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JEWISH HERITAGE EUROPE
An Online Resource Centre
ITALY HOME PAGE
Venice
Europe's most beautiful city was also home to the first Jewish ghetto in Europe. Whilst Palladio and Sansovino were building their churches, villas and palazzi, and Titian and Veronese were painting their masterpieces, the Jews of Venice, Shakespeare's fictional Shylock amongst them, were confined by night to the industrial wastelands - the word ghetto is thought to be derived from the Italian for the "foundry" on the northern outskirts of the lagoon city. Here, from 1516 until the fall of the Republic in 1797, they enjoyed a confined but paradoxically rich life.
This contradiction is expressed in the fabric of the ghetto, its buildings and street pattern, which, like Venice itself, survives intact in the district of Cannarégio. Even the three entrances to the narrow alleyways (calle) of the ghetto can still be seen, now minus their gates, that were once locked up at night. Five synagogues survive, discreetly hidden away on the upper floors of the "tower houses" - a building type for which the ghetto is distinguished, thanks to the high-density living conditions imposed on the Jews by residential discrimination.
The synagogue interiors, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, are unexpectedly exquisite spaces, hidden gems created under Italian Renaissance influence. The significance of these synagogues in the history of synagogue architecture lies not only in their artistic achievement but also in their internal layout or liturgical arrangement. They are the most well-known examples of the rare so-called bi-polar plan, where the Ark (Hehal) and Tevah (Sephardi Bimah or reading platform) face each other on opposite walls of the worship space. Fortunately, the synagogues of Venice remained undisturbed, if unused, during the Second World War. Some 200 Jews were deported from the city, commemorated in a Holocaust Memorial in the form of a series of relief panels by Lithuanian sculptor Arbit Blatas in the corner of the campo (paved open space) outside.
Today, the two oldest synagogues, the Scuola Grande Tedesca (German Synagogue) and Scuola Canton (Canton, "corner" or Provençal Synagogue), form part of the state-run Museo Ebraico and are thus accessible to the public. The Scuola Italiana is unfortunately not open to visitors, because of physical access problems but, like the others, is used by the Venetian Jewish community for occasional services. The community revived after the Second World War and today numbers about 450 members.
The Museo Ebraico, one of the first post-war Jewish Museums in Europe, opened in 1955 and has a fine collection of ritual Judaica, including silverware and textiles (contact details below). With 90,000 visitors annually, the museum is currently undergoing a programme of expansion, with new galleries being created to contextualise the rich collection within a chronological and thematic presentation on the history of Venetian Jewry.
A fundraising drive for several million Euros is currently underway. The museum complex is located in the campo, which once formed vital public space for the overcrowded residents of the Ghetto Nuovo which, its name notwithstanding, is in fact the earliest part of the ghetto.
The Scuola Grande Spagnola (Ponentina or Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue) and Scuola Levantina (Levantine or Turkish Synagogue) are used alternately for services by the Venetian Jewish community, the Spagnola in summer-time and the Levantina during the winter months. These synagogues stand facing each other in the Ghetto Vecchio. The fabric of both dates largely from the 17th century; the Spagnola was reputedly designed by Baldassare Longhena, whose magnificent Baroque church of San Salute dominates the eastern entrance to the Grand Canal.
Contact the Jewish Community of Venice for times of services (details below).
Take a vaporetto (waterbus) trip across to the Lido to visit the Old Jewish Cemetery of San Nicolo del Lido where tombstones date back to the early 16th century. The cemetery is documented from 1386. The remaining stones are no longer in situ, the site having been saved from dereliction in 1999. Some of the stones are preserved in an outdoor exhibit at the nearby New Jewish Cemetery. The New Cemetery dates from 1763 and contains some fascinating memorials testifying to the acculturation of Venetian Jewry under the influence of the Haskalah.
Access: Both cemeteries are kept locked. By appointment via the Jewish Community of Venice.
Museo Ebraico di Venezia:
Address
Telephone
Fax
Cannarégio 2902/b
Campo del Ghetto Nuovo
30121 Venezia
+39 (0) 41 715 359
+39 (0) 41 723 007
Bookshop and kosher cafe. For more information, opening times and admission charges, visit
www.museoebraico.it.
Jewish Community of Venice:
Address
Email
Cannarégio 2899
Ghetto Vecchio
Venezia
com.ebra@ve.191.it
Contact the office to check times of synagogue services and kosher food facilities; also to arrange visits to the Old Jewish Cemetery on the Lido.
Chabad-Lubavitch
The New York-based Lubavitch Jewish outreach organisation operates a Yeshivah and Bet Midrash located in the Campo del Ghetto Nuovo. They also run the Gam Gam kosher restaurant that provides Shabbat hospitality to Jewish tourists every Friday night and Saturday lunchtime throughout the year.
Further details at www.jewishvenice.com.
Brandes, Francesca (ed.),
Venice and Environs: Jewish Itineraries, Venice and New York, Marsilio 1997
Calimani, Riccardo et al., Venice: Guide to the synagogues, museum and cemetery, Venice, Marsilio 2001
Cassuto, David, 'The Scuola grande Tedesca in the Venice Ghetto', Journal of Jewish Art, Vol. 3/4 (1977), pp. 40-57
Curiel, Roberta and Cooperman, Bernard Dov, The Ghetto of Venice, New York, Rizzoli/London, Tauris Parke Book 1990
Mann, V.B. (ed.), Gardens and Ghettos: The Art of Jewish Life in Italy, Berkeley 1989 (Jewish Museum, New York, catalogue)
Sacerdoti, Annie, The Guide to Jewish Italy, New York, Rizzoli 2004
[SK 2006]
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