 Durant
& Cheryl
Imboden'sVenice for Visitors veniceforvisitors.com |
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Venetian GhettoFrom: Venice's Top 11 Free Sights
ABOVE: The Ghetto Nuovo, or "Gheto Novo" in Venetian dialect.
If you have time and a few euros to spare, you can visit the Jewish Museum or take a guided English-language tour of the synagogues. The Ghetto is easy to reach: As you're walking toward the city center from the railroad station, turn left after crossing the Ponte delle Guglie and look for the Gam Gam restaurant. Turn right into the passage before the restaurant; you'll first encounter the Ghetto Vecchio, and beyond that is the Ghetto Nuovo, or New Ghetto, which is shown in the top photo above.
Related article: Next page: Canali, campi, and calli
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Venice's Ghetto was the
first segregated Jewish community in Europe. It was created by the Venetian
Republic in 1516 to placate the Roman Catholic Church, which had forced the
expulsion of Jews from many European countries. (The Venetians were more
interested in wealth on Earth than in religious ideology; if creating a
nighttime dormitory quarter was required to keep a community of Jewish
financiers and goldsmiths intact, that was good enough for the Republic.)
The
Ghetto has several interesting characteristics, such as the low-ceilinged,
multistory apartment buildings that were built to accommodate a dense Jewish
population and the upstairs synagogues that served Jews of different
nationalities.
Interesting
fact: Venice's Jewish population fell sharply during World War II, when many
Jews were shipped off to concentration camps, but it has grown in recent years
because of an influx of Messianic Jews from the United States. (If you see men
in black hats and side curls, there's a good chance that they're from Brooklyn.)