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Tracy-Ann Oberman

ByTracy-Ann Oberman, Tracy-Ann Oberman

Opinion

Jewish women always speak up. We refuse to be silenced

We must keep reminding the wider community that what starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews

February 8, 2024 10:07
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Women with bloodied trousers, fake bruises and bound by rope protest outside BBC's offices in Portland Place, February 4, 2024
3 min read

In the past fortnight, I have had more interaction with the Metropolitan Police than ever before in my life. First came a face-to-face interview lasting two-and-a-half-hours, then follow-up calls. Even more interviews are to come. What is the reason for all this? To put it bluntly: success.

For those of you who regularly read this column, you will be aware that I have co-created a stage version of Shakespeare’s difficult play The Merchant of Venice.

In my version, called The Merchant of Venice 1936, I play the vilified Jewish moneylender, who demands a pound of flesh from the aristocratic merchant Antonio, who reneges on a payment for a loan.

My Shylock is female, a world first for a full-scale production, and is based on my Belarusian immigrant great-grandmother. Set against the backdrop of Oswald Mosley and the Battle of Cable Street in 1936, my production ends by re-enacting an East End moment of unity. Londoners of all backgrounds — Irish, Afro-Caribbean, English working class, dockers and trade unionists — all stand with the Jewish community, linking arms, building barricades, chanting “they shall not pass” in the faces of the marching Blackshirts.