Although this episode screened to relatively no controversy in the UK, in the U.S., it created a huge furor. As soon as WNET announced the broadcast date, the Holocaust and Executive Committee (H.E.C.) of the Committee to Bring Nazi War Criminals to Justice sent them a letter demanding the show be cancelled. WNET also received protest letters from the Anti-Defamation League (A.D.L.) and B'nai B'rith. Additionally, Morris Schappes, editor of Jewish Currents, wrote an open letter of protest to The New York Times. The H.E.C. stated that Shylock can arouse "the deepest hate in the pathological and prejudiced mind", urging WNET "that reason and a reputable insight into the psychopathology of man will impel you to cancel the play's screening." They later stated, "our objection is not to art, but to the hate monger, whoever the target. This includes the singular and particular work of art, which, when televised, is viewed by millions and alarmingly compounds the spread of hate." The A.D.L. stated that screening the episode would be "providing a forum for a Shylock, who would have warmed the heart of Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher." PBS and WNET issued a joint statement citing the protests of Saudi Arabians regarding the screening of Death of a Princess (1980), a docudrama about the public execution of Princess Masha'il, and quoting PBS President Lawrence K. Grossman; "The healthy way to deal with such sensitivities, is to air the concerns and criticism, not to bury or ban them." PBS and WNET also pointed out that both Producer
Jonathan Miller and
Warren Mitchell are Jewish. For their part, Miller and Director
Jack Gold had anticipated the controversy, and prepared for it. In the Stone and Hallinan press material, Gold stated, "Shylock's Jewishness in dramatic terms, is a metaphor for the fact that he, more than any other character in Venice, is an alien." Miller stated "It's not about Jews versus Christians in the racial sense; it's the world of legislation versus the world of mercy."
