Nadene Goldfoot
In Daniel Silva's books, the main character, Gabriel Allon's love of his life is a Jewish Italian woman who is living in the old Jewish Ghetto in Venice, Italy. Evidently her family had been there for ages. Gabriel is an Israeli spy for Mossad, I believe. His profession is that of a painter; an art restorer of the old masters that are found in Italy.
Present day Jews are most familiar with the Ghetto in Venice where the Jews were segregated in 1517 after the Spanish Inquisition had started and spread from 1492.
The Ghetto was a Jewish quarter in a city, set up by law to be homes only for Jews. The name comes from the foundry or Ghetto in Venice where the Jews were segregated from the rest of the city.
If you've been watching Net Flicks on TV's Medici or The Borgias, you'll get a taste of the history and know that Venice in the 15th century was a city-state as they all were, warring against each other, seeking power.
The idea of segregating the Jewish population goes back to earlier Church legislation to the Lateran Councils of 1179 and 1215 which forbade Jews and Christians to live together in close contact. The Catholic church was in power and considered Jews as their competition in religion and they were just changing over from Roman gods to Christianity.
In Spain, the Jews lived at least from the 13th century in juderias provided with walls and gates for their protection. in 1355, 12,000 Jews were massacred by the mob in Toledo. in 1492, 180,000 were expulsed from Spain while 50,000 were converted to Christianity so as to remain in Spain. Most of them were keeping their Jewishness a secret, and today many are coming out of the closet, so to speak, and not called Marranos anymore but the Anusim; Jews.
From the 15th century, the friars in Italy began to press for the effective segregation of the Jews, and in 1555, Pope Paul IV ordered that Jews in the Papal States should be forced to live in separate quarters. This was carried out right away in Rome and became the rule throughout Italy in the next generation as well.
The name, GHETTO used in Venice now was applied universally. It was in common use under the name of Judengasse in Germany and Prague and in some Polish cities. It was a town within a town. People inside had a certain amount of autonomy but besides this, did have a vigorous spiritual and intellectual life.
However, it was unhealthy and overcrowded as the area had no way to expand. It was beset with many fires in those days.
An even bigger problem was that they were set upon by forced baptism, the wearing of the Jewish Badge, conversionist sermons, and the occupational restrictions.
It took the French Period to come alone before clothing ID saying you were a Jew was abolished in Italy but reintroduced locally in the 19th century, and only came to an end when Rome united with the kingdom of Italy in 1870.
Moslem law did not restrict Jews into their own quarter like European Christians were doing. Their deterioration came in the 18th century. Jews there were required to move from the area of mosques and were restricted in the size of their houses. Economic decline came along and Jewish quarters became slums.
In Persia, Shi'ite (Iran today) fanaticism from the outset enforced distinct Jewish quarters, also closed at night and on Sabbaths as Europe had practiced. This practice extended to Yemen and Morocco where the ghettos were called as Qa'at al-Yahud or Masbattah and Mellah.
Then we come to 1939 and the Nazis in Eastern Europe. Ghettos were not permanent homes there but temporary holding cells in their plan of liquidation aiming to concentrate, isolate, and break the spirit of their occupants before they were murdered. Between 1939 and 1942, Jews from Poland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, and other places were transferred mainly to the Warsaw and Lublin areas of Poland. Ghettos were used there and at other places like Lodz, Minsk, Vilna, Cracow, Bialystok, Lvov, Riga, Sosnowiec.
The population of the Warsaw Ghetto grew to 445,000 and there were 200,000 in the ghetto of Lodz. In the beginning they were overcrowded. If one escaped, the punishment was death. The Gestapo and SS were in control.
They appointed council out of the Jewish people to carry out their dastardly orders and used them as a Jewish police force.
The councils organized social welfare, schools, maintained courts of law, and raised a labor fore for the Germans. As the Nazi murderous plans became clear with gas chambers and shootings, both councils and the Jewish police passed into the hands of collaborators who formed a privileged group.
The ghettos contained industrial centers working for Germany at nominal wages. Nazis starved the ghettos and available relief could only be financed at the expense of the Jews themselves.
The Ghettoed Jews went through destitution and demoralization but maintained cultural activity, schools and mutual aid and from this moral resistance were born the Ghetto Revolts of 1943. The Warsaw Ghetto was liquidated in 1943 and the remaining ghettos by 1944.
The Pianist is a movie about the Warsaw Ghetto.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
 |
| Today's Ghetto in Venice |
Present day Jews are most familiar with the Ghetto in Venice where the Jews were segregated in 1517 after the Spanish Inquisition had started and spread from 1492.
The Ghetto was a Jewish quarter in a city, set up by law to be homes only for Jews. The name comes from the foundry or Ghetto in Venice where the Jews were segregated from the rest of the city.
If you've been watching Net Flicks on TV's Medici or The Borgias, you'll get a taste of the history and know that Venice in the 15th century was a city-state as they all were, warring against each other, seeking power.
The idea of segregating the Jewish population goes back to earlier Church legislation to the Lateran Councils of 1179 and 1215 which forbade Jews and Christians to live together in close contact. The Catholic church was in power and considered Jews as their competition in religion and they were just changing over from Roman gods to Christianity.
In Spain, the Jews lived at least from the 13th century in juderias provided with walls and gates for their protection. in 1355, 12,000 Jews were massacred by the mob in Toledo. in 1492, 180,000 were expulsed from Spain while 50,000 were converted to Christianity so as to remain in Spain. Most of them were keeping their Jewishness a secret, and today many are coming out of the closet, so to speak, and not called Marranos anymore but the Anusim; Jews.
From the 15th century, the friars in Italy began to press for the effective segregation of the Jews, and in 1555, Pope Paul IV ordered that Jews in the Papal States should be forced to live in separate quarters. This was carried out right away in Rome and became the rule throughout Italy in the next generation as well.
The name, GHETTO used in Venice now was applied universally. It was in common use under the name of Judengasse in Germany and Prague and in some Polish cities. It was a town within a town. People inside had a certain amount of autonomy but besides this, did have a vigorous spiritual and intellectual life.
An even bigger problem was that they were set upon by forced baptism, the wearing of the Jewish Badge, conversionist sermons, and the occupational restrictions.
It took the French Period to come alone before clothing ID saying you were a Jew was abolished in Italy but reintroduced locally in the 19th century, and only came to an end when Rome united with the kingdom of Italy in 1870.
Moslem law did not restrict Jews into their own quarter like European Christians were doing. Their deterioration came in the 18th century. Jews there were required to move from the area of mosques and were restricted in the size of their houses. Economic decline came along and Jewish quarters became slums.
In Persia, Shi'ite (Iran today) fanaticism from the outset enforced distinct Jewish quarters, also closed at night and on Sabbaths as Europe had practiced. This practice extended to Yemen and Morocco where the ghettos were called as Qa'at al-Yahud or Masbattah and Mellah.
 |
| Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler inspecting Dachau concentration camp on 8 May 1936. |
Then we come to 1939 and the Nazis in Eastern Europe. Ghettos were not permanent homes there but temporary holding cells in their plan of liquidation aiming to concentrate, isolate, and break the spirit of their occupants before they were murdered. Between 1939 and 1942, Jews from Poland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, and other places were transferred mainly to the Warsaw and Lublin areas of Poland. Ghettos were used there and at other places like Lodz, Minsk, Vilna, Cracow, Bialystok, Lvov, Riga, Sosnowiec.
The population of the Warsaw Ghetto grew to 445,000 and there were 200,000 in the ghetto of Lodz. In the beginning they were overcrowded. If one escaped, the punishment was death. The Gestapo and SS were in control.
They appointed council out of the Jewish people to carry out their dastardly orders and used them as a Jewish police force.
 |
| Last Seder in Warsaw Ghetto 76 years ago, the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto organized the largest Jewish armed resistance against the Nazis. It was April 19th, the first night of Pesach. As the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was unfolding, Jews gathered for a Seder. For most of them, it would be their last. |
The councils organized social welfare, schools, maintained courts of law, and raised a labor fore for the Germans. As the Nazi murderous plans became clear with gas chambers and shootings, both councils and the Jewish police passed into the hands of collaborators who formed a privileged group.
The ghettos contained industrial centers working for Germany at nominal wages. Nazis starved the ghettos and available relief could only be financed at the expense of the Jews themselves.
The Ghettoed Jews went through destitution and demoralization but maintained cultural activity, schools and mutual aid and from this moral resistance were born the Ghetto Revolts of 1943. The Warsaw Ghetto was liquidated in 1943 and the remaining ghettos by 1944.
The Pianist is a movie about the Warsaw Ghetto.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
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