Emilia Bassano was born to an English Protestant mother and a Venetian father likely of sephardic Venetian heritage. Which would explain a darker complexion than her English contemporaries. Her parents both court musicians, Emilia a talented poet in her own right. The first woman to publish a book, poetry, in England and often referred to as the first feminist. Was she Shakespeare, I'll leave that alone, but her father coming from the Sephardic community in Venice she could have been the source of Shakespeare's commentary on Jews. Jews being banned from England, Shakespeare who I don't believe ever left England, likely never met a Jew. Her father died when whe was 7 surname from Dutchess Catherine Willoughby, who either fostered and raised her, or worked on the Dutchess' household staff. Emelia being a courtier some have suggested she may have had an affair with Shakespeare, no evidence of that. Equally, probably more likely, two well known poets may simply have been acquainted. No evidence of either. A friend, who told Shakespeare about Jews and her family home of Venice, not a very exciting book topic.
a few points:
1. we do know that her mother was English and her father was Venetian
2. we do NOT know if her father was or was not of Sephardic heritage.
3. the “her father coming from the Sephardic community in Venice” is speculation. Emilia’s grandfather, Jeronimo was associated with the Sancte Crucis (Holy Cross) Christian monastery in Italy, and the family tree in those early years shows standard Italian Christian roots - that doesn’t mean that they didn’t have Sephardic ancestry, but it doesn’t mean that they weren’t.
4. It does seem clear that they were not crypto-Jews - both in Italy and later in England, the Bassano family lived, married, baptized their children, and were buried in accordance with the Church of England. If they had Jewish roots, they left no paper trail of practicing it
5. Shakespeare probably didn’t meet a Jew — that’s very probable i agree - note that he took his stuff from earlier writings - the Merchant of Venice I believe was taken from a set of stories by Fiorentino. I note thta Marlowe also had a play “the Jew of Malta”
I wouldn’t mind it if the book was positioned as speculation - all of the above is “possible” but positioning it as fact is just incorrect.