Jewrism

See, look, we do something more than just eat and drink! We learn too!

We toured Venice’s Jewish neighborhood this afternoon. I found a bunch of things to be interesting, and the following are those that I remember.

Origin of “Ghetto”

The Jewish community in Venice dates from the 16th century when the Venetian republic let Jews settle in the city proper. Previously, Jews were allowed in the city during the day for work-related activities, but had to leave each night.

The city chose an outlying island that used to have a metal foundry as the site for the Jewish community. This island was gated and the gates were closed between midnight and dawn. The Venetian word for foundry is ‘geto’ with a soft g sound. When the Jews inhabited the island, they pronounced it (in Yiddish, these were Ashkenazi Jews) as ’ghetto’ with the hard g sound.

Side-note: the Ashkenazi jews settled in Geto Novo (now called Ghetto Novo). This is a very small island, when the Sephardic jews came in the wake of the inquisition, they needed more space, and they were settled on the site of an older foundry, Geto Vecchio (Ghetto Vechio). So, the older Ghetto is on the site of the newer Geto, and vice-a-versa.

Five Synagogues

The Jewish community in Venice worshipped at five synagogues: the German, the Canton (both Ashkenazi), the Spanish, the Levantine (both Sephardic) and the Italian (a synagogue for the Jews descendent from those who came to Rome after the destruction of the temple).

Today’s Jewish community in Venice uses, primarily, the two Sephardic synagogues (the vast majority of remaining Jews in Venice are Sephardic). The Spanish synagogue in the summer and the Levantine in the winter. The other synagogues are used for specific holidays only.

The Second Commandment

The commandment is interpreted by both the Jews and the Muslims as indicating that there should be no representation of human or divine beings. The Christians have decided differently (although as we learned in Cappadocia, the Byzantine church was split over the use of iconic representations).

The synagogues in Venice were architected and built by Christians since the various trades involved in building were not open to Jews. The architect of the Canton synagogue added bas-relief decoration to the room. These pictures depict various scenes from the torah. There are landscapes and objects shown, but no people or animals, since that would violate the second commandment. Therefore there is a picture of Egyptian chariots being submerged in the Red Sea, but no charioteers. There is a picture of the ark being transported, but without any bearers. They are a rather strange set of pictures.

Head Coverings

In Bologna, I had to take my hat off to enter the cathedral. In Istanbul, Kate had to put a scarf over her hair to visit the mosques. In Venice, I had to wear a kipah to enter the synagogues. It’s all very confusing.