The First Ghetto

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 the prototype for ghettos throughout Europe—and pave the way for modern antisemitism.

• 432 pages
• Hardcover