{"id":3327,"date":"2016-07-31T19:24:57","date_gmt":"2016-07-31T17:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moked.it\/international\/?p=3327"},"modified":"2016-07-31T19:25:17","modified_gmt":"2016-07-31T17:25:17","slug":"culture-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-presides-over-shylocks-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moked.it\/international\/2016\/07\/31\/culture-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-presides-over-shylocks-appeal\/","title":{"rendered":"VENICE AND THE GHETTO Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Presides Over Shylock\u2019s Appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ginsburg<\/a>By Rachel Donadio*<\/strong><\/p>\n

What do Supreme Court justices do on their summer vacations? For Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg \u2014 longtime liberal standard-bearer, recent Donald J. Trump critic \u2014 this year\u2019s answer is: Go to Venice, watch your grandson perform in a production of \u201cThe Merchant of Venice\u201d and preside over a mock appeal of the city\u2019s most notorious resident, Shylock.<\/p>\n

And so, on Wednesday afternoon, in the monumental 16th-century Scuola Grande di San Rocco, beneath ceiling paintings by Tintoretto, Justice Ginsburg and four other judges, including the United States ambassador to Italy, John R. Phillips, heard arguments on behalf of Shylock and two other characters, before reaching a unanimous ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d describe it as fun,\u201d Justice Ginsburg said of the coming mock appeal in an interview on Tuesday, in which she talked about Venice, which she first visited on her honeymoon in 1954, and Shakespeare, whose work she loves \u2014 but not about Mr. Trump, weeks after she said she regretted her remarks criticizing the man who is now the Republican presidential nominee.<\/p>\n

The mock appeal began where the play ended: Shylock, the conniving Venetian Jewish moneylender, insists on collecting a pound of flesh from Antonio, who has defaulted on a loan. But a lawyer, actually Portia disguised as a man, finds Shylock guilty of conspiring against Antonio and rules that he must hand over half his property to Antonio and the other half to the state.<\/p>\n

Antonio says he will forgo his half, on the condition that Shylock convert to Christianity and will his estate to Jessica, Shylock\u2019s wicked and rebellious daughter, who has run off to Genoa with Lorenzo, a Christian. Shylock, humiliated, agrees.<\/p>\n

After about two hours of arguments and about 20 minutes of deliberations, the judges issued a unanimous ruling: To remove the question of the pound of flesh \u2014 \u201cWe agreed it was a merry sport, and no court would enforce it,\u201d Justice Ginsburg said \u2014 to restore Shylock\u2019s property, to restore the 3,000 ducats that he had lent to Antonio, and to nullify the demand of his conversion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conversion was sought by Antonio,\u201d Justice Ginsburg said. \u201cThe defendant in the case was decreeing the sanction. I never heard of a defendant in any system turning into a judge as Antonio did.\u201d She added, to laughter, \u201cAnd finally, after four centuries of delay in seeking payment, we think that Shylock is out of time in asking for interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court was not unanimous in what to do with Portia. The judges ruled that because Portia was \u201can impostor,\u201d a \u201chypocrite\u201d and \u201ca trickster,\u201d she would be sanctioned by having to attend law school at the University of Padua, where one of the judges, Laura Picchio Forlati, taught. Then she would have to pursue a master of laws degree at Wake Forest University, where another of the judges, Richard Schneider, is a professor and dean.<\/p>\n

Mr. Schneider said it wasn\u2019t daunting to share the bench with Justice Ginsburg. \u201cBecause she was wonderful and welcoming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The audience was gripped, even in sweltering heat. \u201cIt\u2019s an intellectual version of reality television,\u201d said Dominic Green, a Shakespeare scholar and professor at Boston College, who attended.<\/p>\n

It was an all-star Shakespeare event. Before deliberations began, F. Murray Abraham recited the \u201chath not a Jew eyes?\u201d speech. While the judges deliberated, the Shakespeare scholars Stephen Greenblatt and James Shapiro discussed the play.<\/p>\n

The mock appeal was linked to a production of \u201cThe Merchant of Venice\u201d being staged in the main square of Venice\u2019s Jewish ghetto, performed by the New York-based Compagnia de\u2019 Colombari, part of a series of events this year marking the ghetto\u2019s 500th anniversary.<\/p>\n

Justice Ginsburg said she\u2019d become involved in the mock appeal after learning about the \u201cMerchant of Venice\u201d production from friends who spend time each year in Venice, including Judith Martin, who writes as Miss Manners, and the mystery novelist Donna Leon. (Asked who had paid for her visit, the justice said she had come to Venice after speaking at a conference hosted by New York University in Barcelona.)<\/p>\n

Over the years, Justice Ginsburg has presided over several other mock Shakespeare appeals. \u201cIn the one I like most, the question was whether Hamlet was competent to stand trial for the murder of Polonius,\u201d Justice Ginsburg said. \u201cMy judgment was, yes he was. But not only Polonius, but the grand jury should consider whether he should be indicted for Ophelia\u2019s death.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Justice Ginsburg expressed interest in a mock appeal, the play\u2019s director, Karin Coonrad, did a Skype audition with the justice\u2019s grandson, Paul Spera, an actor who lives in Paris. She cast him as Lorenzo, who runs away with Jessica, Shylock\u2019s daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very, very good,\u201d Justice Ginsburg said of her grandson\u2019s performance. \u201cI admit to being a little prejudiced on the subject, but I thought he was wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Spera, 30, said his grandmother had noticed that they had cut two lines from a famous scene with the refrain \u201cIn such a night as this.\u201d \u201cMy bubbe was a little disappointed by that,\u201d Mr. Spera said after opening night. Yes, he said, he calls her \u201cbubbe,\u201d the Yiddish term for grandmother.<\/p>\n

There had been some controversy among Jews in Venice about performing such a problematic play. \u201cWhen I was going to school, \u2018The Merchant of Venice\u2019 was banned because it was known as an anti-Semitic play,\u201d Justice Ginsburg said. She said she agreed with the assessment. \u201cThat\u2019s what Shakespeare meant it to be,\u201d she said. \u201cShylock is a villain. He\u2019s insisting on a pound of flesh. He\u2019s sharpening his knife.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaul Bassi, a professor of Shakespeare at the University of Venice and a key organizer of the mock trial and the play, sees it differently. \u201cIt\u2019s not an anti-Semitic play, it\u2019s a play about anti-Semitism,\u201d he said. Mr. Bassi, a co-founder of the nonprofit organization Beit Venezia, said he hoped the production would show the ghetto as a meeting place of cultures. \u201cThis is an incredible opportunity to rethink this place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Jewish community of Venice, which numbers 450 people, is raising funds to restore the five synagogue buildings on the ghetto\u2019s main square, which are crumbling after lack of maintenance, and to reimagine the Jewish Museum. \u201cIt\u2019s not a mausoleum, it\u2019s not a look at the past,\u201d said David Landau, who leads the community\u2019s restoration committee.<\/p>\n

Back at the mock trial, after the judges wrapped up, the last word didn\u2019t go to Justice Ginsburg but to Arrigo Cipriani, the owner of Harry\u2019s Bar, which sponsored a cocktail reception after the ruling. Justice Ginsburg entered to applause, and was promptly handed a Bellini.<\/p>\n

*This article was published in the New York Times on July 30, 2016. The picture is by Giovanni Montenero.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rachel Donadio* What do Supreme Court justices do on their summer vacations? For Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg \u2014 longtime liberal standard-bearer, recent Donald J. 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