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History of the Jews in Venice
The history of the Jewish community of Venice, the capital of the Veneto region of Italy, has been well known since the later medieval era.
Although it has been previously assumed that Jews resided in Venice since as early as the twelfth century, these claims have been demonstrated to be invalid and the first Jew documented to have been in Venice was an inhabitant of Venetian Crete who came to the doge as representative of the Jewish community there. Reinhold Mueller demonstrated that only from the late fourteenth century onwards Jews were allowed to reside in Venice when, after the Fourth Genoese War, Venice was in need of loans and new tax income sources. Therefore, the Venetian Republic issued in February 1382 an invitation and legislation to people able to provide funds to come to Venice. Although this was not a direct invitation or legislation catered towards Jews, Mueller shows that nearly all that accepted this invitations were Jews, who subsequently were allowed to stay on a temporary basis. As the Jews proofed, however, a less profitable tax resource, the Venetian government decreed that the Jews should depart after 1397 and could only stay for up to fifteen days in the city and should, according to the policy of the Fourth Council of the Lateran that Jews and Muslims should be distinguishable from Christians, wear a yellow circle on their outer clothing.
These rules were not applied consequently and Jews were able to evade them, so that the Venetian government adopted in the fifteenth century a policy of toleration while it did not permit open practice of Judaism. The situation improved slightly in 1464 when Jews petitioned the Ducal college based on the policy of pope Pius II who had allowed Jews to practice their religion and threatened anyone with excommunication who hindered them in doing so. Thereafter, while still not allowed to establish synagogues, they were allowed to gather in small groups and recite certain prayers according to their laws. These restrictions were not applied to the Jewish communities in either the Stato da Màr or the Venetian territory on the Italian mainland.
In 1509, among the many refuges from the former Venetian possessions on the Italian mainland entering Venice during the start of the War of the League of Cambrai, were also Jewish moneylenders. These spread throughout the city, but mostly on the Frari side of the Grand Canal. The Jews were allowed to stay, not only because of their tax contributions, which represented a small but not insignificant part of the Venetian budget, but also due to their capacity to provide loans to the poor of the city. Nevertheless, their numbers and wealth caused consternation and rumours about bribery and blasphemy among the public, such as reflected in the diaries of Girolamo Priuli. This conundrum, in which ideas to expel the Jews conflicted with their economic importance, resulted in the idea to separate them from the rest of the population while keeping them as an economic resource. A first attempt to segregate the Jews was suggested in 23 April 1515 by Giorgio Emo, a powerful politician, but two leaders of the Jewish community successfully protested against it.
A year later, however, on March 29, 1516, Doge Leonardo Loredan and the senators of the Republic of Venice enacted a decree to formally isolate the Jews of Venice. According to Robert Finlay, a major factor of why the Venetian government decided to go through with isolation this time were the previous defeats the Venetian Republic had suffered, which were seen as divine punishment, and that it was thought that the action would result in divine approbation.
In the decree, the Republic obliged the Jews to live in an area of the city where the foundries, known in Venetian as geto, had been situated in ancient times, to wear a sign of identification and to manage the city's pawnshops at rates established by La Serenissima. Separated into two sections, ghetto vecchio and ghetto nuovo, the Venetian ghetto was home to about 700 Jews in the year 1516. Many other onerous regulations were also included, in exchange for which the Community was granted the freedom to practice its faith and protection in the case of war. Another regulation that existed in reference to the Venetian ghetto was the restriction to non-Venetian Jewish merchants who were wanting to work in Venice. This restriction originated in 1541. There was little to no accommodations for Jewish merchants traveling to Venice in the existing ghetto and it was a requirement for all Jews to live in the Venetian Ghetto even if it was temporary. Under the permission and discretion of government officials, Jewish merchants living in Venice temporarily were allowed to move into the ghetto vecchio under the guise that none of them would move to Venice permanently or bring their families.
The first Jews to comply with the decree were Ashkenazi from Central Europe. They used to melt metal, getto in Venetian, as their one in two options of income. The other choice was selling secondhand items and clothing. When the Germans came, their guttural pronunciation changed the Venetian term from getto into ghetto, creating the word still used today to indicate various places of emargination. The ghetto was closed from 6 p.m. every night to 12 p.m. the next day. The boats of the Christian guards scoured the surrounding canals to impede nocturnal violations. This is how Europe's first ghetto was born. Known as Scole, the synagogues of the Venetian ghetto were constructed between the early-16th and mid-17th centuries. (The word scole (σχολή) can be compared with the Yiddish shul, the German Schule, the Italian scuola, or the English school.) Each represented a different ethnic group that had settled here stably and obtained a guarantee of religious freedom: the German and Canton Scole practiced the Ashkenazi rite; the Italian, the Italian rite and the Levantine and Spanish, the Sephardic rite. Despite a few later interventions, these synagogues have remained intact over time and testify to the importance of the Venetian ghetto. The unusual tall buildings found here were divided into floors of sub-standard height, demonstrating how the density of the population had increased over the years.
In the early sixteenth century, Venice became the center for Hebrew book printing. While Jews were not allowed to print by themselves, they collaborated with non-Jews such as Daniel Bomberg, who became the dominant printer of Hebrew books between 1515 and 1535. Hebrew books during that period were exported as far as Egypt and Syria. This period ended after the Reformation when, during the heightened tension of the Counter-Reformation the Bragadin-Giustiniani dispute sparked renewed debate about the Talmud and resulted in the burning of the Talmud as well as other books in Venice.
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History of the Jews in Venice AI simulator
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History of the Jews in Venice
The history of the Jewish community of Venice, the capital of the Veneto region of Italy, has been well known since the later medieval era.
Although it has been previously assumed that Jews resided in Venice since as early as the twelfth century, these claims have been demonstrated to be invalid and the first Jew documented to have been in Venice was an inhabitant of Venetian Crete who came to the doge as representative of the Jewish community there. Reinhold Mueller demonstrated that only from the late fourteenth century onwards Jews were allowed to reside in Venice when, after the Fourth Genoese War, Venice was in need of loans and new tax income sources. Therefore, the Venetian Republic issued in February 1382 an invitation and legislation to people able to provide funds to come to Venice. Although this was not a direct invitation or legislation catered towards Jews, Mueller shows that nearly all that accepted this invitations were Jews, who subsequently were allowed to stay on a temporary basis. As the Jews proofed, however, a less profitable tax resource, the Venetian government decreed that the Jews should depart after 1397 and could only stay for up to fifteen days in the city and should, according to the policy of the Fourth Council of the Lateran that Jews and Muslims should be distinguishable from Christians, wear a yellow circle on their outer clothing.
These rules were not applied consequently and Jews were able to evade them, so that the Venetian government adopted in the fifteenth century a policy of toleration while it did not permit open practice of Judaism. The situation improved slightly in 1464 when Jews petitioned the Ducal college based on the policy of pope Pius II who had allowed Jews to practice their religion and threatened anyone with excommunication who hindered them in doing so. Thereafter, while still not allowed to establish synagogues, they were allowed to gather in small groups and recite certain prayers according to their laws. These restrictions were not applied to the Jewish communities in either the Stato da Màr or the Venetian territory on the Italian mainland.
In 1509, among the many refuges from the former Venetian possessions on the Italian mainland entering Venice during the start of the War of the League of Cambrai, were also Jewish moneylenders. These spread throughout the city, but mostly on the Frari side of the Grand Canal. The Jews were allowed to stay, not only because of their tax contributions, which represented a small but not insignificant part of the Venetian budget, but also due to their capacity to provide loans to the poor of the city. Nevertheless, their numbers and wealth caused consternation and rumours about bribery and blasphemy among the public, such as reflected in the diaries of Girolamo Priuli. This conundrum, in which ideas to expel the Jews conflicted with their economic importance, resulted in the idea to separate them from the rest of the population while keeping them as an economic resource. A first attempt to segregate the Jews was suggested in 23 April 1515 by Giorgio Emo, a powerful politician, but two leaders of the Jewish community successfully protested against it.
A year later, however, on March 29, 1516, Doge Leonardo Loredan and the senators of the Republic of Venice enacted a decree to formally isolate the Jews of Venice. According to Robert Finlay, a major factor of why the Venetian government decided to go through with isolation this time were the previous defeats the Venetian Republic had suffered, which were seen as divine punishment, and that it was thought that the action would result in divine approbation.
In the decree, the Republic obliged the Jews to live in an area of the city where the foundries, known in Venetian as geto, had been situated in ancient times, to wear a sign of identification and to manage the city's pawnshops at rates established by La Serenissima. Separated into two sections, ghetto vecchio and ghetto nuovo, the Venetian ghetto was home to about 700 Jews in the year 1516. Many other onerous regulations were also included, in exchange for which the Community was granted the freedom to practice its faith and protection in the case of war. Another regulation that existed in reference to the Venetian ghetto was the restriction to non-Venetian Jewish merchants who were wanting to work in Venice. This restriction originated in 1541. There was little to no accommodations for Jewish merchants traveling to Venice in the existing ghetto and it was a requirement for all Jews to live in the Venetian Ghetto even if it was temporary. Under the permission and discretion of government officials, Jewish merchants living in Venice temporarily were allowed to move into the ghetto vecchio under the guise that none of them would move to Venice permanently or bring their families.
The first Jews to comply with the decree were Ashkenazi from Central Europe. They used to melt metal, getto in Venetian, as their one in two options of income. The other choice was selling secondhand items and clothing. When the Germans came, their guttural pronunciation changed the Venetian term from getto into ghetto, creating the word still used today to indicate various places of emargination. The ghetto was closed from 6 p.m. every night to 12 p.m. the next day. The boats of the Christian guards scoured the surrounding canals to impede nocturnal violations. This is how Europe's first ghetto was born. Known as Scole, the synagogues of the Venetian ghetto were constructed between the early-16th and mid-17th centuries. (The word scole (σχολή) can be compared with the Yiddish shul, the German Schule, the Italian scuola, or the English school.) Each represented a different ethnic group that had settled here stably and obtained a guarantee of religious freedom: the German and Canton Scole practiced the Ashkenazi rite; the Italian, the Italian rite and the Levantine and Spanish, the Sephardic rite. Despite a few later interventions, these synagogues have remained intact over time and testify to the importance of the Venetian ghetto. The unusual tall buildings found here were divided into floors of sub-standard height, demonstrating how the density of the population had increased over the years.
In the early sixteenth century, Venice became the center for Hebrew book printing. While Jews were not allowed to print by themselves, they collaborated with non-Jews such as Daniel Bomberg, who became the dominant printer of Hebrew books between 1515 and 1535. Hebrew books during that period were exported as far as Egypt and Syria. This period ended after the Reformation when, during the heightened tension of the Counter-Reformation the Bragadin-Giustiniani dispute sparked renewed debate about the Talmud and resulted in the burning of the Talmud as well as other books in Venice.