Atlantis Online
March 19, 2024, 03:59:10 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: ARE Search For Atlantis 2007 Results
http://mysterious-america.net/bermudatriangle0.html
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links Staff List Calendar Login Register  

Sephardic Jews Leave Genetic Legacy In Spain - HISTORY

Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Sephardic Jews Leave Genetic Legacy In Spain - HISTORY  (Read 7948 times)
0 Members and 67 Guests are viewing this topic.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #45 on: December 07, 2008, 04:06:06 pm »









                                                T H E   I N Q U I S I T I O N






The Conversos of Seville and other cities of Castile, and especially of Aragon, bitterly opposed the Spanish Inquisition.

They rendered considerable service to the king, and held high legal, financial, and military positions.
The government issued an edict directing traditional Jews to live within a ghetto and be separated
from Conversos.

Despite the law, however, the Jews remained in communication with their New Christian brethren.

"They sought ways and means to win them from Catholicism and bring them back to Judaism. They instructed the Marranos in the tenets and ceremonies of the Jewish religion; held meetings in which they taught them what they must believe and observe according to the Mosaic law; and enabled them to circumcise themselves and their children.

They furnished them with prayer-books; explained the fast-days; read with them the history of their people and their Law; announced to them the coming of the Passover; procured unleavened bread for them for that festival, as well as kosher meat throughout the year; encouraged them to live in conformity with the law of Moses, and persuaded them that there was no law and no truth except the Jewish religion."

These actions were listed in charges brought against the Jews by the government of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. They formed the grounds for the expulsion and banishment of Jews
from the country, so they could not subvert conversos. Jews who did not want to leave Spain accepted baptism.

The historian Henry Kamen's recent Inquisition and Society In Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries questions whether there were such strong links between Conversos and Jewish communities.

Whilst historians such as Yitzhak Baer state,

"the conversos and Jews were one people",

Kamen claims that

"Yet if the conversos were hated by the Christians, the Jews liked them no better."

He documented that

"Jews testified falsely against them [the conversos] when the Inquisition was finally founded."

This issue is being debated by historians.
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #46 on: December 07, 2008, 04:10:51 pm »









                                                        D I S P E R S I O N






The Conversos, who were threatened and persecuted by the Inquisition, left Spain in bands or as individual refugees. Many of them escaped to Italy, attracted by the climate, which resembled that of the Iberian Peninsula, and by its kindred language. They settled at Ferrara, and Duke Ercole I d'Este granted them privileges, which were confirmed by his son, Alfonso, to twenty-one Spanish Conversos, physicians, merchants, and others (ib. xv. 113 et seq.).

Spanish and Portuguese Conversos settled also at Florence; and New Christians contributed to make Leghorn a leading seaport. They received privileges at Venice, where they were protected from the persecutions of the Inquisition. At Milan they materially advanced the interests of the city by their industry and commerce. At Bologna, Pisa, Naples, Reggio, and many other Italian cities they freely exercised their religion, and were soon so numerous that Fernando de Goes Loureiro, an abbot from Oporto, filled an entire book with the names of the Conversos who had drawn large sums from Portugal and had openly avowed Judaism in Italy.

In Piedmont Duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy welcomed Conversos from Coimbra, and granted them commercial and industrial privileges, as well as the free exercise of their religion. Rome was full of Conversos. Pope Paul III received them at Ancona for commercial reasons, and granted complete liberty "to all persons from Portugal and Algarve, even if belonging to the class of New Christians."
Three thousand Portuguese Jews and Conversos were living at Ancona by 1553.

Two years later the fanatical Pope Paul IV issued orders to have all the Conversos thrown into the prisons of the Inquisition which he had instituted. Sixty of them, who acknowledged the Catholic faith as penitents, were transported to the island of Malta; twenty-four, who adhered to Judaism, were publicly burned (May, 1556). Those who escaped the Inquisition were received at Pesaro by Duke Guido Ubaldo of Urbino. Guido had hoped to have the Jews and Conversos of Turkey select Pesaro as a commercial center; when that did not happen, he expelled the New Christians from Pesaro and other districts in 1558 (ib. xvi. 61 et seq.).

Many Conversos also went to Dubrovnik, formerly a considerable seaport. In May, 1544, a ship landed there filled with Portuguese refugees.
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #47 on: December 07, 2008, 04:18:14 pm »









                                                           F R A N C E






At this same period the Conversos were seeking refuge beyond the Pyrenees, settling at Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Tarbes, Bayonne, Bordeaux, Marseille, and Montpellier.

They lived apparently as Christians; were married by Catholic priests; had their children baptized, and publicly pretended to be Catholics.

In secret, however, they circumcised their children, kept the Sabbath and feast-days as far as they could, and prayed together.

King Henry III of France confirmed the privileges granted them by Henry II of France, and protected them against such slanders and accusations as those which a certain Ponteil brought against them. Under Louis XIII of France the Conversos of Bayonne were assigned to the suburb of St. Esprit. At St. Esprit, as well as at Peyrehorade, Bidache, Orthez, Biarritz, and St. Jean de Luz, they gradually avowed Judaism openly.

In 1640 several hundred Conversos, considered to be Jews, were living at St. Jean de Luz; and at St. Esprit there was a synagogue as early as 1660.
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #48 on: December 07, 2008, 04:21:57 pm »










                                          T H E   R E S T   O F   T H E   W O R L D






Next to the Ottoman Empire, where conversos had openly declared their return to Judaism upon reaching its shores and where they had later built important communities such as in Salonika, the Conversos turned chiefly to Flanders, attracted by its flourishing cities, such as Antwerp, where they settled at an early date, and Brussels. Conversos from Flanders, and others direct from the Pyrenean Peninsula, went under the guise of Catholics to Hamburg and Altona about 1580, where they established commercial relations with their former homes.

Some went as far as Scotland. Christian IV of Denmark invited some New Christian families to settle at Glückstadt about 1626, granting certain privileges to them and also to the Conversos who came to Emden about 1649.

Large numbers of Conversos, however, remained in Spain and Portugal, despite the extensive emigration and the fate of countless victims of the Inquisition.

The New Christians of Portugal breathed more freely when Philip III of Spain came to the throne and by the law of April 4, 1601, granted them the privilege of unrestricted sale of their real estate as well as free departure from the country for themselves, their families, and their property. Many, availing themselves of this permission, followed their coreligionists to Africa and Turkey. After a few years, however, the privilege was revoked, and the Inquisition resumed its activity.

But the Portuguese who were not affected by radicalism perceived that no forcible measures could induce the Conversos to give up the religion of their fathers.

Individual New Christians, as Antonio Fernandez Carvajal and several from Spain, Hamburg, and Amsterdam, went to London, whence their families spread to Brazil, where Conversos had settled at an early date, and to other colonies of the Americas.

The migrations to Constantinople and Salonica, where Jewish refugees had settled after the expulsion from Spain, as well as to Italy, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria, and to Vienna and Timişoara, continued to the middle of the 18th century.
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #49 on: December 07, 2008, 04:24:33 pm »









S E E   A L S O



Anusim

Anti-Semitism
 
Belmonte Jews

Converso

Crypto-Judaism

Crypto-Islam

Doctrine of mental reservation

Donmeh

Judaism

Limpieza de sangre

Luis de Carvajal, el mozo

Morisco

New Christian

Sephardi

Spanish and Portuguese Jews

Taqiyya

Xueta
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #50 on: December 07, 2008, 04:27:06 pm »









References



^ Ruth Almog, "Cryptic, these crypto Jews", nda, last update 02/12/2005, haaretz.com, in English; review of Hebrew translation of Schwarz's 1925 Hanotzrim Hakhadashim Beportugal Be'meah Ha'esrim (New Christians in Portugal in the 20th Century)

^ Inquisition and Society In Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries’ – Henry Kamen pg. 27


Cecil & Irene Roth, A history of the Marranos, Sepher-Hermon Press, 1974.

Cecil Roth, A history of the Jews. New York: Schocken Books, 1961.

Damião de Góis, (1567), in Chronica do Felicissimo Rey D. Emanuel da Gloriosa Memória

Arnold Diesendruck (2002), in Os Marranos em Portugal'






External links



corresponding article in the Jewish Encyclopedia. Further relevant material can be found in their article on South and Central America.

Resources > Medieval Jewish History > "Expulsion from Spain and The Anusim", The Jewish History Resource Center, Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Kathleen Telch, "Belmonte Project", Newsletter, Spring 2003, p. 9, American Sephardi Federation
Society For Crypto Judaic Studies

Michael Freund, "Miracle in Orlando", originally published in The Jerusalem Post, Jewish Society
Return to Sinai, in Half-Jewish.org, Website covering topics relevant to descendants of assimilation and intermarriage

Descendants of Marranos arrive in Israel




Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marrano"
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #51 on: December 07, 2008, 04:46:06 pm »



Shabbat in a Marrano home, Spain, 15th century.
(Painting on glass, Beth Hatefutsoth Permanent Exhibit)







                                                     D I O G O    M E N D E S






(born before 1492 - c. 1542), Marrano banker.


Born in Spain, he established - with his brother - a business in spices and precious stones. He settled in Antwerp, Low Countries, and on his brother's death in 1536 was joined in the business by his sister-in-law, Beatrice da Luna (Gracia Mendes).

Their great bank enjoyed a monopoly in pepper. Their vast wealth and culture obtained them admittance to the highest circles. Mendes was a magnate in the spice trade and made large loans to the governments of the Low Countries, Portugal, and England. He organized an escape route for Marranos from the Iberian peninsula to Italy and Turkey.

He was arrested in 1532 on charges of Judaizing but the case was allowed to lapse on payment of a heavy fine (partly due to the intervention of England's Henry VIII who used the Mendes bank). After his death in Antwerp a similar charge was the pretext for the confiscation of his property.

 

Bibliography:

Cecil ROTH. Dona Gracia of the House of Nasi. Pp. XV, 208, [7] plates. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1992

Links:

A chronology of his life and the story of the family of his brother Francisco (Dona Gracia Mendes)



http://www.bh.org.il/Names/POW/Mendes.asp
« Last Edit: December 07, 2008, 04:53:05 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #52 on: December 07, 2008, 04:56:39 pm »







                                              Gracia Mendes and Her Times


                                                  Gracia Mendes Timeline







1492

The young Semah and Meir Benveniste are brought to Portugal by their father. Their Christian names are Francisco and Diogo Mendes.
1497

Forced conversions in Portugal
1510(?)

Gracia is born in Portugal. Her outside name was Beatrice de Luna. In the family she was Gracia (Hannah) Nasi. Her brother — Dr. Miguez — was the royal physician.
1512

Diogo Mendes opens a branch of the House of Mendes in Antwerp. By 1525 the brothers control the largest share of the pepper and spice trade, buying directly from the King of Portugal (the only bulk importer). The capital at his disposal was 300,000 — 400,000 florins He made loans to the Kings of Portugal and England.
Birth of Gracia’s nephew Joao Miguez (Joseph Nasi)
1528.

Gracia is married to Francisco Mendes. Brother of Diogo. They had migrated with their father in 1492 as one of 600 privileged families. Their family names were Semah and Meir Benveniste. Starting as dealers in precious stones, they became wealthy and important traders, participating in the hugely profitable spice trade
1531

Diogo is arrested for heresy (being a secret "Judaizer"). Using letters of safe conduct from the (Holy Roman) Emperor he is released the same day.
1532.

Diogo is arrested on the word of a child who, with his mother and 3 siblings, Diogo has previously helped escape to Salonica. Diogo is moved to Brussels. Antwerp puts up obstacles, demands the right to try him. The King of Portugal, who will lose 200,000 ducats if Diogo cannot complete business deals, instructs his representatives to intervene. Mary of Hungary and Henry VIII also support Diogo.
September. Diogo is released under bail of 50,000 ducats and a large cash payment. Charges are dropped.
The Emperor prohibits New Christians from travelling through Antwerp on their way to Turkey. The House of Mendes is able to help most travelers anyway.
1535-36

The New Christian community attempts to pay the Pope 30,000 ducats to prohibit the Inquisition from Antwerp. The deal is not completed due to mutual suspicion.
1536.

Francisco dies, Gracia is left with an infant daughter Reyna (publicly known as Brianda). The administration of Francisco’s fortune is divided between Gracia, who is to act in the name of her daughter, and Diogo
Papal brief on May 23 opens the Inquisition in Portugal, on the Spanish model. New Christians cannot easily emigrate to non-Christian countries, but can go to Northern Europe. Gracia moves to Antwerp with her daughter Brianda, her unmarried sister Brianda (namesake of Gracia’s daughter),. and her nephews Joao Miguez (a.k.a. Joseph Nasi, later Duke of Naxos) and his younger brother. They stop for a while in England. In Antwerp, Brianda marries Diogo.
1537

New Christians guaranteed the ability to settle in Antwerp with full rights, with immunity from prosecution for crimes committed elsewhere.
1539.

Inquisition begins in Lisbon. Mass emigration to Antwerp and (Spanish) Italy.
1540

Massive arrests in Italy of New Christians on their way to Ancona or Salonica. Suspicions that their finds were provided by Diogo. Three leading merchants of Antwerp hold a meeting send 2,000 ducats to Milan to provide for the prisoners and bribe the commissioners. An employee of the firm who is at this meeting is later arrested in Italy and informs on the secret meeting and colony. All suspect New Christians in England are arrested, although later released. Gracia gets Diogo to agree to leave Flanders within a year.
1542-43

Diogo dies. Gracia is named administrator of Diogo’s half of the business on behalf of his widow and infant daughter. Gracia must fight charges of heresy against Diogo (else his property will be confiscated)> The charges are withdrawn when she lends the emperor 100,000 ducats interest free.
1542(?)-4

Gracia is pressured by the Emperor to marry her daughter to a much older (Old Christian) nobleman, Don Francisco d’Aragon. Aragon promises the Emperor a 200,000 loan from his wife’s money if the marriage takes place. She is personally summoned by Mary, ex-Queen of Hungary, Regent of the Netherlands, and sister of the Emperor who proposes the match to her.
1544

Gracia leaves Antwerp with her sister and the two young girls , under pretext of a vacation in Aachem (Aix-la-Chapelle) but instead settles in Venice. She has previously arranged with the government for a safe-conduct. Much of the fortune is left in Antwerp with Joao Miguez.
1545

The two widows are accused of apostasy and ordered to appear before the Council of Brabrant. When they fail to appear, an embargo is placed on the 40 treasure chests they had left in Antwerp. Miguez enters into delaying negotiations with the Emperor. Eventually the Emperor accepts a payment of 30,000 crowns in settlement of all claims. However, the Queen argues for total confiscation. During the protracted negotiations Miguez manages to sell some of the firm’s Antwerp property and finally flees to Venice. Meanwhile, Gracia has arranged for the Venetian government to sequester venetian property of German merchants who had custody of her treasure in Antwerp, and was able to recover some of the latter in return for lifting of the embargo. Despite serious losses the firm is still wealthy, and out of Spanish control at last.
1546-1549

Brianda, possibly jealous of Gracia’s control of the company and its fortunes, denounces her as a Judaizer, and announced that the plan was to eventually leave Venice for Turkey. The Venetian government embargoes the family property, placed Gracia under arrest, and places the girls in a nunnery. Brianda employs an anti-Jewish French agent to lodge a similar denunciation in France, but is in turn denounced by the agent, so that the property she had hoped to receive is also placed under embargo.
Joseph Hamon, a Sephardic Jew who was physician to the Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, brings the story to the Sultan who, is hoping for the transfer of the Mendes business empire to Turkey. The Sultan sends an envoy to Venice requesting that Gracia be allowed to travel immediately to Constantinople.
1547

Joseph flees Amsterdam and settles in France. He enters the circle of Kind Francis I.
1549

Gracie has arranged for her release and has been reunited with her daughter. She is given one month to swear to be a true Christian, or to never return to Venice. She is unwilling to move to Constantinople at this time, without arranging for the transfer of the business
1550 —

February They move to Ferrara, where Jews were welcomed and immune from attack on religious grounds, at invitation of the Duke. Within a few months Brianda joins her, with her daughter. They begin to live openly as Jews.
They return to Venice to visit with the Sultan’s envoy, under safe-conduct.
July 8. The Venetian Senate issues an expulsion order against the New Christians. (By the end of the century the policy is reversed and Venice becomes a haven for the Marranos.)
1551

An outbreak of plague. The Jews are believed to have brought it on their journeys and are required to leave the city. Gracia organized their movements, provided supplies and money. Eventually the scare dies down and the Jews return.
1552

The first Spanish version of the traditional prayer book is published in Ferrara. This is followed by a translation of the Bible. The edition published for Christians is dedicated to the Duke; the one for Jews is dedicated to "one so noble and magnificent that it would adorn her nobility" — "the Very Magnificent Lady Doña Gracia Naci[sic]".
This in turn is followed by "Concolation for the Tribulations of Israel" a prose poem in Portuguese recounting the whole of Jewish history, written to assist the crypto-Jews of Portugal and prevent them from being overwhelmed by what they had undergone. This is also dedicated to Gracia: "who has seen revived the intrinsic piety of Miriam, offering her life to save her brethren? The great prudence of Deborah, in governing her people? That infinite virtue and great sanctity of Esther, in helping those who are persecuted? The much praised strength of the most chaste and magnanimous widow, Judith, in delivering those hemmed in by travail? [It is]the fortunate Jewess Nasci. She it is who at the beginning of their journey greatly helps your necessitous sons… In such wise, with her golden arm and heavenly grasp, she raised moth of those of this people from the depths of this and other infinite travail in which they were kept enthralled in Europe… she brings them to safe lands and does not cease to guide them, and gathers them to the obedience and precepts of their god of old."
The Inquisition spreads further in Europe.

Pope Julius III guarantees that Portuguese New Christians who settle in Ancona will be free from prosecutions by ecclesiastical courts on the basis of practice of Judaism. Upwards of 100 families will migrate to Ancona, live openly as Jews, and open a synagogue.
1553

Julius III extends his concessions to all Jews and Portuguese in Ancona. (In return for payment of 1000 ducats per year.)
Gracia and her family arrive in Constantinople.

Joseph Nasi arrives in Constantinople and declares himself a Jew (and is circumcised); marries Reyna.
1555

The fanatical anti-Jewish Cardinal Giovanni Caraffa becomes Pope Paul IV. In Italy he institutes the Ghetto system, excludes Jews from honorable walks of life, enforces wearing of Jewish badge of Spain. His representative in Ancona arrests the whole of the Portuguese New Christian community and jails them, in violation of guarantees they had received from the city and from previous Popes. This representative takes bribes and allows approximately 50 to go free. He flees to Venice with more than 300,000 ducats of bribes and confiscated money. His successor orders the remaining prisoners shackled together and tortured in public.





Gracia's representatives in Ferrara are denounced to the Inquisition, although no evidence is produced. Her daughter (now called Gracia la chica or Gracia the Younger) and her daughter’s husband (Samuel. Joseph’s brother) are living in Ferrara.
1556

The Sultan’s son and co-ruler, Selim, sends an envoy to the Duke of Ferrara. His mission is to secure permission for Gracia la chica and Samuel to leave for Constantinople. The Emperor and the Pope intervene.
Starting April 13, twenty five prisoners who had refused to abjure Judaism were strangled and burned.
Boycott of Ancona organized by Gracia Mendes.
1558

Gracia la chica and Samuel are allowed to leave Ferrara.
1561

Tiberias is granted to Joseph. He is to be instrumental in its rebuilding.
1562

Joseph negotiates a peace treaty between Poland and Turkey.
1566

Suleiman the Magnificent dies. With Joseph’s help, his son Selim becomes Sultan. Joseph is appointed Dike of Naxos.
1569

Joseph supports the revolt of the Netherlands from Spain ( and offers support of the Ottoman empire).
Gracia Mendes dies
Samuel dies
1579

Joseph dies
1596

The first public Jewish service is held in Amsterdam
1599

Reyna dies.



http://www.kahalbraira.org/mendes/Image5.gif
« Last Edit: December 07, 2008, 05:00:28 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #53 on: December 08, 2008, 11:19:10 am »









                                       A history of Italy's Jews, corso espresso






Patricia Yollin,
SFChronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 2, 2008

David Rosenberg-Wohl gazed at the double latte he'd ordered in a cafe just north of the UC Berkeley campus.

"Do you realize this cup of coffee comes to us by way of the Jews of Italy?" he asked. "In 1632."

He should know. Rosenberg-Wohl is the curator of an exhibition at the Museo ItaloAmericano in San Francisco titled "Il Ghetto: Forging Italian Jewish Identities 1516-1870."

"I guess I didn't think designing an exhibit would be any different from telling stories. And I like telling stories," said the former lawyer, who is working on a joint doctorate in Jewish studies at Cal and the Graduate Theological Union.

And the story Rosenberg-Wohl tells goes well beyond the ghetto.

"It's a crash course in the history of Jews in Italy," said Paola Bagnatori, managing director of the Museo. "A corso espresso."

The show includes photographs, artifacts and objects such as ceramic plates, spice boxes, manuscripts, a prized musical score and items of religious worship ranging from Torah pointers to Hanukkah lamps.

"It's rare to have an opportunity to learn about a hybrid culture," Rosenberg-Wohl said. "It's particularly relevant for those of us living in a multicultural society."

The exhibition is full of surprises, starting with the word "ghetto" itself.

In 1516, the Jews of Venice were sent to live on the island dumping ground of a copper foundry, or geto, which comes from the Italian gettare, meaning to throw or cast away.

Although linguists and historians don't agree on how the word evolved into "ghetto," it's clear that at some point between 1516 and 1633, it lost the original meaning and instead described an enclosed, segregated Jewish quarter.

In 1589, it surfaced for the first time in an official document produced by a Jewish notary in Rome, who referred to an area where Jews had been segregated as il nostro ghet (our ghetto). The Hebrew word ghet, so similar to geto, means divorce or separation.

"The word resonated with the Jews of Italy, who saw their confinement as a separation from the larger society," said Mary Serventi Steiner, project coordinator for the Museo show. "I thought this was so interesting: The blending of the two cultures can be seen in the word 'ghetto' itself."

The idea for the show was hatched when Steiner suggested a Jewish Italy tour. Bagnatori replied, 'Why not a Jewish Italy exhibit?' "

"We felt that it was a little-known aspect of Italian culture that we wanted to share with the public," Steiner said.

Two years later, there is an exhibition, lecture program, 11 community partners and a tour of Italy scheduled for March.

Sheila Baumgarten, a nonprofit consultant, helped get financial support for the show, which, at more than $50,000, is the most expensive in Museo history; her husband, Professor Murray Baumgarten, provided academic expertise. The images alone came from more than 30 national and international museums and libraries.

"Generally, modern Jewish culture is thought of in terms of its Eastern European roots," Steiner said. "But this exhibit shows another aspect of it: the interaction between Jewish culture and Italian culture, and the impact and influence they had on each other."

The exhibition looks at more than 350 years of Jewish life in Venice, Rome and Florence - with forays into Livorno, Padua and Mantua - leading up to 1870, when Italy was unified.

"Italy was the gateway through which Jewish culture in Europe was established," Rosenberg-Wohl said.

Most people associate "ghetto" with its modern urban context or with the Holocaust carried out by the Nazi regime in Europe during World War II, Rosenberg-Wohl said. Few realize it was born in Venice in the 16th century.

Murray Baumgarten said Venetian society and government came up with the notion of the ghetto in response to a crisis - economic, political and social - brought on by a series of military defeats in 1509 that basically destroyed the Venetian empire. They not only decided the Jews had polluted their Christian society and were rivals to their merchants but also realized they were needed as pawnbrokers and moneylenders.

"Rather than expel them as the Spaniards had done in 1492, the French in 1319 and the English in 1290, they decided to sequester them, limit where they could live and what they could do to make a living," said Baumgarten, head of Jewish studies at UC Santa Cruz.

Referring to medieval images of Moses with horns, he said, "The Venetians were referencing a deep feeling that the Jews were a different species," not quite human.

Although the ghetto was supposed to be a way to keep contacts between Jews and Christians strictly regulated, he said, it didn't work out that way.

"Despite the ghetto walls, increasing proximity brought increasing familiarity between Jews and Christians," notes one exhibit. "They traded, argued and had sexual relations."

Rosenberg-Wohl said the formation of the ghetto was a "liberal solution," an alternative to extermination or conversion.

"While we remember the walls, it's equally important to remember the gates," he said.





Il Ghetto: Forging Italian Jewish Identities 1516-1870:

Through Feb. 15. Free. Noon-4 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday.

Museo ItaloAmericano, Building C,
Fort Mason Center,
Marina Boulevard at Buchanan Street,
San Francisco.
(415) 673-2200,



www.museoitaloamericano.org.
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #54 on: December 08, 2008, 11:20:47 am »









                                              Jews in Italy by the numbers






200

Minimum number of years that Jews lived in Italy before there were Christians.



1555

Pope Paul IV decrees that all Jews in the Papal States be segregated into enclosed quarters.



1797

Napoleon invades Italy and, with destruction of Venice's ghetto gates, begins liberations of the country's ghettos.



8,000

Italian Jews deported to death camps during World War II.



28,700

Jewish residents of Italy in 2008.





Source:
Museo ItaloAmericano



E-mail Patricia Yollin at
pyollin@sfchronicle.com.



This article appeared on
page E - 1 of the
San Francisco Chronicle
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #55 on: December 08, 2008, 11:22:44 am »



Visitors to the Museo ItaloAmericano at Fort Mason read up on the museum's latest show,

"Il Ghetto: Forging Italian Jewish Identities 1516-1870."

(Liz Hafalia, /
The Chronicle)
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #56 on: December 08, 2008, 11:24:22 am »



A 17th century Hanukkah lamp made of brass is one of the exhibition's Italian artifacts.

(Judah L. Magnes Museum)
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #57 on: December 08, 2008, 11:25:54 am »



A bronze Hanukkah lamp fronts an Italian motif as part of
Museo ItaloAmericano's

"Il Ghetto: Forging Italian Jewish Identities 1516-1870."

(Liz Hafalia, /
The Chronicle)
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #58 on: December 08, 2008, 11:28:36 am »



An antique ketubah, or marriage contract,
from Livorno shows the strong influence of Roman mythology.

(Alberto Jona Falco,
/ Italian Judaica Image Archive)
« Last Edit: December 08, 2008, 11:30:12 am by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #59 on: December 08, 2008, 11:28:57 am »



Keys to the Ferrara Ghetto (right) displayed at the Museo ItaloAmericano:
"Il Ghetto: Forging Italian Jewish Identities 1516 - 1870",
being exhibited at Fort Mason in San Francisco, Cailf.,
on Tuesday, November 11, 2008.

(Liz Hafalia
/ The Chronicle)
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum
Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy