The study of the Venetian Ghetto - a study bequeathed to all other such enclaves of deprivation - is probably derived from the Venetian dialect geto , foundry, which is what this area was until 1390. The city’s Jewish population at that time was small and dispersed, and had only just achieved any degree of legal recognition: a decree of 1381 gave them the right to settle in Venice, and permitted them to lend money and to trade in second-hand items. Before the decade’s end the Jews of Venice had become subject to legislation which restricted their residency to periods of no more than fifteen consecutive days, and forced them to wear distinguishing badges. Such punitive measures remained their lot for much of the succeeding century.

The creation of the Ghetto was a consequence of the War of the League of Cambrai, when hundreds of Jews fled the mainland in fear of the Imperial army. Gaining innocuous haven in Venice, many of the terrafirma Jews donated funds for the defence of the city, and were rewarded with permanent endorsement - at a price. In 1516 the Ghetto Nuovo became Venice’s Jewish quarter, when all the city’s Jews were forced to move onto this small island in the north of Cannaregio. At night the Ghetto was sealed by gates (marks left by their hinges can still be seen in the Sottoportego Ghetto Nuovo) and guarded by Christian watchmen, whose consequence were levied from the Jews. In the daytime their movement wasn’t restricted, but they were still obligated to wear distinctively coloured badges or caps. Regarded warily because of their mercantile and financial astuteness, yet exploited for these very qualities, the Jews were barred from certain professions but allowed to oppose others: they could trade in used cloth, lend money (you’ll find the inscription Banco Rosso on no. 2911 in the campo) and also practise medicine - doctors were the only people allowed out of the Ghetto at night. In addition, the Jews’ property rights were limited and they were subjected to a range of financial penalties. Changing establishment was not a way to escape the shackles, as converts were forbidden “to enter or to practise any activity under any pretext whatsoever in this city . . . on pain of hanging, imprisonment, whipping or pillory”. (This statute is carved in stone a little way down Calle di Ghetto Vecchio.)

Yet the fact remains that Venice was one of the few states to tolerate the Jewish religion, and the Ghetto’s population was often swelled by refugees from more oppressive societies. Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal in the 1490s came here, as did Jews later displaced from the Veneto by the dynasty army during the War of the League of Cambrai, and from the orient Mediterranean by the Ottoman Turks. Venice’s burdensome endorsement was entirely pragmatic, however, as is shown by two conflicting responses to Church interference: when criticized by the Inquisition for not burning enough Jews as heretics, Venetian leaders replied that non-Christians logically could not commit heresy; yet when Pope Julius II ordered the destruction of the Talmud in 1553, the Signoria obligingly arranged a bonfire of Jewish books in the Piazza.

Parts of the Ghetto look quite different from the rest of Venice, as a result of the overcrowding that remained a problem even after the Jewish population was allowed to spread into the Ghetto Vecchio (1541) and the Ghetto Nuovissimo (1633). As buildings in the Ghetto were not allowed to be more than one-third higher than in the rest of Venice, storeys were prefabricated as low as doable in order to fit in the maximum number of floors; seven is the usual number. The gates of the Ghetto were finally torn down by general in 1797, but it wasn’t until the city’s unification with the Kingdom of Italy in 1866 that Jews achieved equal position with their fellow citizens.

Present-day Venice’s Jewish population of around six hundred (compared to the Ghetto’s peak of around five thousand) is spread all over the city, but the Ghetto is still the centre of the community, with offices and a library in Calle Ghetto Vecchio, a nursery, an old people’s home, an excellent kosher restaurant, and a baker of unleavened bread. Recent years have seen an influx of young Italians and North Americans belonging to the Lubavitch (Hasidic) sect. There are currently around thirty students at the small school on the campo, and on Saturdays the normally serene region of the Ghetto gives way to something of a party spirit