ABSTRACT
During the first years of its staging, Shakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice, which was identified as a comedy, evoked uproarious laughter in the audience during Shylock' famous speech, "Hath not a Jew eyes". Neither Israeli nor Jewish identity can be forged in a vacuum. Christianity comes into being as a repudiation of Jewish nationalism, in the Christian imagination; Judaism is said to be particular, Christianity is said to be universal. Jewish identity is too deeply fused with religiosity, and particularly at this moment, with increasing numbers of Jews turning to religion, Walzer's call is anachronistic. The security of Jewish statehood is unquestionable after the Shoah, but just as essential is the answer Israel can offer our battered sense of Jewish identity. Israel continues in that tradition, exposing Christian antagonism to Jewish nationalism and to fears of Jewish power and potential revenge for centuries of anti-Semitism.
