The Ghetto · books · places · people
Five centuries of Jewish Venice, read closely and with sources.
Sotoportego is an independent publication about the history and culture of the Jews of Venice. We write about the Ghetto created in 1516, the synagogues hidden on its upper floors, the Hebrew books printed in the city, the Haggadah of 1609 and its modern successors, and the people who lived, studied and were deported from here. Every article links to the sources it relies on.
- 1386Venice grants land on the Lido for a Jewish cemetery. The old cemetery
- 1516On 29 March the Senate confines the Jews to the Ghetto Nuovo. The Ghetto, 1516–1797
- 1519Daniel Bomberg begins the first complete printed Talmud. The Jewish book
- 1609The illustrated Venice Haggadah is printed. The 1609 book and its heirs
- 1797The gates of the Ghetto are torn down on 11 July. The five synagogues
- 1943On 5 December about 150 Venetian Jews are arrested. The Shoah in Venice
The Venice Haggadah, old and new
All of Books & Haggadah
Books & HaggadahThe New Venice Haggadah project
Eight printmakers, a three-week residency and a famous Haggadah of 1609: the story of a Ghetto-anniversary book.
Books & HaggadahThe 2016 New Venice Haggadah exhibition
Twenty-four etchings on the walls of the Jewish Museum in the Ghetto's anniversary year, and the woodcuts of 1609 that inspired them.
Books & HaggadahThe Jewish book: histories, media, metaphors
Bomberg's Talmud, the bonfire of 1553, the censors' pens and the idea of the book as a portable homeland.
Places and institutions
All places
Places & institutionsThe five synagogues
Hidden behind ordinary facades: the German, Canton, Italian, Levantine and Spanish scole.
Places & institutionsThe Jewish Museum of Venice
Founded by the community after the war, closed for seven years, reopened in October 2026 with a route through all five synagogues.
Places & institutionsThe old Jewish cemetery on the Lido
A plot granted in 1386, a burial recorded in 1389, more than a thousand stones and a restoration completed in 1999.
History, lives and letters
All of Ghetto history
Ghetto historyJewish childhoods in Venice
Talmud Torah and Purim in the Ghetto, the community school of 1938, and the oral histories that keep these childhoods alive.
Lives & lettersLeon Modena, rabbi of the Ghetto
Sermons that drew Christian audiences, a candid autobiography, and the Historia de' riti hebraici of 1637.
Lives & lettersExile or diaspora? American Jewish writers
From Cahan and Henry Roth to Bellow, Malamud, Ozick and Philip Roth's 'diasporism': a literature that stopped feeling in exile.
Sections
- Ghetto historyThe Ghetto from the 1516 decree to the opening of its gates, the racial laws and the Shoah, and the lives of children in between.
- Books & HaggadahHebrew printing in Venice, censorship and burning, the 1609 Venice Haggadah and the New Venice Haggadah of our century.
- Places & institutionsThe five synagogues, the Jewish Museum, the old cemetery on the Lido and the cultural institutions of the Ghetto today.
- Lives & lettersWriters, rabbis and readers: Leon Modena, and the long conversation about exile and diaspora in Jewish literature.
Recently published
- The old Jewish cemetery on the Lido: six centuries in stone
Granted to Venice's Jews in 1386, the old cemetery at San Nicolò on the Lido holds more than a thousand gravestones. Its history, its carved coats of arms, its long neglect and its restoration.
- The five synagogues of the Venice Ghetto
The Scola Grande Tedesca, Scola Canton, Scola Italiana, Scola Levantina and Scola Spagnola: who built them, how to recognise them from outside and what makes each one distinctive.
- The Venice Ghetto, 1516–1797: a short history
Why Venice confined its Jews to the Ghetto Nuovo in 1516, how the Ghetto grew, how its 'nations' lived together, and how its gates were opened in 1797.
- The Shoah in Venice: racial laws, deportations and memory
From the racial laws of 1938 to the round-ups of December 1943 and 1944: how the Jews of Venice were persecuted and deported, and how the city remembers them today.
- The New Venice Haggadah project: eight artists answer a book of 1609
How eight artists spent a residency in Venice in 2015 making etchings in dialogue with the 1609 Venice Haggadah, and how the project became a printed Haggadah in 2021.
- The New Venice Haggadah exhibition of 2016, and the 1609 book behind it
A look back at the 2016 display of the New Venice Haggadah etchings at the Jewish Museum of Venice, and at the 1609 Venice Haggadah whose images they answered.
- The Jewish book in Venice: histories, media, metaphors
How Venice became the capital of Hebrew printing in the sixteenth century, from Daniel Bomberg's Talmud to the burning of 1553 and censorship, and why the book became a metaphor for Jewish life.
- The Jewish Museum of Venice: from a postwar founding to the 2026 reopening
How the Jewish Museum of Venice was founded in the 1950s by members of the community including Cesare Vivante, what he did for the Ghetto's monuments, what its collections hold, and what changed when it reopened in October 2026.
- Not exile, diaspora? Jewish writers and modern American culture
Why American Jewish writers from Abraham Cahan to Philip Roth rethought the old idea of exile as diaspora, and what the debate owes to Europe, to Israel and to the image of Venice and Shylock.
- Leon Modena (1571–1648): the rabbi who explained the Ghetto to the world
Preacher, cantor, poet, gambler and author of the first book explaining Jewish rites to Christian readers: the life and works of Leon Modena, the most famous rabbi of the Venice Ghetto.
