The B’nai B’rith has this much in its favor: its leadership has always been progressive. Only when it has lent itself as local agent for the “leaders” of the New York Kehillah has it set up in its neighborhoods those influences which tend toward division instead of a better understanding.
Under whose inspiration it was that the B’nai B’rith undertook to bring its great power to bear against one of Shakespeare’s plays, cannot now be said; but it has been most unfortunate for Jewish influence in all directions. Successful—oh, yes; but such a success as serious people could well do without.
Merely to glance over the record is interesting:
1907— Jews force “The Merchant of Venice” to be dropped from public schools in Galveston, Texas, Cleveland, Ohio; El Paso, Texas; Youngstown, Ohio.
1908— Jews have “The Merchant of Venice” elim¬ inated from the English course in the high school at El Paso, Texas.
1910—Apparently the “Merchant” slipped back “JEWISH RIGHTS” TO PUT STUDIES OUT OF SCHOOLS 181 into Cleveland schools, for in April the superintendent of public schools issued an order that it was not to be used again.
1911— Rabbi Harry W. Ettleson and Solomon Eisner request the Hartford, Connecticut, school board to have “The Merchant of Venice” dropped from the reading list of the schools. The board complies.
1912— Jewish residents of Minneapolis, Minnesota, inaugurate a movement to have “The Merchant of Venice” dropped from the public schools.—In Boston, Massachusetts, the superintendent of schools refuses to withdraw “The Merchant of Venice” as a textbook, on the demand of Rabbi Phineas Israeli.