The Currency of Yiddish: Ettinger's Serkele and the Reinvention of Shylock

Touted as one of the first examples of fine modern literary Yiddish, Shloyme Ettinger's (1801–56) Serkele, oder a yortsayt nokh a bruder (Serkele, or the anniversary of a brother's death; 1839) has always felt like a mixed inheritance—well crafted but devoid of an authentic Yiddish voice or message. This paper proposes a revised reading of the play and finds in it a buried narrative that carries such a message. The narrative focuses on a tavern keeper named Shmuelke, whom Ettinger introduces in the fifth and final act of the play. The play's importance is demonstrated when it is read as a response to Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice: Shmuelke is Ettinger's reconstruction of Shylock, whose original portrayal he viewed as antisemitic and whose treatment by his Christian neighbors was bigoted. Ettinger takes Shakespeare and his characters (namely, Portia, the voice of mercy and justice) to task for Shylock's harsh treatment by recreating Shylock in nineteenth-century Lemberg, where the wrongs he faces are finally corrected or resolved. This paper examines the fullness of the rich Shakespearean intertext and how it challenges previous interpretations of Serkele.