Jews in Shakespeare's Time

In The Merchant of Venice, anti-semitic tones run rampant throughout the play. The character of Shylock is portrayed in a negative light throughout the play. Shylock is seen as greedy, violent, and undesirable. According to Folger's, however, Shakespeare's representation of Shylock actually has a motive. By representing the anti-Semitism of his time and highlighting Shylock's Judaism and his cruelty, Shakespeare is actually pushing for religious toleration. By emphasizing his humanity and comparing it to Shylock's experiences of intolerance, Shakespeare ties Shylock's inhumanity to his acts of intolerance, which brings to focus the endless cycle of violence brought on by intolerance by both Jews and Christians. In essence, Shakespeare is saying that intolerance breeds intolerance and the cycle will never be broken unless both sides stop the intolerance.
   In my research of Jews in the time of Shakespeare as a whole, I found that they constituted early modern Europe's most significant minority. According to Folger's, Jews frequently experienced torture, expulsion, and death. Apparently there was a series of anti-Jewish myths that associated Jews with the devil and diabolical practices and these myths were one of the factors that lead to the European intolerance of Jews.