Ghetto

Italians first used the word ghetto in the 1500s. At the time, it referred to the enclosed areas of Italian cities where Jews were permitted to live. However, the segregation of Jews in European societies has a much longer history than the word. Throughout the Middle Ages, Jews in Europe had chosen to live in their own communities, although they had many social contacts with their Christian neighbors. In 1179 the Catholic Church announced that Jews and Christians should not live together. However, few cities passed laws to enforce the church's policy, so the announcement had little effect.

The word ghetto had its origins in VENICE over 300 years later. Although Venice permitted individual Jews to reside in the city, Venetians disliked having Jews live wherever they wished. In 1516 the city's Senate required all Jews to move to a part of the city called Ghetto Nuovo (the New Ghetto). There they lived in a walled community that was locked from sunset to sunrise. The Venetian government later increased the size of the Jewish community by adding Ghetto Vecchio (the Old Ghetto), an area near Ghetto Nuovo that had previously been a foundry, a place for pouring and casting metals. Both places took their names from the Italian verb gettare, which means "to pour or to cast."

Separate, enclosed quarters for Jews became common in Italy during the Catholic Counter-Reformation*, a period when the Catholic Church became hostile toward Jews. In 1555 Pope Paul IV required Jews in the Papal States* to reside together in an enclosed quarter with only one entrance and one exit. Cities such as Florence, Siena, Padua, and Mantua followed this example, passing laws to force Jews into segregated districts. The laws used the Venetian term ghetto to describe these places. Soon, ghetto came to mean any segregated Jewish area. In later years, the meaning of the word became still broader. It referred to any area populated by many Jews, even if they chose to live there voluntarily. Today, the term ghetto often refers to any minority community.

Although many European Jews lived in ghettos, they maintained contacts on all levels with the outside world. The nature of the society surrounding the ghetto had a far stronger effect on Jewish life in Renaissance Europe than the fact that Jews lived apart from their neighbors.