitism is a continuing problem."
But given that the new face of anti-Semitism is anti-Israelism, Urbach says Israelis can't afford to ignore it any longer.
"It is time to bring to the forefront a subject that is rarely dealt with in the repertoire of Israeli theatre."
"There is a real physical danger threatening the survival of our state," adds Mark. "If people know about it, then they can do something about it."
The festival aims not just to raise awareness among Israelis, but also to have a ripple effect in theaters around the world. Mark dreams of a time when a different city outside Israel will host the festival - which will include original theatrical productions, art exhibitions, discussions and lectures - each year. Says Mark: "We want to encourage producers around the world to deal with the issue of anti-Semitism in theater."
Although this year's festival has Shylock as its focus, the event will in future years deal with a myriad theatrical and literary sources from different places and times that use anti-Semitic stereotypes.
Over the course of this week, however, it's all about The Merchant of Venice. The theater will hold a different evening activity each night. Sunday, the festival presented Mark's play, A Spider on Herzl's Forehead - a theatrical spoof on anti-Semitism that was produced and filmed two and a half years ago. Monday the 1965 cinematic version of The Merchant of Venice, starring Lawrence Olivier, was shown.
Tonight, a Klezmer music festival is planned, with the objective of connecting audience members to their Jewish heritage. On Wednesday, the theater will screen a documentary dubbed The Image of the Jew on the Stages of the World. The festival will wind up Thursday night with a session for playwrights to learn how to deal with anti-Semitic themes.
"The whole week is dedicated to the culture of anti-Semitism and how Israelis can respond," says Mark.
The festival is part of The Shylock Project, the aim of which is to obtain support and resources for the establishment of research and education relating to the roots of Jew-hatred as manifested in the arts.
"Tonight is the first night that someone, some Jew, somewhere, stood up on the stage and said, 'I am not Shylock,'" says Mark. "I don't forgive Shakespeare for writing The Merchant of Venice, and this is my response. I can't just sit and do nothing. We are all obligated to do something."
Contact Informaion:
Pargod Theatre
Betzalel Street,Jerusalem,94591,Israel
Phone: 972-2-625 8819
Fax: 972-2-623 2476
E-mail: pargod-theatre@hotmail.com
Website: www.pargod.org
Contact Person: Arie Mark -Director
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