Anti-semitism in Shakespeare's time

A common assumption is that the forced conversion reflects the ideas of people "back then". But as I have said before, and will say again, one must be cautious in ascribing beliefs in general to any large group of people in any time. Even in NAZI Germany where anti-semitism was state policy, did everyone hate Jews? Certainly not. Nevertheless, we can often discern large-scale trends in belief, so long as we keep in mind that …

…for example, that Jews and other foreigners in English plays take advantage of and help build a sense of "otherness" which in term consolidates the identity of the English nation. That is, the English are given a sense of themselves by contrasting themselves with outsiders. Moreover, they can aggrandize themselves by demonizing those others. English identity, it can be argued, is acheived on the backs of marginalized, oppressed groups such as Jews, Moors and others.