Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Tucked away in the Cannaregio District is the ghetto where Venice's Jewish population
once lived, segregated from their non-Jewish neighbors. While today's Jewish population
is dwindling, the neighborhood still has centuries of history, not to mention Jewish-themed
sights and eateries.
Inmedievaltimes,JewsweregrudginglyallowedtodobusinessinVenice,buttheywer-
en't permitted to live here until 1385 (subject to strict laws and special taxes). Anti-Semitic
forces tried to oust them from the city, but in 1516, the doge compromised by restricting
Jewstoaspecial(undesirable)neighborhood.Itwaslocatedonaneasy-to-isolateislandnear
the former foundry
(geto)
—in time the word “ghetto” caught on across Europe as a term for
any segregated neighborhood.
The population swelled with immigrants from elsewhere in Europe, reaching 5,000 in
the 1600s, the Golden Age of Venice's Jews. Restricted within their tiny neighborhood (the
GhetoNovo,or“NewGhetto”),theyexpandedupward,buildingsix-story“skyscrapers”that
still stand today. The community's five synagogues were built atop the high-rise tenements.
(As space was very tight and you couldn't live above a house of worship, this was the most
practicaluseofpreciousland.)Onlytwosynagoguesarestillactive.Youcanspotthem(with
their five windows) from the square, but to visit them you have to book a tour through the
Jewish Museum.
This original ghetto becomes most interesting after touring the
Jewish Museum
(Museo
Ebraico) at #2902b, a worthwhile stop with just three rooms. Exhibits include silver men-
orahs, cloth covers for Torah scrolls, and a concise bilingual exhibit on the Venetian Jewish
community up through 1797 (€3, June-Sept Sun-Fri 10:00-19:00, Oct-May Sun-Fri
10:00-17:30, closed Jewish holidays and Sat year-round, bookstore, small café, Campo de
Gheto Novo, tel. 041-715-359,
www.museoebraico.it
)
. You can see three of the ghetto's five
synagogues
with the 45-minute English tour (€8.50, tours run hourly on the half-hour June-
Sept Sun-Fri 10:30-17:30, Oct-May Sun-Fri 10:30-16:30, notours Sat and Jewish holidays).
Group sizes are limited (the 11:30 and 12:30 tours are the most popular), so show up 20
minutes early to be sure you get in.
Getting There:
From either the San Marcuola vaporetto stop or the train station, walk
five minutes to the Ponte de Guglie bridge that crosses the Cannaregio Canal. Cross the
bridge and turn left. About 50 yards north of the bridge, a small covered alleyway (Calle del
Gheto Vechio) leads between the
farmacia
and the Gam-Gam Kosher Restaurant, through a
newer Jewish section, across a bridge, and into the historic core of the ghetto at Campo de
Gheto Novo.
