There is now a group of scholars that believe William Shakespeare may have been Jewish. That does sound incredible as his play “The Merchant of Venice” is openly anti-Semitic; his children were baptized and he was married and buried in the church.
But consider the fact that during his lifetime Jews were not allowed to live in England. They were expelled in 1290 and would not be invited back until 1656, 40 years after Shakespeare’s death. (My guess is the population clamored for the return of matzo ball soup). He had no place to go. The lower east side of Manhattan was not yet the Jewish capital in America.
Researchers have compiled a great deal of evidence he had more than a superficial knowledge of Judaism. For example:
- He had over 2,000 Biblical references in his plays and it is evident he knew the Hebrew Version an well as the Hebrew language.
- Scholars cite proof he knew The Mishna and The Talmud – written collections of ancient oral and written traditions from which Jewish law is derived…or something close to it. (I am a bit fuzzy here, but that never stopped me from ranting about a subject!).
- Quotes from the Oral Torah are hidden throughout his works some claim that his plays contain hints of the Zohar, Judaism’s chief mystical text.
So Irwin M. Fletcher, you choose what you want to believe. His legacy remains intact regardless.
We move on to Harry Belafonte. His perfect pronunciation of the Hebrew lyrics in the 1959 recording of Hava Nagila cannot be by accident. Harry might have been a lonsman!