The First Ghetto: Venice and the Origins of Modern Antisemitism

From an acclaimed historian, the definitive story of the Venetian Ghetto and the emergence of modern antisemitism.

In the early sixteenth century, amidst the ruins of war and mounting religious hatred, the world's first Jewish “ghetto” was established in Venice. Constrained in cramped, often unsanitary conditions, the Jews who were forced to live there were extorted, abused, and subjected to countless humiliating restrictions. In the centuries that followed, the Venetian Ghetto would become...