Reviving the Renaissance Temples of Venices Jewish Ghetto – The New York Times
Posted By admin on May 4, 2022
VENICE Walking into the Jewish Ghetto here, in the Cannaregio section of this watery city, you would not know that there are five ornate synagogues nestled behind the walls of the nondescript tenements that date back to the 16th century.
The temples were built on the top floor according to Jewish law, synagogues should be the tallest structures in a given area and had to be hidden because Jews were not allowed to pray openly. Those houses of worship were a lifeline for the estimated 5,000 Jews who lived in the ghetto at its most populous a place to gather, celebrate rites of passage, take refuge from a world that didnt want them.
These days, the number of Jews in Venice has dwindled to 450, and the synagogues have fallen into disrepair. But an effort is underway to rejuvenate the three most needy of them restoring the wooden pews, cleaning the terrazzo floors and repairing the painted ceilings.
These buildings are crying for help, said David Landau, an Israeli art historian and businessman who lives between Switzerland and Venice and is leading fund-raising for the project. I got so frustrated when I came here and saw everything was crumbling. We have to get this done. Its a question of honor. Art for me is fundamental to my life, and being a Jew is fundamental to my life.
The project, which has been underway for about three years, is focused on the German Synagogue, called the Scuola Tedesca, built in 1528; the Canton Synagogue (possibly French, and from 1532); and the Italian Synagogue, circa 1570. Each national community insisted on its own place of worship. Venice was a relative safe harbor for Jews from across Europe, Landau said, because the city allowed them to earn a living and live without the threat of violence or death.
Estimated at a cost of about $11 million, $6.4 million has been raised so far. The projects supporters include Ronald Lauder, the Jerome Levy Foundation, British and French members of the Rothschild family, Save Venice, the World Monuments Fund and smaller contributors.
These synagogues are little gems, said Shelby White, the founding trustee of the Jerome Levy Foundation. Its important to not lose this sense of where the Jews were and what they contributed. It speaks to how they survived despite the obstacles.
The synagogues exemplify the paradox of the Venice Ghetto: It sheltered Jews but also restricted them to the 1.5-acre area. Poorer families were crowded into the low-ceilinged rooms. The professional classes were able to decorate their spaces with opulent furnishings.
We were in a way protected in the ghetto and at the same time segregated, said Dario Calimani, president of the Jewish Community in Venice, a nonprofit that supports Jewish life in the city. They didnt want the Jews to mix up with Christians because there was a danger in their view that Jews would convert Christians to Judaism.
Residents became religious, Landau said, because the only place to have sufficient light and air in those days was the top-floor temples.
Known as the Project for the Restoration of the Renaissance Synagogues of Venice, the effort will try to recreate the experience of that past, how one had to walk through rooms with bent heads and endure extreme temperatures.
We want visitors to have a sense of what it felt like it was difficult living, said Landau. I would like people to know: This is who we are. This is what weve done.
The undertaking aims to upgrade the overall visitor experience, improving the circulation from one building to the next, refreshing the bookstore and caf and creating a 10-minute film about the history of the Jews in Venice.
A ground-floor museum will expand, with the help of three newly acquired properties, and will feature galleries for temporary exhibitions to encourage locals repeat visits.
The museums chronology will go backward, from the 20th century and the Holocaust (250 Jews were taken to Auschwitz from Venice, Landau said); to the 19th century, when Jews were able to prosper, owning banks and founding the insurance company Generali; to the great thinkers, philosophers, doctors and poets of the 18th and 17th centuries; to the great books printed in Hebrew in the 16th century and the arrival of the refugees who built the temples.
The project aims to increase annual attendance to 250,000 from 70,000, in part by reinvigorating the synagogues.
They havent been maintained and preserved for decades because of lack of funds, Calimani said. What were trying to do now is value this patrimony, give new life to the ghetto that once was not even looked at. We want the ghetto to live again.
The restoration is addressing the woodwork, gilding, Torah arks and bimahs, or altars. Torah finials and hanging brass oil lamps will be buffed, Torah covers repaired, windows and curtains revitalized. Many of these objects are still used in Jewish festivals.
Two pieces of 16th-century silver survive; the rest, mostly from the 18th century, was all saved. Half was hidden in a safe under the bimah of a synagogue so that even the Germans could not find it. The other half, delivered to the Fascist authority by the mayor of Venice, was restituted by the Italian state after the war.
The synagogues have some of their original Torahs, prayer books and other documents, and the project will shore up the library, which was threatened by a flood in 2019. We dont want to be in that situation ever again, Landau said.
Each of the temples is distinct in design, with different distinguishing features. The German synagogue was constructed by a group of Ashkenazi Jews with five large windows that overlook the ghettos central square, or campo. In the relatively small Canton Synagogue, embellished in the baroque era, a series of gilded wooden panels illustrate episodes from Exodus.
Given the ongoing risks of antisemitic violence, security systems are being created in consultation with Israeli security officials, Landau said, with bulletproof windows on the ground floor.
All of these efforts, Landau said, are about preserving an important chapter of history, educating the public and honoring the memory of those who made the Venice ghetto home. Its not just a building a mausoleum, he said. Its about building a live institution.
Twenty people from my family were killed in Auschwitz, Landau added. I think I owe it to them to make sure this is a celebration of life.
See the original post here:
Reviving the Renaissance Temples of Venices Jewish Ghetto - The New York Times
- The Definition of the Jew: The Dimension of Freedom - Jewish Journal - June 26th, 2022
- Cha Cha Real Smooth is a charmer but its Jewish characters need some work - Forward - June 26th, 2022
- Meet every Jewish name that has ever been inscribed on NHLs Stanley Cup - Forward - June 26th, 2022
- Mapping Project unveiled by BDS Boston is a roadmap for Jew-haters - The Boston Globe - June 19th, 2022
- A Jew and an Arab walk into Auschwitz - The Times of Israel - June 19th, 2022
- How the Jewish community found a home in Japan - The Japan Times - June 19th, 2022
- Watergate's Jewish 'thing' & Nixon's thing for the Jews - The Times of Israel - June 19th, 2022
- To save the American Jewish community, we must build personal relationships - JNS.org - June 19th, 2022
- Following War, Russian Jews Congregate in Yerevan - The Moscow Times - June 19th, 2022
- Jew or Not Jew: Bill Gates - June 4th, 2022
- Jew-Hater Ayiana Love Accuses 'Israeli' Zoom of Deliberately Sabotaging ... - June 4th, 2022
- Who is a Jew? Israel's renovated Diaspora museum attempts an answer. J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - June 4th, 2022
- Another Jew is murdered in France - JNS.org - JNS.org - June 4th, 2022
- The Problem With Calling a Jew a 'Convert' - Tablet Magazine - June 4th, 2022
- Vanishing Jews and replenishing our numbers - JNS.org - JNS.org - June 4th, 2022
- Building Bridges to Jewish Unity - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - June 2nd, 2022
- Fighting Jew-Hatred As Winners, Not Victims - Jewish Journal - May 25th, 2022
- California Jewish caucus' primary endorsements are a diverse bunch J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - May 25th, 2022
- How Jewish is the Queen? - Jewish News - May 25th, 2022
- How Jews push Jews out of the fight against antisemitism - Haaretz - May 25th, 2022
- Dispatches from the Jewish Rally for Abortion Justice | New Voices - New Voices - May 25th, 2022
- J. ARCHIVES: Bay Area Jewish delis of yore gone but not forgotten J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - May 25th, 2022
- It's not about you: Why the Forward's article on the anti-Jewish elements of the Buffalo shooter's screed was offensive - Forward - May 25th, 2022
- Antisemitic Vandalism Is a True Threat to the Jewish Community - Algemeiner - May 25th, 2022
- WATCH: Lufthansa ADMITS They Targeted Jews Who Did Nothing Wrong - VINnews - May 8th, 2022
- Jewish gangsters once took on Nazis in the streets of NYC - New York Post - May 8th, 2022
- Spanish Jews take the spotlight in Heirs to the Land, a Netflix series set pre-Inquisition - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - May 8th, 2022
- The Speech President Lawrence Bacow of Harvard University Needs to Give - Algemeiner - May 8th, 2022
- The Jewish community must stand with Ukraine - The Jewish Standard - May 8th, 2022
- Israel refusing to let me immigrate, Iranian Jew says - May 4th, 2022
- A Russian Jew's Insights on the War in Ukraine - jewishboston.com - May 4th, 2022
- How an observant Jew became the mother of Jesus and Christianity itself - Forward - May 4th, 2022
- The Jewish World Of Harry Potter - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - May 4th, 2022
- This Black Jewish filmmaker is the spouse of New Yorks new lieutenant governor - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - May 4th, 2022
- "God of Vengeance": A Seminal Script in the Fight to Reclaim Jewish Identity | New Voices - New Voices - May 4th, 2022
- Yemeni Academic Dr. Abd Al-Wadud Muqasher: Muslims Must Exterminate The Jews; Allah Transformed Jews Into Apes And Pigs, They Are The Filthiest Of... - May 4th, 2022
- Putin wants to de-Nazify Ukraine thats ludicrous, say the countrys Jews - POLITICO Europe - April 25th, 2022
- 'It was paradise at the time': the little-known story of the Jews of Indonesia - Haaretz - April 25th, 2022
- New exhibit opens on history of Jews and cannabis - New York Post - April 25th, 2022
- Germany's Largest Newspaper: Jew-Hating Muslims Should Be Treated like Nazis - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - April 25th, 2022
- Remembering the only Jew on the first Freedom Ride 75 years ago - Forward - April 25th, 2022
- Report: Jewish Convert to Christianity to Lead March of the Living - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - April 25th, 2022
- Muna El-Kurd: Jews are Zionist Dogs, and 'Palestine' Should Be Ethnically Cleansed of Them - Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in... - April 25th, 2022
- Do you know this Jew? An actress known for her scandalous personal life and revolutionary activism - St. Louis Jewish Light - April 20th, 2022
- Arab Incitement to Violence Against Jews, Then and Now - The Wall Street Journal - April 20th, 2022
- It's time for Houston Jewish community to challenge antisemitism in the media - Jewish Herald-Voice - April 20th, 2022
- Jesus the faithful Jew: How misreadings of the Christian Gospels miss this and fuel anti-Judaism - The Conversation - April 20th, 2022
- The usefulness of Jewish amnesia - Haaretz - April 20th, 2022
- Mini-film fest to honor Gay Jewish Icon Harvey Milk this weekend in St. Louis - - St. Louis Jewish Light - April 20th, 2022
- Jew-Hater Ariyana Love Claims She Had the UN at Her Beck ... - April 11th, 2022
- German dictionary changes definition of 'Jew' after outcry ... - April 11th, 2022
- Amy Schumer is more Jewish than she thinks - Religion News Service - April 11th, 2022
- Blacks and Jews: Fifty-Five Years After James Baldwin's Negroes Are Anti-Semitic Because They're Anti-White - Literary Hub - April 11th, 2022
- Mayim Bialik assembles a very Jewish cast in her directorial debut J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - April 11th, 2022
- I am a Ukrainian Jew. I have lost my mother to Russian disinformation J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - April 11th, 2022
- Jew-Hater Captain Dan Hanley Digs Himself a Deeper Hole ... - April 7th, 2022
- For a Polish Jew Like Me, the War on Ukraine Is About Our Shared Futures - Jewish Exponent - April 7th, 2022
- How a conversion split and then strengthened Kenyas Jewish community - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - April 7th, 2022
- Ezra Furmans new song is inspired by her experience as a Jew and as a trans woman - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - April 7th, 2022
- Despite 10 years of promises, Jewish leaders have failed to make space for Jews of color - Forward - April 7th, 2022
- Jews Of Iran: A Community On Borrowed Time - I24NEWS - i24NEWS - April 7th, 2022
- Remembering the Jews of Mostyska - The Jewish Standard - April 7th, 2022
- "I'm the Jew!" - Jewish News - April 7th, 2022
- 'We are that united family': Russia's war uproots Ukrainian Jews amid false Nazi claims - USA TODAY - March 28th, 2022
- THE DEFINITIVE RAP: Jew Hatred Rising Interview With Richard Cravatts, PhD - VINnews - March 28th, 2022
- Zelensky Is a Jewish Hero. Some Jews Worry the Acclaim Won't Last. - Religion & Politics - March 26th, 2022
- Jew in the City Launches Hollywood Bureau for Jewish Representation: We Want to Be Seen as Individuals - Variety - March 26th, 2022
- The Surprising, Fraught History of the Texan Jewish Experience - Texas Monthly - March 26th, 2022
- Jewish stories were excluded from a new movie museum. Is Hollywoods push for diversity leaving them behind? - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - March 26th, 2022
- Could Ryan Turell become the first Orthodox Jew to play in the NBA? Scouts say its a long shot. - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - March 26th, 2022
- Milwaukee Jewish Federation audit finds a near-record high of antisemitic incidents in Wisconsin - WUWM - March 26th, 2022
- The surprisingly Jewish history of the Rorschach inkblot test - Forward - March 26th, 2022
- The Forgotten Jew Who Developed The Cholera And Bubonic Plague Vaccines - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - March 26th, 2022
- These Messianic missionaries were at the Ukraine border, and now theyre coming to New York - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - March 26th, 2022
- Once Victims in Southeast Europe, Jews Come to Aid Fleeing Ukrainians - The New York Times - March 8th, 2022
- Being a Jew in Ukraine: The difference eighty years makes - The Times of Israel - March 8th, 2022
- The Jew caught in the middle of the Stoli boycott - St. Louis Jewish Light - March 8th, 2022
- Do you know this Jew? His punim helped define the look of Hollywood gangsters - - St. Louis Jewish Light - March 8th, 2022
- Ukraine-born Jewish cannabis CEO raises thousands for war relief J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - March 8th, 2022
- As the fighting in Ukraine intensifies, Chicagos Jewish community rallies in support - WBEZ Chicago - March 8th, 2022
Comments