Harry Freedman

Historian Dr Harry Freedman explains the truth behind one of Shakespeare’s most famous characters and explores the story of the Jews in Venice.

Freedman says the millions of annual visitors to Venice are largely unaware of the story of the city’s dramatic expansion and then decline. Its Jewish population is essential to the story of Venice’s glory days. He explains how Venice gave the world the word ‘ghetto’ and describes the cultural renaissance in the Venice ghetto where Jews and Christians mingled intellectually and shared ideas. And he says that Shakespeare’s Shylock myth has more to do with Elizabethan attitudes in England than what Shylock would have experienced in Venice.

Freedman is a leading writer on Jewish history and culture. His previous books include The Talmud: A Biography, Leonard Cohen: The Mystical Roots of Genius and Britain’s Jews.

Part of the festival’s programme of Jewish and Hebrew literature and culture supported by private donors and trusts.