Venice and the Ghetto

2016 sees the 500th anniversary of one of the most far-reaching inventions of the modern age: the Ghetto. Founded in Venice, it took what became its notorious name from a disused copper foundry. The birth of the Ghetto represents in many respects a turning point in the history of the Jewish people. The idea of the ghetto comprised three key features: the compulsion for the Jews to settle there, their strict separation from the rest of the Population and their imprisonment within walls and locked gates.