The Historic Jewish Ghetto

The existence of a Jewish population in the region that was to become Venice can be documented as early as the first century of the Common Era, a time when many Jews moved around the Mediterranean. A document dated 1386, in which the Serenissima granted Jews living around the lagoon city a stretch of land at San Nicolò (Lido) to be used as a cemetery, confirms a Jewish presence in Venice. After Venice's defeat in the League of Cambrai, in which the city fought every power in Europe, many refugees poured in, and the Jewish population became a valuable asset for its medical, banking and commerce skills. The creation of the Ghetto in 1516 required Jewish families to live and worship in a precisely defined area, an islet in the parish of San Geremia. It was an area where metals were gettate, cast or founded, and where the Republic's iron and brass foundries were located. Venice imposed a curfew on the Jewish community, and required residents to wear identifying badges. They were permitted to rent but not to own real estate. Although restrictive, the Ghetto also provided a safe haven for Jews from the violence and aggression against non-Christians in the economically and politically strained Venice of the early sixteenth century. Despite these severe limitations, the Jewish community prospered in Venice, and they received better treatment there than in many other European cities at this time.

At the spiritual heart of the Ghetto were the synagogues, which were known in Venice as scole, partly because their function in some ways resembled that of the Christian confraternities (scuole) as places of devotion, learning and charity. Originally there were three scole invisible from the street since the Republic forbade the public expression of non-Christian worship. Because space in the Ghetto was limited, buildings there rose as high as nine stories. Over the years the number of scole in the Ghetto increased to nine, of which five survive today, three in the Ghetto Nuovo and two in the Ghetto Vecchio.

Photo: Karen L. Marshall