The Venetian Ghetto was the area of Venice in which Jews were compelled to live under the Venetian Republic. It is from its name in Italian (“ghetto”), that the English word “ghetto” is derived: in the Venetian language it was named “ghèto”. The Venetian Ghetto (incidentally, the first Ghetto) was instituted on 29 March 1516, though political restrictions on Jewish rights and residences existed before that date.
In 1516, the doges, Venice’s council, debated whether Jews should be allowed to remain in the city. They decided to let the Jews remain, but their residence would be confined to Ghetto Nuova, a small, dirty island; it became the world’s first ghetto. Jews from the Levant, who practiced Sephardic traditions, moved into Ghetto Vecchio in 1541. The Spanish and Portuguese Jews also came to Venice in the late 16th century and were the strongest and wealthiest community in the ghetto. Many of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews were Marranos and became “Jewish” again once moving to Venice. The Spanish/Portuguese and Levantines lived in the Ghetto Vecchio.
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