Venetian Ghetto

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The Venetian Ghetto (Template:Langx) was the area of Venice in which Jews were forced to live by the government of the Venetian Republic. The English word ghetto is derived from the Jewish ghetto in Venice. The Venetian Ghetto was instituted on 29 March 1516 by decree of Doge Leonardo Loredan and the Venetian Senate. It was not the first time that Jews in Venice were compelled to live in a segregated area of the city.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1555, Venice had 160,208 inhabitants, including 923 Jews, who were mainly merchants.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

File:Ghetto (Venice) Panorama.jpg
The main square of the Venetian Ghetto

Between 1541 and 1633, the Ghetto Vecchio and Ghetto Nuovo were made to accommodate the increase in Jewish immigration, but the total number of Jews in Italy did not exceed 25,000. The Jewish community in Venice did not exceed 5,000 until the early seventeenth century.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1797, the French Army of Italy, commanded by the 28-year-old General Napoleon Bonaparte, occupied Venice, forced the Venetian Republic to dissolve itself on 12 May 1797, and ended the ghetto's separation from the city on the 11th of July of the same year. In the 19th century, the ghetto was renamed the Contrada dell'unione.

Etymology

File:Districts venice - cannaregio.PNG
Location of Cannaregio district in Venice

The origins of the name ghetto (ghèto in the Venetian language) are disputed. Among the theories are:

  • ghetto comes from "giotto" or "geto", meaning "foundry", since the first Jewish quarter was near a foundry that once made cannons;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> ghetto, from Italian getto, which is the act of, or the resulting object from, pouring molted metal into a mold,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as old state foundries existed in this city quarter<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • ghetto formerly meant "street" (like German Gasse, Swedish gata, and Gothic gatwo)
  • ghetto comes from borghetto, diminutive of borgo, meaning "little town"
  • ghetto is related to the Hebrew word get, meaning a divorce document.

The Oxford University Press etymologist Anatoly Liberman 2009 reviewed many theories and concluded that all were speculative.<ref name=Liberman>Template:Cite web</ref>

Historian Donatella Calabi argued in the documentary Venice and the Ghetto (2017, Klaus T. Steindl) that ghetto comes from the Italian word gettare [dʒet·ˈta:·re] which means "throw away", because the area was before then a waste dump for foundries. The first Jewish arrivals were German and they pronounced the word [ˈɡɛto]—the spelling followed ("h" after "g" changes [dʒ] to [ˈɡ]). The same opinion was published in her book Venezia e il ghetto. Cinquecento anni del "recinto deli ebrei".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Marcella Ansaldi, director of the Jewish Museum of Venice, endorses this theory in a history video.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The author of Ghetto: The History of a Word, Daniel B. Schwartz, endorses the theories that the term ghetto did not emerge as a result of Jewish resident segregation, but rather, that the word is a relic of a history that preceded the arrival of the Jewish residents. Schwartz states that the strongest argument in support of this is how the original area to which Jews were restricted was called the Ghetto Nuovo, and not the Ghetto Vecchio. "Were it otherwise, one would expect that the first site of the Jewish enclosure would have been known as the 'Old Ghetto' and the subsequent addition as the 'New Ghetto.'"<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Location and geography

File:Ponte de Gheto Novo (Venice).jpg
Ponte de Gheto Novo

The Ghetto is an area of the Cannaregio sestiere of Venice, divided into the Ghetto Nuovo ("New Ghetto"), and the adjacent Ghetto Vecchio ("Old Ghetto"). These names refer to older and newer foundries sites in these locations which fell out of use before the ghetto was created: in terms of Jewish residence, the Ghetto Nuovo is actually older than the Ghetto Vecchio. The ghetto was connected to the rest of the city by two bridges that were only open during the day. Gates were opened in the morning at the ringing of the marangona, the largest bell in St. Mark's "Campanile" (belfry), and locked in the evening. Permanent, round-the-clock surveillance of the gates occurred at the Jewish residents' expense.<ref name="Schwartz">Template:Cite book</ref> Strict penalties were to be imposed on any Jewish resident caught outside after curfew.<ref name="Schwartz"/> Areas of Ghetto Nuovo that were open to the canal were to be sealed off with walls, while outward facing quays were to be bricked over in order to make it impossible for unauthorized entry or exit.<ref name="Schwartz"/> The area that was considered to be Ghetto Vecchio later on, was once an area where Christians lived and once the Christians relocated, the area became available for non-Venetian Jewish merchants to stay while working in the city temporarily.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Culture

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Though it was home to a large number of Jews, the population living in the Venetian Ghetto never assimilated to form a distinct, "Venetian Jewish" ethnicity. Four of the five synagogues were clearly divided according to ethnic identity: separate synagogues existed for the German (the Scuola Grande Tedesca), Italian (the Scuola Italiana), Spanish and Portuguese (the Scuola Spagnola), and Levantine Sephardi communities (the Scuola Levantina). The fifth, the Scuola Canton, was possibly built as a private synagogue and also served the Venetian Ashkenazi community. Today, there are also other populations of Ashkenazic Jews in Venice, mainly Lubavitchers who operate a kosher food store, a yeshiva, and a Chabad synagogue.

Languages historically spoken in the confines of the Ghetto include Venetian, Judeo-Italian, Judeo-Spanish, French, and Yiddish.Template:Citation needed In addition, Hebrew is used on signage, inscriptions, and for official purposes such as wedding contracts and religious services. Today, English is widely used in the shops and the Museum because of the large number of English-speaking tourists.

A large part of Venetian Jewish culture at this time was shaped by navigating restrictions on their freedoms. Life in the Venetian Ghetto was restrictive, and movement of Jews outside of the ghetto was difficult. Inspired by lives of Jewish merchants outside of Venice, Rodriga, a prominent Jewish Spanish merchant, took on the role of advocating for Venetian Jews to have rights similar to others in different locations. Rodriga cited that Jews played a part in the Italian economy which could not be ignored. In return for the changing of Jewish restrictions, Rodriga promised that the Venetian economy and commerce would increase.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Ghetto today

File:Info Point of the Jewish Community of Venice.jpg
The Info Point of the Jewish Community of Venice in the Old Ghetto
File:5486 - Venezia - Ghetto Nuuovo - Yeshivah Lubavitch - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto, 1-Aug-2008.jpg
A Lubavitch Yeshiva in the former Ghetto of Venice
File:Holocaust Memorial Plaque, Venice.jpg
A memorial plaque to Venice's Holocaust victims in Campo del Ghetto Nuovo, Venice
File:Holocaust Memorial in Venice.JPG
The memorial to victims of the Holocaust in the Venetian Ghetto

Today, the Ghetto is still a center of Jewish life in the city. The Jewish community of Venice,<ref>Jewish Community of Venice</ref> which numbers around 450 people, is culturally active. However, only a few Jews actually live in the Ghetto because the area has become expensive.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Every year, there is an international conference on Hebrew Studies, with particular reference to the history and culture of the Veneto. Other conferences, exhibitions and seminars are held throughout the year.

The temples not only serve as places of worship but also provide lessons on the sacred texts and the Talmud for both children and adults, along with courses in Modern Hebrew, while other social facilities include a kindergarten, an old people's home, the kosher guest house Rimon Place, the kosher restaurant Ba Ghetto Venezia, and the bakery Volpe. Along with its architectural and artistic monuments, the community also boasts a Museum of Jewish Art, the Renato Maestro Library and Archive and the new Info Point inside the Midrash Leon da Modena.

In the Ghetto area there is also a yeshiva, several Judaica shops, and a Chabad synagogue run by Chabad of Venice.<ref>Chabad of Venice</ref> Although few Venetian Jews still live in the Ghetto,<ref>Jewish Venice</ref> many return there during the day for religious services at the two synagogues still actively used for worship (the other three are only used for guided tours, offered by the Jewish Community Museum).

Chabad of Venice also runs a pastry shop and a restaurant named "Gam Gam" in the Ghetto. Sabbath meals are served at the restaurant's outdoor tables along the Cannaregio Canal with views of the Guglie Bridge near the Grand Canal.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Rick Steves' Venice, Rick Steves, Avalon Travel, 2007, p. 40.</ref><ref>Friends Find Real Flavor of Europe, Jewish Journal of Greater L.A., 15 July 2004.</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In the novel Much Ado About Jesse Kaplan, the restaurant is the site of a historical mystery.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Canal boats carrying a sukkah and a menorah tour the city annually during the festivals of Sukkot and Hanukkah, respectively.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Notable residents

Notable residents of the Ghetto have included Leon of Modena, whose family originated in France, as well as his disciple Sara Copia Sullam. She was an accomplished writer, debater (through letters), and even hosted her own salon. Meir Magino, the famous glassmaker also came from the ghetto.

In fiction

See also

References

Notes

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Bibliography

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