The Jewish Experience in Venice in the Age of the Ghetto

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Searching for the word “Ghetto” in Longman’s Dictionary of Contemporary English, it can be read the following definition:

“ Part of a city where people of a particular race or class, especially people who are poor, live separately from the rest of the people in the city. […] Sometimes considered offensive. A part of a city where Jews were forced to live in the past ” ( LD 678 ).

As a result, the first general definition appears connected with the more specific example of the Jews. It seems to be particularly interesting, because it gives us a perspective of the idea of Ghetto that has been transformed and adapted to different realities, but unexpectedly it demonstrates the opposite of what was the Jewish experience of it in Venice.

First of all, it can be inferred that Jewish people of that time was not representative neither of just one class, nor than a particular “race”, but rather it was a complex reality of different ethnic groups that was forced to give itself a particular organization to preserve its own economic, social and cultural rights. And it is also true that in many cases, claiming rights, Jewish community lost them. Defining themselves as a social group, sometimes means building a border that limits a community. However, the Jewish contribution to the economy of the Venetian Republic, seen from now and even from the society of that time, is undeniable. Jewish intellectuals of 16th and 17th century looked at the Serenissima with a touch of hope, as it is clear from Francesco Sansovino writing about it as the “true Promised Land” ( “Venetia, città nobilissima et singolare ”, 1581 ), most of all after that they had been expelled from both England and Spain.

Moreover, the consideration t...

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...fficult situation of that time.

Bibliography

Written Sources

• Davis, R.C. and B. Ravid (eds.) The Jews of Early Modern Venice, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001

• Course Pack: The Jews of Venice in the Age of the Ghetto: Jewish Culture Between Segregation and Integration

• Cohen, M.R. et al (eds.) The Autobiography of a Seventeenth-Century Venetian Rabbi. Leon Modena's Life of Judah, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1988

• Roth, C. The History of the Jews in Venice, New York, Shocken books 1975, c1930

• Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Pearson ESL; 1st edition ,March 18, 2003

Electronic sources

• Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_ghetto

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_of_Modena

• Official web site of the Jewish Ghetto of Venice http://www.ghetto.it/ghetto/it/index.asp