"Observance of Civility": Jewish Identity and Anxiety in Seinfeld and William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

ABSTRACT:This article argues that a satirically distorted quotation from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, "If we pick, do we not bleed?," in the Seinfeld episode "The Pick" reveals a subtext of Jewish anxiety in the sitcom. This anxiety about the limits of mainstream acceptance and the persistence of anti- Semitism in late twentieth- century America revolves around maintaining civility, a notion already evident in The Merchant's portrayal of Jewish and Christian acts, attitudes, and values.