Venice 2008: Ghetto And My Apartment, some might consider them synonymous...

disclaimer: for some reason the font and stuff is all messed up and i couldn't figure out/ didn't want to deal with fixing it

I am writing this before I do my homework because it takes so much out of me… the coursework… and I want to be able to blog and do my homework.

Today after school I hung around to go on the internet, checked my email and so forth, wrote some pretentious stuff on the blog and then went home to have lunch before going on the walking tour of the old Jewish Ghetto. BTW there have been some major change ups in terms of my classmates. The amount of people in my level almost doubled this week!! It is bitter sweet. Anyway, a Japanese lady sat next to me today and I noticed/snooped in one of her notebooks in which she makes beautiful drawings and sketches of all sorts of cool yet strange stuff. For instance today I viewed a watercolor painting of her imaginary encounter with 90’s “super star” Coolio.

The tour was good and informative as usual and very helpful for improving my listening skills in Italian. I think the girl who gave this tour is going to be my Art History instructor. Many students went on this tour but luckily I was accompanied by some of my favorite peeps/new friends. Names and such will be included when I eventually upload a photo of everyone.

It’s not a lot of info but this is my recap of the Ghetto tour ***I came across the office for Chabbad, soon I will return. I also plan on going back to the ghetto for a full-blown tour of all the synagogues, there are 7, and the Hebrew Museum *** The word “ghetto” is actually of Venetian origin as Venice was the home to the first ghetto in Europe. Although throughout its history Venice has been rather accepting and even welcoming to many cultures, due to uneasy political situations and wartime craziness, in 1516, the doge forced Venice’s Jewish population onto this group of islands that was the old iron foundry… a place where iron was cast/gettato. Other than the unfortunate cramped conditions of a ghetto, Venetian treatment of Jews was not as harsh as in many other countries. Perhaps a reflection of Venice’s diversity and the fact that it was always a safe haven for those seeking safety. Jewish artists confined to the ghetto produced much of Venice’s greatest art. Secular art, certainly something fresh in Italy. Confusingly, the community started in the Ghetto Nuovo (new ghetto), then spread to the Ghetto Vechio (old ghetto), and then some more into the Ghetto Nuovissimo. Despite the expansion of the ghetto, living space was still tight. This lead to vertical expansion of buildings creating the first high-rise blocks in Europe. If I understood correctly, existing inhabitants would sell the space above their homes before anything was even built their… essentially selling the air to people who would then build on top. This architectural aspect was prominent but not easy to see or capture on camera L. Also the Jewish community is no longer thriving, rather it is very small. Much of the old ghetto is currently inhabited by the general population. The restrictions placed on Jews, which forced them to live in the ghetto, ended with the arrival of Napoleon in 1797 when Jews were granted full citizenship. During the Nazi occupation in 1943, 202 Venetian Jews were killed at concentration camps.

\/\/Some pictures from the ghetto \/\/