Bard and Anti-Semitism

Jess Bravin’s article “A Venetian Bind: Grove Festival Seeks to be Sensitive in Staging ‘Merchant’ ” (Calendar, May 28) revealed the vexation caused by the anti-Semitism contained in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice.”

Staging this production in today’s costumes, as is being done by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Old Globe Theatre of San Diego, is a step toward increasing anti-Semitism within our own times, as if there were a lack of it.

By bringing this 400-year-old play into modern times, the producers and directors imply that today’s Jews are like Shylock and that any punishment is justified.

SAMUEL KURTZMAN, Encino