Theater for a New Audience Director Jeffrey Horowitz decided to shake things up this season when he paired two Elizabethan plays, Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, each featuring contemptible Jewish villains that play up the long-standing Jewish stereotype of the "murderous Jew." The inspiration for the bold move? Horowitz told The Village Voice:

I didn't set out to make my version of Rachel Corrie," Horowitz told me recently, referring to the one-woman show about the American activist killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza, which arrived in New York following months of controversy. "But I suspected there would be sensitivities to the plays," he continued. "Are they anti-Semitic or are they about anti-Semitism? We wanted to open up that discussion."

Horowitz, who started planning this season's theme of "Jew as outsider" over two years ago will also be showcasing Oliver Twist later this season. As for the debate of Shakespeare as antisemite, that's an argument that will sustain as long as the stereotype of Jewish villain flourishes.