On the 7th of Iyar, 1516, the Venetian City Council decreed that all Jews be segregated to a specific area of the city.
Venice's ghetto was surrounded
by water, with a canal leading to its gates. At night the "Christian
guards" patrolled the waters around the ghetto to ensure that the night
curfew wasn't violated. At the same time of the establishment of this
ghetto, numerous other degrading laws were enacted, including the
requirement that all Jews wear yellow stars as identification.
Despite all these restrictions, the Jewish community blossomed and functioned normally. In 1797, the ghetto was abolished by Napoleon during the course of the French Revolution.
The site chosen to accommodate the Jews had once housed the city's foundries, gettos
in Italian -- and thus the eventual popularization throughout Europe of
the word "ghetto" to describe the city sections where Jews were forced
to reside.
CHABAD
