Simone Simha Luzzatto

LUZZATTO

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birth place, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.

It is assumed that the Jewish surname Luzzatto is associated with Lausitz, a region in eastern Germany (in Latin, Lusatia; in Polish, Luzyca). According to tradition, the first Jewish family bearing the surname Luzzatto emigrated from Lausitz to Italy in the mid 15th century. At that period, there was a synagogue in Venice called Scoula Luzzatto, which either belonged to the Luzzatto family, or was so named in honor of one of the family ancestors. Another related family name is Luzzatti.

Distinguished bearers of the Jewish family name Luzzatto include the kabbalist, poet and moralist, Moses Hayim Luzzatto (1707-1746); the Italian philologist and biblical exegete, Samuel David Luzzatto (1800-1865); and the Italian naval officer and Israeli farmer and historian, Federico Luzzatto (1900-1961). In the 18th century, Lussatto is recorded as a Jewish family name in a 'ketubbah' from Tunis dated October 12, 1791, of Meir, son of Solomon Lussatto, and his wife Rachel, daughter of Samuel Gimsi.

Italy

Repubblica Italiana

21st Century

Estimated Jewish population in 2018: 27,500 out of 61,000,000. Most Jews of Italy live in Rome and Milano greater areas. The main umbrella organization of the Jewish communities of Italy: 

Unione delle Comunità Ebraiche Italiane (Union of the Italian Jewish Community)
Phone: 39 6 580 3667/580 3670
Fax: 39 6 589 9569
Email: segretaria@ucei.it or info@ucei.it.
Website: http://www.ucei.it

 

HISTORY

The Jews of Italy

59 BCE | The Rebbetzin Poppea

Legend has it that in 59 BCE the great Roman statesman, orator and writer Cicero said that he was afraid to speak out loud, for fear of Rome's Jewish residents.
Cicero was famous for his hyperbole, but even if he was overstating his case, there is no doubt that Jews in the Roman Empire were a dominant force to be reckoned with.
Most Jews who arrived in Italy flocked to Rome. Many of them were manumitted slaves from Judea, captives from the wars of Pompey and later of Titus, as well as merchants and artisans drawn to the vibrant life of the imperial capital. According to various historical sources, the great advocate of the Jews at the time was none other than Julius Caesar, who gave the Jews special rights, among them the freedom to observe their religious commandments, to settle their internal affairs in Jewish courts and to send first fruits to the Temple in Jerusalem.
One of the most fascinating trends of this period, which is well-attested in historical sources, is the adoption of Jewish ways and customs by the gentile population of Rome. One of the more prominent members of this group, who were known as “God-fearing,” was Poppea, wife of the Emperor Nero, who observed the Sabbath and refrained from eating non-kosher animals.

70 CE | Non-Modern Slavery

According to various historical sources, the number of Hebrew slaves that arrived in Rome from Judea in the year 70 CE, after the suppression of the Great Revolt and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, stood at some 100,000 people. The Romans directed the new manpower at their disposal to the construction of lavish public facilities. According to accounts from the time, some 20,000 Jewish slaves built the Colosseum, the famed gladiator arena in Rome, which formed the second part of Roman author Juvenal's satirical, yet astute, formula of governance: "bread and circuses".
In an act of solidarity, the Jewish community of Rome ransomed most of the captives brought from Judea, an act that greatly enlarged and strengthened the community, which built 12 synagogues and a whole array of yeshivas that maintained continual rabbinical contact with the sages in the Land of Israel. Historians of the time describe the Jewish community of Rome as very Hellenized, with the prayer and reading of the Torah being conducted in Greek, and intermarriage with gentile women being prevalent. At the same time, the members of the community were strict in their observance of the commandments and traditions. Researchers agree that the Jewish communities of the Roman Empire in late Antiquity were the seeds that gave birth to the Jews of Europe.

313 | The Black Swan and the Birth of Christianity

In his book “The black Swan” Nassim Taleb describes history as impacted by a series of “black swans,” by which he means events that could not have been foreseen and which nonetheless had a crucial influence on the course of human events. Among this type of events Taleb counts the rise of Christianity – a small, esoteric religion born in the Near East.
Black swan or not, the ascension of Christianity to control of the Roman Empire, which began with Constantine the Great's Edict of Milan in 313 CE, brought a significant deterioration in the condition of Roman Jews. Under pressure from the Church the authorities issued new laws that discriminated against Jews in the civil, economic and religious spheres. Among other things, Jews were banned from public office and forbidden from constructing new synagogues.
Some 200 years before this, another important event took place. In 132 CE the Roman Emperor Hadrian, an avid Hellenist and sculpture enthusiast, decided to turn Jerusalem into a pagan city, and renamed it Aelia Capitolina. This move, along with bans on observing the Sabbath and circumcision, were the trigger for the eruption of the Bar Kochba Revolt in the Land of Israel. After the revolt was brutally suppressed by the Romans, tens of thousands of Jews were exiled to Rome and sold into slavery.

476 | Empires Fall

The great Roman Empire stood at the forefront of human culture for nearly 800 years. Its mark is still evident to this day, in almost every field of human endeavor: Art, architecture, law and political science, military strategy and much more. The intrigue and vicious infighting in the Imperial court were also famous, or rather infamous, and over the past 2,000 years they have inspired countless works of literature and plastic art, and in the past century or so films and television series as well.
By the end of the fifth century, with the downfall of the Western Roman Empire, Jews had settled in all lands under its control. Remnants of Jewish life from that time have been found throughout Italy, in Sicily, Sardinia, Brescia, Bologna, Florence and more.
Ironically, it was under Papal rule that Jews fared relatively better, especially in the Papal State, a region under direct Church sovereignty after the fall of the empire, which included Rome and other parts of central and northern Italy. The reasons for the Church's easier treatment of the Jews in these areas were political, economic and theological as well: According to the Christian interpretation of the verse in Psalms 59:11, “Slay them not, lest my people forget,” the Jews were not to be killed, lest the Christians forget the origins of their faith, to which the Jews, descendants of the contemporaries of Jesus, stand as living testimony. And yet, in the fifth century the number of Jews in Italy declined, from hundreds of thousands to only tens of thousands.

1035 | Nathan The Wise

“Of The Humble,” “Of The Apples,” “Of The Elders,” and “Of The Reds,” - these may sound like varieties of fruit, but are in fact the names of four noble Jewish families who arrived in Rome, according to tradition, after the destruction of the Second Temple, and their descendants were considered for many generations to be the leaders and wise men of the Jewish community in Italy. Let us focus on one of the most important and influential of them: Nathan the Roman, from the “Of The Humble” clan, born in Rome in 1035 CE.
Nathan's main work was the masterpiece of lexicography “The Arukh” - a compilation of difficult Hebrew words from the apocryphal literature written around the time the Bible was sealed, up to the author's own time, along with translations thereof into Latin, Arabic, Persian, Greek and even vernacular Italian and the Slavonic dialect. This book was most instrumental in the spread of Judaism in polyglot Europe and served as a vital link in the chain of Jewish wisdom throughout the ages.
However, the information regarding the Jews of Italy in the Middle Ages is very scant. From what little we know it is known that Talmudic centers were built in the south of Italy from which the members of the Kalonymus family passed knowledge of the Torah to Magentia (Mainz) in Germany, and that during this period Jewish communities were established in Venice, Florence, Ferrara and Mantua.

1224 | Moses Received Torah At Sinai and Handed It to Avicenna Who Handed It to Jacob Ben Abba

One of the main characteristics of the Italian Renaissance was the re-discovery of Greek classics in literature, philosophy, medicine and science. But many of the original works had vanished, and classics enthusiasts were forced to content themselves with translations of these works into Arabic, by philosophers Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and Averroes (Ibn Rushd), who were considered the greatest translators and commentators of Aristotle and other ancient philosophers.
This is where the Jews, who held the key to the translation, enter the picture: “Upon the decline of Arab culture in Spain, the Jews picked up the torch of wisdom from hands that faltered, and passed it on with great success to the Christian world, which thirsted for this new knowledge.” - thus wrote historian Cecil Roth in his book “The Jews in the Renaissance .”
Historians of the Middle Ages have emphasized the role of the Jews as carriers of Greek culture. The translation of the great classics from Arabic to Latin – two languages many Jews spoke fluently, both because of the frequent migrations they were forced to undertake and because of the diverse trade ties between Jewish communities throughout the world – were of crucial importance to Renaissance culture.
Rome became home to a large group of Jewish scholars, physician-philosophers, who engages in translating and expounding on the ancient Greek texts and the works of Muslim scholars. Three of the most notable of these were Hillel Ben Samuel of Verona, Issac Ben Mordechai, who served as physician to the popes of his day, and the sage Jacob Ben Abba, who was invited in 1224 to Naples to serve as an interpreter in the court of Emperor Fredrick II.

1450 | With the Power of Print

At university departments of life sciences, life is often treated as a process of data flow. We might say that the meaning of life, according to this view, is manifested in the information we collect and pass on – and not just the genetic data we carry, but also the experiences we have documented, the diaries we wrote, the technologies we've developed and the works we have created. The printing revolution in the mid-15th century was a sort of “Mt. Sinai” moment to those who hold this world-view. From the moment print was invented, any writer or scientist, upon completion of their life's work, could disseminate their writings in a scope unknown prior to that time.
Beginning in the last quarter of the 15th century, the Hebrew printing presses in Italy began to build the library of Jewish texts that serves us to this day. To understand the magnitude of Italian Jews' contributions in this field we shall mention two central printing presses: The first is Daniel Bomberg's press in Venice, which operated in the 1520's and set the format of the Bible and Talmud as we now know them, and the other is the famous Soncino Family Press, which preserved the halachic and commentary literature written in France and Spain in the Middle Ages.

1500 | The Migration North

Until the 15th century most of the Jews of Italy lived in the southern part of the country, including the island of Sicily. Only with the conquest of Southern Italy in the late 15th century by the Catholic Spaniards, who were particularly hostile to Jews, did the Jewish community move to the northern part of the peninsula. It should be noted that until the 1860's Italy was composed of dozens of independent or semi-independent states and cities, each of which conducted itself as a sovereign entity with its own laws and public administration. The treatment of Jews varied from place to place and state to state. In Venice, for example, Jews were accepted as residents with some restriction, whereas Genoa, Venice's great rival for Mediterranean trade dominance, did not accept Jews at all. The expulsion of Jews was an everyday occurrence in those days, so the Jews were driven in shame from some cities, only to be welcomed with open arms in others.

1516 | The Merchants Of Venice

The term “Ghetto” originated in the Jewish quarter of Venice, which is probably the oldest Jewish residential quarter still standing in the world. The most commonly accepted explanation is that the word “ghetto” originated from the foundry (getto in the local dialect) which stood next to the Jewish quarter. Another possible source is “Borghetto” - a diminutive of “Borgo” which is similar to “Borough” in English.) Later on Pope Pius IV used the word “ghetto” to describe the area in which the Jews lived, and since then the word has taken root and acquired various cultural and social subtext.
Jews lived in Venice as early as the fourth or fifth century, but their presence in the city was immensely strengthened in the 14th century, when a large stream of Jewish merchants and moneylenders came to town at the behest of its rulers, who wished to stimulate its economy. In March 1516 Jewish residence was restricted to a special borough, their freedom of movement was curtailed, and they were forced to wear a yellow star and later on a yellow cap as well.
Despite the restrictions, Jewish life flourished in Venice. The Jews of the city built batei midrash and synagogues in which important rabbis served and worked, among them Rabbi Leon Judah Ariyeh of Modena (known by his Hebrew acronym The Riam) and Rabbi Samuel Judah Katznellenbogen. The ghetto also featured many cultural institutions, among them a theater, bookshops and of course, the first Hebrew printing press.
The ghetto in Venice was first built for economic reasons, but forty-nine years later, on July 14th 1555, the first ghetto was created in Rome – and this time for faith-based reasons. Pope Paul IV issued a bull forbidding Jews from living as neighbors of Christians.
The establishment of this ghetto was the sign for others throughout Italy, in Florence and Padua among others. These ghettos developed unique customs and folklore as time went by. The ghettos were organized by the community members, who established mutual aid institutions and internal tribunals.

1707 | Shadal and Ramchal

Despite their forced seclusion in ghettos, the Jews of Italy produced many, many scholars and rabbinical luminaries. Two of the greatest of these are known by their acronyms: Ramchal (Rabbi Moses Chaim Luzzatto) and Shadal (Samuel David Luzzatto).
The Ramchal was born in Padua in 1707, and it is said that at the age of fourteen, he knew the Talmud and Mishna by heart. The young genius tried his hand at general literature as well, wrote plays and composed poetry. In addition he was drawn to Kabbalah and mysticism, and gathered a group of scholars around him who studied the writings of Rabbi Issac Lurie and the occult.
Alongside his studies at the beit midrash the Ramchal also claimed to have experienced a weekly meeting with an angel named “The Magid”, or “Teller”, who would visit him regularly and share secrets of Kabbalah and the art of “Tzeruf” - the combination and permutation of Hebrew letters to paranormal effect. In a moment of weakness, he disclosed his secret to a friend, who proved unworthy of the trust and spread the story further. The disclosure aroused a great uproar. The young genius was accused of practicing magic and witchcraft. His personal notes and writings were taken from him and some were burned. Following this episode the Ramchal migrated from Italy to Amsterdam, where he wrote his magnum opus “Mesilat Yesharim” (“Path of the Righteous”) which is to be found in any Jewish religious library to this day.
100 years after the birth of the Ramchal the Luzzatto tribe was blessed with another prodigy upon the birth in Trieste of Shadal, a true renaissance man who wrote works on philosophy, poetry, and biblical commentary, and is considered one of the fathers of the Jewish Enlightenment movement, or “Haskala”. Shadal's world-view combined rationalism and a search for objective truth with romanticism and religious-national beliefs. Unlike the Ramchal, he abhorred the study of Kabbalah and mysticism. His books gained an enormous audience, and some view him as one of the forerunners of the “revival age” writers who preceded the advent of Zionism.

1870 | Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

Seventy-two years passed between Napoleon's conquest of northern Italy and his declaration that Jews are citizens like any other, until the process of emancipation was fully completed, and Jews began to leave the ghettos and take their place as full-fledged Italian citizens.
But the adherents of the religion of emancipation, who bowed down to a “god” of their own – the idea of national unity – were concerned that the reclusive Jews would form “a nation within the nation”. Therefore, they treated the Jews in accordance with the principle adopted back in the days of the French Revolution in the late 18th century, which stated that “The Jews must be denied any rights as a people, and must be accorded all rights as individuals.”
Italian emancipation succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams. The Jews of Italy integrated into the newly-established unified state to an unprecedented degree. In Italy the routes to careers in the diplomatic corps, the civil service and the military were open to them, while they remained closed to Jews almost anywhere else on the continent. Italy was the first country in Europe to appoint a Jewish Minister of War, Giuseppe Ottolenghi, and two Jewish Prime Ministers, Alessandro Fortis (1905-1906) and Luigi Luzzatti (1910-1911).
In those years mixed marriages and assimilation were so prevalent that there was fear that the Jewish minority in Italy – numbering only one tenth of a percent of the population – would simply disappear.

1922 | The Rise of Fascism

More than once throughout history, just as Jews had almost managed to integrate into general society, someone came along to put them back down. In the case of the Jews of Italy, it was the dictator Benito Mussolini, who headed the Fascist party which came to power in Italy in 1922.
In terms of his treatment of Jews the Mussolini era is divided into three periods. The first period can be called “The Honeymoon” and lasted for ten years, until 1932. During this time the civil and religious rights of the Jewish minority were respected, and Mussolini even publicly denounced racism and anti-Semitism. During this period Mussolini maintained good relations with Zionist leaders and encouraged the activities of the Zionist Federation, although he opposed Jewish separatism.
The second period, which may be called “The Chameleon Phase,” began in 1933, with Hitler's ascent to power in Germany, and ended in 1938. During this time Mussolini began to dither: On the one hand he gave out statements and issued laws favoring the Jews, and on the other took unofficial anti-Semitic steps and voiced support for anti-Semitism in Germany, which he would later join as an ally.
The third phase, “The True Face Period,” began in 1938, when the race laws against Jews were issued. Mussolini burned his bridges with the West, committed to the Berlin-Rome axis and launched an unprecedented anti-Semitic attack in the press, aimed explicitly at all Italian Jews.

1943 | Blood Race and Tears

“I really believe that to have a dry rag would be positive happiness.” (Jewish writer Primo Levi describing a routine day of work in the freezing cold of Auschwitz).

Had you asked a European Jew in 1938, right after the passage of race laws in Italy, where he or she would rather live, Italy would likely have ranked near the bottom of the list. But like Karl Marx's famous saying, that history repeats itself, with the second time as farce – it was the Fascist regime which, somewhat ironically, safeguarded the Jews of Italy.
The reason for this was political. Mussolini wished to portray himself to his subjects as an independent leader, and therefore prevented the Nazis from implementing their “final solution” on those living under his rule – even if he viewed them as second-class citizens.
In 1943 Mussolini was deposed as head of state and Marshall Pietro Badoglio, who was appointed in his stead, immediately signed an armistice agreement with the Allies. This was supposedly deliverance for the Jews, but fate is often a matter of geography: At the time, most Italian Jews lived in the north of the country, which was under Nazi control, and so the hand of fate decreed that out of 44,500 Jews living in Italy before the war, at least 7,682 would perish in the Holocaust.
The Jewish community of Italy was dealt a heavy blow: Thousands were uprooted from their communities, the Jewish order of life was disrupted and many of those who remained in the country were broken in body and spirit. One of them, Jewish-Italian author Primo Levi, wrote the extraordinary book “Is This A Man,” which is considered one of the most chilling and realistic literary depictions of the Holocaust. Levi fell from the balcony of his home in 1987, and it is widely assumed that he took his own life.

2014 | Italian Memory

Italy remembers its Jews. In 2008, for example, no fewer than five academic symposiums were held to discuss the race laws in Italy, marking the 70th anniversary of their passage. The country has also erected monuments to commemorate the Holocaust, and holds memorial services in honor of the Holocaust of Italian Jews. Furthermore, the Jewish issue is part of the curriculum in public schools.
As of 2014 there are 21 Jewish communities in Italy, totaling 35,000 people. The ancient synagogues are in various stages of restoration.
The Jews are collectively represented in contact with the authorities by the “Federation of Jewish Communities of Italy”. Most Jews in Italy are immigrants and children of immigrants, and most of them live in two communities – in Rome and in Milan. Many Jewish heritage sites can be found throughout Italy, including museums, synagogues, ancient Jewish neighborhoods, archeological sites and more.
Israel is home to approximately 10,000 Jews of Italian origin, of whom some 3,000 are organized in the “Italian Immigrant Organization ” which publishes a journal in Italian. Members of the organization meet on important occasions at the gorgeous Italian Synagogue in Jerusalem, where prayer services are held in the unique style of this community.

Venezia

A city in northern Italy.

21ST CENTURY

As of the early 21st century, Venice had an active Jewish community of around 500 members, with services still conducted in its beautiful synagogues and a Jewish museum established in the ghetto.

Five synagogues situated within the ancient borders of the ghetto remained standing; the great German synagogue (1529), the Canton synagogue (1533), the Spanish synagogue (1555, reconstructed in 1654), the synagogue of the Levant (1538), and the Italian synagogue (1575). The ancient Lido cemetery, dating back to 1386, was also still in existence. There was also a prayer room in the rest home for the elderly, and a museum containing a collection of magnificent sacred apparel donated to the synagogues.

A commemorative plaque at the Campo del Ghetto Nuovo records the names of some 246 Venetian Jews who were captured and deported during the 1943-44 Nazi-Fascist period. Near the plaque is a Holocaust monument by sculptor Arbit Balatas.

HISTORY

The first documents linking Jews with Venice date back to 945 and 992. Even though a census taken in 1152 shows the number of Jews as 1,300, the figure is considered an extreme exaggeration.

After the 13th century, there was sizable immigration of Jews from the Levant and Germany to the area. Initially, they were not allowed to live in the city proper but in 1366, they received permission to reside in Venice itself. Legislation enacted in 1382 allowing moneylending in the city by Jews marked the start of an authorized Jewish presence in the city.

However, a mere 10 years later, they had to leave. From that point forward, officially no Jew could stay in Venice for longer than 15 days at a time, with exceptions made only for merchants arriving by sea and doctors. Also, all Jews coming to the city were required to wear on their outer clothing a yellow circle. To make evasion more difficult, it was changed to a yellow head-covering in 1496 and at the end of 1500, to a red hat.

In 1423, Jews were forbidden to acquire real estate. A blood libel in 1480 caused the death of three Jews at the stake and in 1506, a Hungarian Jew accused of the same crime was stoned by the crowd.

Following the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal after 1497, there was an influx of Jews and Crypto-Jews to Venice. The most distinguished of the new arrivals was Isaac Abravanel, who spent the last years of his life there.

The authorized continuous residence of Jews in the city of Venice and the emergence of its Jewish community was a 16th-century development not initially planned by the Venetian government. For example, as part of its restrictive policy towards Jewish residence in Venice in the 15th century, a charter was issued in 1503 that permitted Jewish moneylenders in Mestre to come to Venice in a case of war. Consequently, during the war of the League of Cambrai in 1509, enemies of Venice overran the Venetian mainland. Jewish moneylenders and other Jews who resided in Mestre, Padua and elsewhere, fled to Venice. The Venetian government soon realized that allowing them to stay was doubly beneficial. They could provide the hard-pressed treasury with annual payments, while their moneylending in the city itself was convenient for the needy urban poor.

However, many Venetians, especially clerics, objected to Jews being allowed to reside all over the city. Therefore, in 1516, the Senate decided to segregate them despite objections from the Jews. It was a compromise between the new freedom of residence all over the city and the previous state of exclusion. Accordingly, all Jews residing in the city and all who were to come in the future were required to move to an island known as Ghetto Nuovo (the New Ghetto). It was walled up and provided with two gates. For most of the ghetto’s existence, they were locked all night.

However, the establishment of the ghetto did not ensure continued residence of the Jews in Venice. That privilege was granted by the Venetian government in a 1513 charter. Upon its expiration in 1518, extensive discussions took place in the Senate. Numerous proposals, including the expulsion of Jews from Venice, were advanced. Eventually, a new charter was approved and renewed for generations.

Jews mainly of Italian and German origin were moved into this quarter, the most extreme segregation to which the Jews had ever been submitted. In 1541, Jews from the Levant were moved to the adjoining Ghetto Vecchio (the Old Ghetto). In 1633, Ghetto Nuovissimo (the Newest Ghetto) was established and populated mainly by Western Jews. Among the western Jews were many Crypto-Jews. The division of the Jewish population into three groups - Germans, Levantines, and Westerners - was officially accepted. Also, by this time, the word ghetto had come to be used to designate the closed Jewish quarter.

Overall, the attitude of the Venetian government towards the Jews was ambivalent. Although the majority of the senators allowed Jews to continuously reside in the city from 1513 on, there was a constant undercurrent of hostility. The government’s attitude towards Jewish moneylending evolved over time, viewing Jews as a source of cheap credit for the urban poor, rather than as revenue for the state treasury. Accordingly, it lowered interest rates and reduced the required annual payments from the Jews, which led them to continually borrow money. The native Jews of Venice claimed that they could no longer support the network of pawnshops (sometimes misleadingly referred to as banks) on their own. The Jewish communities on the mainland were required to contribute, and that responsibility was also extended to Jewish merchants, despite their strong objection. The nature of Jewish moneylending had changed from a voluntary profit-making activity engaged in by a few wealthy individuals, to a compulsory responsibility imposed on the Jewish community. In turn, the community passed that responsibility on to individual Jews with the resources to fund the pawnshops, and then subsidized them based on the loans they would have to take permanently.

The authorities of the republic of Venice repeatedly issued orders for the expulsion of the Jews, as was the case in 1527 and 1571. However, the Jews succeeded in having these orders suspended; the first time thanks to a loan of 10,000 ducats, the second time through some intervention which has remained obscure. However, the importance of the Jews as an economic and commercial element in the steadily declining trading activities of the city and, in particular, their importance in trade with the Levant, had become a decisive factor as far as the authorities were concerned. The authorities of the republic  treated Levantine and Western Jews particularly favorably as a result of their overseas connections. Nevertheless, the Pope decreed in 1553 that all copies of the Talmud be publicly burned in the city squares. The city of Venice complied with the order and 13 years later, the senate of the Venetian republic forbade the printing of Hebrew books; however, Hebrew printing continued to flourish for centuries within Venice and other localities within the republic.

In 1552, Venice had 160,000 inhabitants, including 900 Jews, mainly merchants. A considerable number of them had established companies in partnership with Christian merchants. As a result of immigration and natural increase, the Jewish population rose to 4,800 in 1655. However, it soon began to decline as some of the wealthier families departed, attracted by the free port of Livorno (also known in English as Leghorn). Around 2,000 Jews resided in Venice in the last years of the 16th century (1.5% of the total population of the city), increasing to almost 3,000 (2% of the total population) toward the middle of the 17th century.

The Venetian government enforced the regulations regarding residence in the ghetto and the requirement to remain there after the hour established for closing its gates. Only Jewish doctors treating Christian patients and Jewish merchants who had to attend to their business enjoyed permission to be outside the ghetto beyond the permitted hours. In addition, individual Jews were granted the privilege, including representatives of the Jewish community who had to negotiate charter renewal with the government, as well as singer and dancers who performed in the houses of Christians and other who had special needs or skills.

In the 16th century, many magnificent synagogues and yeshivas were erected; some of these were owned by families renowned for their wealth and culture. The synagogues and chapels that were built in the 16th century and subsequently decorated, remodeled, and restored are valuable testimony to the life and culture of the Jewish ghetto. They also reflected the heterogeneous ethnic backgrounds of the Jews of Venice. Five were generally considered to be major synagogues. Three were located in Ghetto Nuovo: the Scuola Grande Tedesca and the Scuola Canton, both of the Ashkenazi rite, and the Scuola Italiana. Situated in Ghetto Vecchio were the Scuola Levantina and the Scuola Ponentina or Spagnola, officialy Kahal Kadosh Talmus Torah. Additionally, at least three similar synagogues existed in Ghetto Nuovo: the Scuola Coanim or Sacerdote, the Scuola Luzzatto, and the Scuola Meshullam. Only the cemetery, initially established in 1386 out of necessity, was located outside the ghetto.

A wealth of remarkable personalities were either born or lived within the walls of the Venetian ghetto. In 1524, at the beginning of his singular career, the adventurer David Reuveni arrived in Venice. Six years later, he met pseudo-messiah Solomon Molcho in the city, the scene of some of his most notorious adventures and vicissitudes. From Antwerp in 1544 came Gracia Mendes Nasi, who was arrested on suspicion of being a Crypto-Jew and set free by Joao Miguez, alias Joseph Nasi, and later duke of Naxos.

In 1574, Solomon Ashkenazi was appointed envoy extraordinary of the sublime porte in Venice after he had impressed the Venetian representative in Constantinople. He was received with all honors by the doge, Alvise Mocenigo, and other dignitaries of the republic. It was rumored that the revocation of the 1571 expulsion decree was due to his influence.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, scholars and rabbis of great renown lived in Venice, such as Leone Modena, Simone Luzzatto, the historian Rodrigo Mendfes da Silva, and the erudite Samuel Aboab. Other outstanding residents were Moses Zacuto, rabbi, kabbalist, and playwright; Sara Coppio Sullam, a poetess whose fame transcended the limits of the ghetto; and the philosopher David Nieto, who left Venice for London to become the spiritual head of the emerging Sephardi community there.

The Shabbatean movement also found convinced supporters and firm opponents in Venice after the arrival of one of the followers of Shabbetai Tzevi, Nathan of Gaza. The rabbis soon compelled him to desist from propagating the movement. Venice was an important Kabalistic center, as well. At the beginning of the 18th century, Nehemiah Chayon lived there. The writings of Moses Chayyim Luzzatto, the famous mystic of Padua, were condemned and the Venetian rabbis, led by Isaac Pacifici, decreed that anyone daring to read these writings or possessing them would be excommunicated.

Among the most important organizations in Venice was the Chevrat Pidyon Shevu'im, an association primarily aimed at redeeming Jews taken captive by the Knights of St. John and held on Malta before being sold into slavery.

The rabbis of Venice constituted an overall distinguished cadre that provided leadership for their time along with several outstanding figures of more local significance. The best known was Leon Modena (1571-1648), whose works include a remarkable Hebrew autobiography that sheds light on his own life, as well as providing insight into the everyday life, practices, values of the Jews in early-modern Venice, including their relationship with Christian neighbors. Another prominent figure was Modena's contemporary, Rabbi Simone Luzzatto (1583-1663). He is mostly remembered for his 1638 Discourse on the Status of the Jews and in particular Those Living in the illustrious city of Venice. He wrote it in Italian for the Venetian nobility to avert possible expulsion of the Jews as a result of a major scandal involving the bribery of Venetian judges through Jewish intermediates. Luzzatto provided considerable insight into the economic and commercial situation, combined with a thorough acquaintance with both classical literature, as well as intellectual trends of the day, especially in the fields of philosophy and political thought and scientific discoveries in mathematics and astronomy. He argued that the presence of the Jewish merchants and moneylenders was very useful for the Venetian economy; therefore, the Jews should not be expelled.

Additional significant figures in Venice were the Jewish doctors, many of whom had been attracted by the educational experience offered by the nearby medical school of Padua. As it was regarded as one of the best medical schools in Europe, attendance of Jewish students was significant and provided a rich opportunity for Jews to familiarize themselves with the best European intellectual and cultural achievements. Many Jewish students enrolled in the school and later returned to serve their communities. One noteworthy Jewish doctor was David dei Pomis (1525-1593), who left Rome and settled in Venice, where he published his works. Among them was a paper that refuted charges that were often brought against Jews and Jewish doctors in his own time.

During the 16th century, Venice became a central location in creating and exporting printed press in a variety languages including Italian, Latin, and Greek, but also Hebrew, Judeo-Italian, Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), and Yiddish (Judeo-German). The Venetian printing press made an extensive and lasting contribution to Jewish learning and culture by assuming a major role in the early history of Hebrew printing and publishing. One of the outstanding publishers of Hebrew books in Renaissance Italy and indeed all times, was Daniel Bomberg, a Christian from Antwerp. With the help of editors, typesetters and proofreaders, mostly Jews or converts from Judaism to Christianity, he printed around 200 Hebrew books. His complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud (1520-1523) with commentary by the Rashi and the Tosafot is a significant book for Jewish religious life and culture, as well as his edition of the Rabbinic Bible (Mikra'ot Gedolot) (1517-1517, 1524-1525).

After Bomberg, the more important subsequent printers of Hebrew books included the Christians Marco Antonio Giustiniani and Alvise Bragadini. Their competition in rival editions of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah led to a papal decree of 1553 condemning the Talmud and ordering it burned. Consequently, on October 21, 1553, Hebrew books were burned in Piazza San Marco, to the great loss of the Jewish community and Christians printers alike. In the early 1560s, Hebrew printers in Venice resumed their activity, printing books by Jewish authors from all over who sought out the resources of the city. The books were later exported throughout Europe and the Mediterranean world. However, from 1548 on, Jews were officially not allowed to be publishers or printers. During the course of the 17th century, the quantity and the quality of Venetian Hebrew imprints declined and other centers of Hebrew printing gradually emerged.

In 1777, a new Ricondotta (regulation) aggravated the position of the Jews. The many trading and commercial restrictions reduced the majority to dealing only in rags and second-hand goods. During the same period, serious fires broke out in the ghetto, which further exacerbated the Jewish population’s difficulties and suffering.

The occupation of Venice by the French in 1797 marked the abolition of the old restrictions, the elimination of the "banks for the poor", and broke down the gates of the ghetto. However, the Jews lost many of their newly obtained rights when the city was ceded to Austria at the end of the same year.

The continuous changes in the fortunes of Venice in the 19th century greatly affected the Jewish population of the city. Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy (1805-1814) gave them back their rights. During the 1848-49 revolution, Daniele Manin, a citizen of Jewish origin, headed the government; two of the ministers assisting him were also Jews. However, it was only after Venice became a part of the emerging Kingdom of Italy in 1866 were the Jews granted complete emancipation. Despite this, from that point forward, the Jewish community of Venice declined, as the medium-sized and minor Jewish centers lost their importance and special characteristics as a result of emigration and intermarriage. In 1931, 1,814 Jews lived in Venice and in 1938, about 2,000.

THE HOLOCAUST

With the enactment of the racial laws of September 1938 and up to the summer of 1944, the Jewish community of Venice experienced exclusion and racial discrimination. The German occupation of Mestre and Venice on September 9-10, 1943, signaled the beginning of the actual Holocaust in the region. On September 17, Professor Giuseppe Jonah, who had been governing Venice from June 1940, committed suicide rather than deliver to the Germans the membership list of the Jewish community.

The political manifesto of the Italian Social Republic (the so-called Republic of Salo) on November 14, 1943, and the subsequent decrees at the end of that month declared that all Jews were enemy aliens, and ordered their arrest and confiscation of their property. Some of the Jews were able to escape to Switzerland or to Allied-occupied areas in southern Italy. Some young people joined the armed resistance; most of the others were rounded up by the Italian police and Fascist militia, and held in special assembly points, such as the prison of Santa Maria Maggiore, the women's prison on the island of Giudecca, and the Lieco M. Foscarini. From there, until July 1944, they were sent to Fossoli. After that, they were sent to a camp at Bolzano or to the prison of Risiera di san Sabba in Trieste. Nearly all were deported from those camps to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Most arrests and deportation of Jews in Venice occurred between the major roundup on December 5, 1943, and the late summer of 1944. Particularly hateful was the arrest of 21 patients at a recovery house on August 17, 1944. Among the victims there was the elderly Rabbi Adolfo Ottolenghi, who chose to share his fate with his fellow Jews. All of these victims were deported, most of them to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The Nazi-Fascist persecution of Jews in Venice lasted 18 months, during which time, despite the dangers, Jewish life in the former ghetto and religious services at the synagogue continued. There was also some help from non-Jews and from the church. Some 246 Venetian Jews were captured and deported during this period.

POSTWAR

At the time of the liberation in 1945, there were 1,050 Jews in the community in Venice. The number dropped throughout the second half of the 20th century, due to aging as well as progressive abandonment of the historical city center in favor of settlement on the mainland in the region of Mestre. 844 Jews made up 0.2% of the city’s total population in 1965.