Conotatii diferite: Jewish Ghetto vs “Ghetto”

Un alt loc de vizitat cind te afli la Venetia, este the Venetian Ghetto, mai ferit de turisti si care, precum oraselul-cetate Pitigliano , pastreaza nealterate secventele prin care a trecut si inca mai trece istoria neamului evreiesc ...

O veche sinagoga, la etaj, intr-un bloc de locuinte.

E stiut ca : "A ghetto is an area where people from a specific racial or ethnic background are united in a given culture and religion live as a group, voluntarily or involuntarily, in milder or stricter seclusion."

Today, the word "ghetto" has a negative connotation, being associated with modern urban slums and the persecution of Jews in Central Europe during the Nazi era.

But in 1516, "The Ghetto's Jews did not refer to their enforced residence as a jail. Rather, it was a biblical 'camp of the Hebrews,' a place of Holiness on the way to the Promised Land. In Verona they declared a public celebration of its establishment. For the puritanical young rabbi, Samuel Aboab, who had first seen Venice as a 13-year-old student, the city's Ghetto seemed Isaiah's Jerusalem....Aboab's attitude tells us much about Venetian Jewry's intense efforts to order their enclosed world; his choice of words tells us even more about how these Jews identified with their community-behind-walls and gloried in it." (The Venetian Ghetto, Bernard Dov Cooperman)
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Zice o studenta (Sabine Kroh, Term paper: "The Merchant" - A Historical Drama? about Arnold Wesker′s Adaptation of William Shakespeare′s "The Merchant of Venice" ) in lucrarea ei:

"Jewish settlements in the Veneto were found even in ancient times. Archaeological remains and sources testify the presence of Jews in Aquileia, Grado, and Concordia since the 4th and 5th centuries. Jews from the East and transalpine countries were the first to settle there, but, after 1492, many Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal also arrived. Small communities were created in the mainland near Padua, Treviso, Bassano, and Conegliano. From there, Jews began to move to Venice, where their residence was always precarious owing to the wavering policy of the Serenissima, which kept giving and withdrawing its permission to stay. Gradually, however, the number of Jews and the importance of the role they played in the life of the city kept growing. The Governor of the Republic, then, decided that the Jews had to live in only one area of the city and on 29 March 1516 a law decreed that that area was to be in the S. Girolamo parish and would be called "Ghetto Nuovo". Thus the first ghetto of Europe came into existence. "
According to tradition, the word "Ghetto" comes from the Venetian word "geto" (pron. je-tto), indicating the site of a metal foundry. German Jews were the first to settle down here. The first area assigned to the Jews (1516) was called "Ghetto Nuovo" (New Ghetto) probably because there was a new foundry there, ... while there was an older foundry in the "Ghetto Vecchio" (Old Ghetto), assigned after 1541. Finally the "Ghetto Novissimo" (Newest Ghetto) was added to the area of settlement for the Jews in 1633. The Jews had to remain in the Ghetto during the night, while two large gates closed the area off. Christian guards (paid by the Jews themselves) patrolled by boat the canals surrounding the Ghetto, blocking possible escapes ..."

After 1516, no Jew was allowed to live anywhere in the city of Venice for more than 15 days per year; so most of them lived in Venice's possessions on the terrafirma. At its maximum, the population of the Ghetto reached 3,000. In exchange for their loss of freedom, the Jews were granted the right to a Jew's coat (the colour yellow was considered humiliating, as it was associated with prostitutes). The gates were locked at night, and the Jewish community was forced to pay the salaries of the patrolmen who guarded the gates and patrolled the canals that surrounded the Ghetto. The Ghetto was abolished after the fall of the Republic of Venice to Napoleon (1797), when the gates were opened and eliminated and Jews were free to live in other areas of the city.

To place Venetian provisions requiring groups in the city to live in compulsory quarters in historical context, it should be noted that:
- Merchants from the Germanic lands were required to reside in a special building known as the 'Fondaco dei Tedeschi'.
- Prostitutes and pimps were confined to certain houses and were required to be recognizable through the wearing of yellow items of clothing, a step reminiscent of the Jewish badge which had been introduced in 1397 and replaced by a hat in 1497.
- The Moslem Ottoman Turkish merchants in Venice requested from the Venetian government, for the convenience of their trade, a place of their own similar to the Jews. The Venetian government subsequently required the Turkish merchants to live in a certain building which was carefully isolated from its surroundings, this building became known as the Fondaco dei Turchi.
- Girolamo Querini, commented in 1528 that the Greek Orthodox Christians in Venice, were severely restricted.

Tot aceeasi studenta ne povesteste despre bogatele marturii culturale din acea perioada:
"The Ghetto In the 16th and 17th century, the Ghetto experienced a rich cultural growth. Many Hebrew books were printed by Bomberg ( Shylock: "And I have them, the greatest of them, each of them, starting 1519 to the last on June the 3rd, 1523." (I,1; p.192) - Bomberg printed a 12-volume complete Talmud edition [cf.Meyers Grosses Universallexikon 1981, p.550]), Bragadin, Giustinian, and Vendramin; famous Rabbis, such as Leon da Modena (′Abtalion da Modena′ in the play) and Simone Luzzatto, and distinguished poets (notably Sara Coppio Sullam) lived there. The five major Synagogues, as well as smaller study and prayer houses (midrashim), were built. The Jews from different ethnic groups ("nations") were in fact allowed to organise their communities ("Universities") ... "