Jews in Venice - The origins

The Senate of the Most Serene Republic of Venice issued a decree on 29 March 1516 confining the Jews present in the city to a separate enclosure, segregating them from the rest of the population and marking the establishment of Europe’s first and oldest ghetto.

In the centuries before the ghetto was instituted, Jews lived for the most part in villages in the Venetian hinterland. Only a handful of families lived in Venice itself. Contemporary scholars tend to dismiss reports that Jews lived on the island of Giudecca, the name being more likely to come from the Venetian zudegà (families judged, found guilty and confined to the island). Jewish moneylenders and merchants from the hinterland were barred from all guilds and from owning property, thus if they were to survive they had no choice but to practice lending against security or trading in small second-hand items (strazarìa). They were allowed to reside in the city for no more than fifteen days in a row, during which time they could ply their trade in the Rialoto market, before returning to Mestre. Some were allowed to practice medicine. But no stable residency was permitted in the city until the early 16th century aside from a short period from 1382 to 1397 when, in an emergency, a temporary pass

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE GHETTO

After Venice was defeated at Agnadello in 1509 and a difficult social and economic situation set in, the Venetian government allowed Jews to reside in the city centre with a pass agreed on in 1513, in return for an annual tribute of 6,500 ducats. Many buildings close to Rialto housed Jewish families, but this sparked noisy protests from the preaching friars. So in 1515 a motion was submitted to the Senate urging that Jews be allowed to reside in the city in view of their contribution to the economy, but that they be confined to separate neighbourhoods. Rejecting a proposal to shut them up on the Giudecca or on the island of Murano, the Senate issued a decree on 29 March 5016 confining Jews to the “Ghetto Nuovo”.

“All Jews currently living in various parts of the city and those that come to the city hereafter are bound to go at once to live together in the houses situated in the Ghetto, a very spacious area close to [the church of] San Girolamo”.

It is estimated that roughly seven hundred German and Italian Jews, plus a handful of Levantine families, took up residence in the houses in the Ghetto Nuovo in a relatively short time, paying rent one-third higher than the standard rent and under the watchful eye of the stern Magistrates of the Most Serene Republic. Obliged throughout Italy to wear a distinctive badge with a yellow “O” on their clothing, the Jews of Venice, on the other hand, were forced to wear a yellow cap. Only a handful of bankers and medics were exempt from this order. The Ghetto was surrounded by high walls with gates that shut in the evening and only opened again at dawn, while guards salaried by the Jews themselves watched over the enclosure day and night, even sailing around the neighbouring canals.

THE TERM ‘GHETTO’

The jury is still out over the origin of the word “ghetto”. It is spelled in various different ways in old documents – ghèto, getto, ghetto, geto – but often indicates the place in which the Jews were enclosed, first in the Ghetto Nuovo and then in the Ghetto Vecchio. The “tract of land called the getto or the ghetto was the seat of the public foundries where bombards were cast (gettate in Italian)” and so “the place was called el getto because it contained over 12 foundries and bronze was cast there”. The word Ghetto thus appears to come from the name of the island on which the old foundries were situated. That, at any rate, is the explanation most popular with scholars today, other etymologies appearing to be more difficult to accept, so Venice is responsible for giving the world the word commonly used around the globe to indicate segregation and social discrimination.