The Council of Ten, in 1516, decreed that all the Jews of Venice be confined to an islet of Cannaregio. All Jews who came from all over Europe during the period of the Republic of Venice were forced to live in this ghetto.
City, which despite everything, welcomed people of different creeds and nationalities, and many of these groups gathered together in the various areas of the city, all were supervised, but the Jewish quarter was the only one that closed in the evening.
The term, of dialectal origin, indicated the foundries present in the district, in fact Ghetto comes from Geto, which indicates a metal casting. Hence the name has passed to indicate Jewish neighborhoods around the world. The islet where they were left was the new ghetto, although the name may be misleading, it was actually the first and oldest of the various ghettos, connected to the rest of the city by three bridges.
Over time, new groups of Jews arrived, coming from Spain, Portugal and Greece, bringing a rapid increase in the population, to fill the whole area, so as to push the Republic of Venice to sell other spaces to the community, establishing so the old ghetto and the brand new ghetto.
Passing through the Venezia Ghetto, a visit to the small and well-designed Jewish Museum, located in the New Ghetto, is highly recommended. It includes a collection of furnishings and objects from the 17th and 19th centuries.
Continuing up to the synagogues, where the visit provides a fascinating description of the life of the Ghetto of the past, it briefly traces the history of the neighborhood and shows the German, Spanish and Levantine synagogues, all richly decorated.
On the large Campo del Ghetto Nuovo, there are many souvenir shops selling glass rabbis and Hanukah lamps. Today, however, it has remained the fulcrum of the Venetian Jewish community, with several synagogues located in the surrounding area.
