Was Shakespeare Jewish?

[ygalg1]

From news article:

Senator Allen is not alone: The claim that Shakespeare was Jewish is based on my own theories, developed during years of writing nonsense
David Verveer
Only this week we read the horrible headline, Senator Allen discovered he is Jewish. This is a real shocker. How come, he seemed to be such a nice civilized person! He discovered his Jewish roots – and then turned his back on them. Now, it is not at all clear whether he will even manage to be reelected and keep his senate seat, never mind running for president.

Rumors of his family's Jewish ancestry are not new, but they were first fully exposed recently by the New York-based Jewish newspaper The Forward. That same newspaper revealed Senator John Kerry's two Jewish grandmothers, (must be terrible for him), as well as Senator Hillary Clinton's Jewish connection – her grandfather's second marriage was to a Jewish woman – information which her campaign headquarters apparently enthusiastically volunteered.

Allen's mother, Henrietta (Etty) Lumbroso, grew up in French Tunisia of World War II. His grandfather Felix was sent to a death camp, but Etty managed to escape to America. She later married George Allen Senior, and according to her own testimony, she never told him, his family or their children that she was Jewish.

Scoopp!

But if you think you have heard everything, I now come with the scoop that the father of playwrights – Shakespeare - was Jewish too.

Before you start shouting,

"ignoramus,"

read my arguments, and than decide. This might be not as serious like the accusations of being Jewish, or blamed for coming from a Jewish heritage with historical leaders such as: Ataturk, Churchill, Eisenhower, Lenin, Rockefeller, Trotsky, Stalin, Albright and Roosevelt, etc all recorded as having Jewish blood.

Claiming that Shakespeare was Jewish is based on my own theories, developed during years of writing nonsense. I discovered that this peculiar family name, which started with William's grandfather, whose real name was Jaco (Jacob) Spiro, a Marano Jew, living in the London area.

The local people changed Jakospiro in Shakespeare. Shakespeare was born in 1564, his parents were John (Jochanan) and Maria (Miriam), his father a wool dealer and money lender, can you think of a more Jewish profession?

But, as you know, you are only a full-blood Jew, if your mother belongs to our Jewish tribe, and indeed William Shakespeare's mother Maria Arden was in actual fact, Miriam Ardon (Ardon means fugitive) from a rich secret Jewish family which in order to safeguard their religion changed their name (in those days, only the very rich had family names) to Arden, a very prominent and branched out aristocratic British family.

To be (Jew) or not to be?

But wait, I have additional arguments, the famous sentence

" to be or not to be"

is a statement turned into a question, extremely Jewish. And than take his play

"the merchant of Venice"

with Shylock the Jew, clearly anti-Semitic material, only Jews are capable of writing professional Jew-bashing material, that hurts.

In 1290, King Edward banished the Jews from England. Only a few Jews remained behind, either because they had converted to Christianity or because they enjoyed special protection for the services they provided. Thus, in order to know Jews, Shakespeare had to meet them, or being a secret Jew himself, he could provide himself a perfect alibi by writing an anti-Semitic play.

The poet put into Shylock's mouth a speech that can only come from Shakespeare's own heart:

"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 us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? "

And that my friends, is what persuades me that Shakespeare was Jewish. Yes, a Jewish humanist was our man William Shakespeare.

"by Gene Gordon"

If this is not enough to convince you, let us remind you of some famous Shakespearian quotes:

1 – Women speak two languages – one of which is verbal.

2– Beauty is all very well at first sight, but whoever looks at it when it has been in house three days?

3 – Something smells in the Kingdom of Denmark, Chicken soup with kneidlach, dear Horatio.

But the fine readers will now correct me and tell me that he said

"rotten"

instead of smells. I have no way to know, if the above mentioned soup was slightly spoiled, but I think I presented sufficient proof for my argument, and somebody who still does not agree with me, should try to proof to me that Shakespeare was a gentile.

link

[KettleWhistle]

No, Shakespeare wasn't Jewish. It's just more trash from Ynet.

[Womble]

Someone's sarcasm detector is off the mark...

Something smells in the Kingdom of Denmark, Chicken soup with kneidlach, dear Horatio

[ItsMyJewty]

Apparently Hitler was related to Shakespeare, and he was Jewish too.


IMJ

[The Israeli Guy]

No, Shakespeare wasn't Jewish. It's just more trash from Ynet.

You got any base for that 'claim' of yours?

[Aviva]

If Elvis was Jewish then I can't see why Shakespeare couldn't be.

[Mediocrates]

I know of no Jewish man who could write "The Taming of the Shrew".

[andak01]

Shakespeare was Jewish! He wrote:

Shlomo and Juliet
King Shmeer
Oy! Such a Tempest
Brisketlet
Kvetchen Uber Nichts
Two Ganzamachers from Verona

[KettleWhistle]

From Wikipedia:
William Shakespeare (baptised April 26, 1564 – died April 23, 1616)[1] was an English poet and playwright widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language, as well as one of the greatest in Western literature, and the world's preeminent dramatist.[2] He wrote about thirty-eight plays and 154 sonnets, as well as a variety of other poems.

He was English, not Jewish (i.e. of Hebrew descent), some kind of Christian by religion, and an author of The Merchant of Vernice.

[Mediocrates]

Shakespeare was Marlowe (when sober), Ben Johnson (when sober and not screwing around with the stable boys) and Queen Elizabeth.

[Gershon]

A friend just sent me the following:

Take a look at this one about hidden yidden: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/krauthammer092506.php3

Krauthammer's Law: Everyone is Jewish until proven otherwise
By Charles Krauthammer




http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Strange doings in Virginia. George Allen, former governor, one-term senator, son of a famous football coach and in the midst of a heated battle for reelection, has just been outed as a Jew. An odd turn of events, given that his having Jewish origins has nothing to do with anything in the campaign and that Allen himself was oblivious to the fact until his 83-year-old mother revealed to him last month the secret she had kept concealed for 60 years.

Apart from its political irrelevance, it seems improbable in the extreme that the cowboy-boots-wearing football scion of Southern manner and speech should turn out to be, at least by origins, a son of Israel. For Allen, as he quipped to me, it's the explanation for a lifelong affinity for Hebrew National hot dogs. For me, it is the ultimate confirmation of something I have been regaling friends with for 20 years and now, for the advancement of social science, feel compelled to publish.

Krauthammer's Law: Everyone is Jewish until proven otherwise. I've had a fairly good run with this one. First, it turns out that John Kerry — windsurfing, French-speaking, Beacon Hill aristocrat — had two Jewish grandparents. Then Hillary Clinton — methodical Methodist — unearths a Jewish stepgrandfather in time for her run as New York senator.

A less jaunty case was that of Madeleine Albright, three of whose Czech grandparents had perished in the Holocaust and who most improbably contended that she had no idea they were Jewish. To which we can add the leading French presidential contender (Nicolas Sarkozy), a former supreme allied commander of NATO (Wesley Clark) and Russia's leading anti-Semite (Vladimir Zhirinovsky). One must have a sense of humor about these things. Even Fidel Castro claims he is from a family of Marranos.

For all its tongue-in-cheek irony, Krauthammer's Law works because when I say "everyone," I don't mean everyone you know personally. Depending on the history and ethnicity of your neighborhood and social circles, there may be no one you know who is Jewish. But if "everyone" means anyone that you've heard of in public life, the law works for two reasons. Ever since the Jews were allowed out of the ghetto and into European society at the dawning of the Enlightenment, they have peopled the arts and sciences, politics, and history in astonishing disproportion to their numbers.

There are 13 million Jews in the world, one-fifth of 1 percent of the world's population. Yet 20 percent of Nobel Prize winners are Jewish, a staggering hundredfold surplus of renown and genius. This is similarly true for a myriad of other "everyones" — the household names in music, literature, mathematics, physics, finance, industry, design, comedy, film and, as the doors opened, even politics.

But it is not just Jewish excellence at work here. There is a dark side to these past centuries of Jewish emancipation and achievement — an unrelenting history of persecution. The result is the other more somber and poignant reason for the Jewishness of public figures being discovered late and with surprise: concealment.

Look at the Albright case. Her distinguished father was Jewish, if tenuously so, until the Nazi invasion. He fled Czechoslovakia and, shortly thereafter, converted. Over the centuries, suffering — most especially, the Holocaust — has proved too much for many Jews. Many survivors simply resigned their commission.

For some, the break was defiant and theological: A G-d who could permit the Holocaust — ineffable be His reasons — had so breached the Covenant that it was now forfeit. They were bound no longer to Him or His faith.

For others, the considerations were far more secular.

Why subject one's children to the fear and suffering, the stigmatization and marginalization, the prospect of being hunted until death that being Jewish had brought to an entire civilization in Europe?

In fact, that was precisely the reason Etty Lumbroso, Allen's mother, concealed her identity. Brought up as a Jew in French Tunisia during World War II, she saw her father, Felix, imprisoned in a concentration camp. Coming to America was her one great chance to leave that forever behind, for her and for her future children. She married George Allen Sr., apparently never telling her husband's family, her own children or anyone else of her Jewishness.

Such was Etty's choice. Multiply the story in its thousand variations and you have Kerry and Clinton, Albright and Allen, a world of people with a whispered past.
Allen's mother tried desperately to bury it forever. In response to published rumors, she finally confessed the truth to him, adding heartbreakingly, "Now you don't love me anymore" — and then swore him to secrecy

[andak01]

Shakespeare was Jewish! He wrote:

Shlomo and Juliet
King Shmeer
Oy! Such a Tempest
Brisketlet
Kvetchen Uber Nichts
Two Ganzamachers from Verona

Schmendrick VIII

[Aviva]

[/I]He was English, not Jewish (i.e. of Hebrew descent), some kind of Christian by religion, and an author of The Merchant of Vernice.

A person can actually be English AND Jewish AND (shudder) baptised, you know.

There were no Jews in England when Shakespeare was alive. Jews were only allowed to come back to Britain in 1656 and practice their religion openly. It's the 350th anniversary of that return this year.

So there were probably a fair number of crytpo-Jews or baptised Jews knocking around. Shakespeare could have been one of them. After all, he loved making a bit of a drama out of everything - that's often a tell tale sign.

[andak01]

Juliet: Shlomo, Shlomo, wherefore art thou?

Shlomo: So, you're blind now? Ik steyt hier wie einer tier liebchen! Care for a nosh?

[Mediocrates]

Milton sounds a lot more "Jewish" (he read Hebrew BTW)

Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?
Th' infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile
Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived
The mother of mankind, what time his pride
Had cast him out from heav'n, with all his host
Of rebel angels, by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in glory above his peers,
He trusted to have equaled the Most High,
If he opposed; and with ambitious aim
Against the throne and monarchy of God
Raised impious war in heav'n and battle proud
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky
With hideous ruin and combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,
Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms.