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THE SOUTHERN IS R A E L I T E
The Rise and Fall of A Great Jewry
History of the Jews In Venice
Ay CECIL ROTH
One of the very great, if infrequent,
services being rendered by the Jewish Pub
lication Society is the issuance of the so-
called Jewish Community series, which
attempts to record the histories of the
most important Jewries of Europe. Inva
riably such individual chronicles are not
only more authentic but more colorful
than the composite Jewish histories, the
majority of them slovenly and almost illit
erate, that are extant. Of the limited num
ber of volumes that have thus far been
issued the most impressive, from the point
of view of content and presentation, is
Cecil Roth’s “History of the Jews in
Venice.”
In many respects the histories of Euro
pean Jewish communities must seem like
duplicates, for each of them had the inevi
table ghetto, suffered from the rise and
the backwash of the Crusades, was sub
ject to the terror of the blood libel, and
was restricted socially as well as economi
cally. Few communities, however, had as
rich a history as that of the Jews in
Venice. For the population was recruited
from a higher strata of Jews, and it sup
plied a higher proportion of notables to
the civilization of the period. Venice had
its great scholars and thinkers, physicians
and poets. And even if the second-hand
trade was a dominant industry in the
ghetto, the Jews of Venice distinguished
themselves in medicine and in the arts.
The Venetian ghetto always comprised a
small population, about 5,000 in its most
prosperous days, but it enjoyed an influ
ence far beyond its numbers.
A very illuminating footnote on the ori
gin of the term ghetto is
provided by Dr. Roth who
feels that, beyond dispute,
the term refers to the
Ghetto Nuovo in which
the Jews of Venice were
secluded. Ghetto meant
foundry. The term was
subsequently used
throughout Italy and was
later borrowed in other
countries.
By the eleventh century
about a thousand Jews
had already located in
Venice. A great many
were in the maritime
trade. In the five succeed
ing centuries, the Jews
were alternately expelled
and permitted to return.
They were branded as
usurers but their funds
were needed. They were
forbidden to own proper
ty but their taxes were
increased. Even the blood
libel enjoyed a brief day
if glory and the Catholic
Calendar was enriched with a St. Simon
of Trent, a memorial after a three year
old child who had been killed presumably
by Jews for ritual purposes on Passover.
But in his record of the Venetian commu
nity, Dr. Roth is scrupulously fair in point
ing out that though the officials of Venice
may have borne no affection for the Jews,
they were firm in preventing sporadic out
bursts, such as were frequent in other
part of Europe. This pseudo-tolerance was
characteristic, in the main, of all of Italy.
The ghetto of Venice was officially in
stituted on April 10, 1516. Thereafter,
the Jews were to live in the insecure
houses left by the Gentiles and were to
maintain watchmen to prevent them from
leaving at night. The usual prohibitions
were put into effect. They were to have no
contact with Christians; they were to fol
low no trades, except new ones that they
might develop; their place in industry was
restricted to second-hand dealing; their
banks were to charge a specified interest.
There was only one class of Jews, how
ever, which was actually encouraged to
develop its trade, and that was the sea
traders, who were in large measure re
sponsible for the foreign commerce of
Venice. As Dr. Roth points out, his is the
first comprehensive history of Venetian
Jewry. He might easily have taken advan
tage of the situation by padding. He has,
on the contrary, packed his information
closely. In many instances he has fur
nished leads that make the reader want
to delve deeper into the particular subject.
He has not ignored items of human inter
est, which help to provide a more complete
GIFTS
By ETHEL FLEMING
Freighted with treasure, Joseph’s
brethren
Went out of Egypt, heavy laden . . .
Raiment embroidered in gold and sil
ver,
Sweet-smelling myrrh for wife and
maiden,
Chariots of carven wood, to carry
All of the sons of Jacob to Egypt,
Smouldering rubies, pearls, milk-
tinted,
Drawn from some sunless, shadowy
sea crypt.
Necklets of gold, like a vine with
tendrils,
Ointments and spices like scented
Spring,
Cymbals and harps, and subtle per
fumes,
Gathered from flowers in full blos
soming . . .
Gifts from Joseph, generous love-
offerings,
Fraught with devotion of kin to kin;
Clean and strong was the heart of
Joseph,
Long-forgotten his brethren’s sin.
01 all this treasure borne to Canaan,
One gift was priceless beyond the
rest,
More welcome to Jacob than Para
dise,
One gift left the father’s heart thrice-
blest.
Not raiment heavy with woven silver,
Not jewels such as a Pharaoh gives,
Only these words, like light after
darkness,
“Rejoice, for Joseph, our brother,
lives!”
picture of the community. Thus, his ob
servations on the Jewish women who wore
excessive jewelry and had to be curbed,
and on the intolerant use of the excom
munication ban by the community’s officers
and the appeals therefrom by harassed
individuals furnish interesting points of
comparison for our own time.
Another sidelight on the divisions in the
community is to be found in the opinions
that were furnished by the religious lead
ers in the case of Henry VIII. In view of
the fact that Henry’s demand for an an
nulment of his marriage to Catherine of
Aragon needed support in Scriptures, Jew
ish theologians were asked for interpreta
tions of the Hebrew text. One Venetian
scholar, Elijah Halfon, insisted that the
Englishman was entitled to a divorce,
whereas Jacob Mantino, perpetual oppo
nent of Halfon, held out for the Pope’s
version. The majority of the Italian rab
bis, however, expressed a view adverse to
Henry’s inclinations.
The manner in which Roth compacts the
story of Joseph Nasi is typical of his ef
forts at condensation. Joao Miguez, in
censed at an insult to his family by Venice,
left for Turkey and became aide to the
Sultan. There he achieved extraordinary
powers and was responsible for the first
modern Zionist settlement in Tiberias. It
was his intention to make room in Pales
tine for the persecuted Jews of the Papal
States. Of similar texture, though far
more colorful, is the story of Reubeni, the
Jew with the fantastic story with an even
more fantastic mission, who has given en
tree to all the courts of Europe, in his ef
fort to secure governmen'
support for a Jewish in
vasion of Palestine. But
he met his end on an
auto-da-fe in Portugal.
The walls of the Vene
tian ghetto did not, a>
elsewhere, shut off the
Jews completely from the
currents of the time.
Training in music and in
idered
dancing was cons
an integral part of tn
education of any J eN ' ls
child, Roth says, pointing
out that the first model n
book on dancing
written by a Jew bug
elmo da Pesaro. In
outside of medic oe a , 1
pawnbroking, on of
foremost Jewish i,cCU H
tions of the time was
struction in nr
dancing. But it ' V\u*
felt by the Ch ^ ‘
thorities that th co
between Jews a: ' ^
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