I don't think "The Merchant of Venice" is anti-Semitic. As a Jew, I'd certainly rather have Shylock be portrayed the way he is than as, say, someone like the inhumanly perfect black doctor Sidney Poitier plays in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"!
Unlike Shylock, a central developped character in the piece, I don't think Sidney Poitier is the real focus in "Guess who's coming to Dinner" -- in fact, as good an actor as he is, he's just being used there to stimulate the real focus - which is how the white folks think of him, and of black people in general.
