Shylock & Friends: The Jews of Venice

[Music] both of those projects initiatives got off the ground because of the garage prolific team members slain in west germany out of the 24 who were killed were americans who had come to learn i say one million jewish children who were made to become losers [Music] it is never too little it is never too late and it is never enough jewish history sound bites bringing alive the world of our glorious past here is our host live from jerusalem jewish historian and tour guide yehuda hear the gabriel jewish history zombies and this episode is dedicated in memory of the kadaishei marone may we never experience tragedy like that ever again um he had a some cipher and his family episode last week and they got some great feedback from that lots of people inform me that they too are a proud anaglyph of the hassam cipher a few others told me that they're not descendants of the cipher but many many expressed interest in hearing more episodes about um the cypher in his life and his impact so we're still waiting for some sponsors to step up so be in touch with me about that at yehudah.com you can email me and we'll work on a series about the cipher i just recently had a trip to italy to part of italy venice padua um and it was my first time there it's a great group um it was it was it was on my mind because it was my first time there was very exciting i never really did much of italian jewish history on this podcast and it's such a rich and diverse history that i wanted to just open up the topic by doing a little bit about venetian jewish history i mean in general in italy there's there's both for the general history and of course jewish history there's there's several different stories there there's the north uh northern section of italy which is most of the jewish histories up there in the north all these many many different jewish communities in the north um very long ancient uh jewish story over there there's the central part of the country is most significantly rome um where the papal states were for many years the central part of the country and that's a significant jewish history as well especially rome itself and then there's the southern part of the country which there's less jewish history there was though more of a greek influence there as the southern part of the country of course is also connected to american american history on american jewish history american history because um the great immigration from italy in the late 19th century early 20th century and the rise of the italian american community was primarily from the south a poorer part of the country sicily the islands off of italy as well we always talk about how the jewish immigration was from russia in the late 1800s early 1900s so two and a half million jews left russia mostly to the united states so here in italy there was something like i think 13 million italians left the country during those same years much much more many of whom i think four or five million uh came to the united states so it's a you know one of the greatest immigrations in the world history there was some jewish history in the south as well um but um but like i said it was more in the north i also discovered that speaking italian is not that difficult because if you take almost any english word and you add a vowel to it at the end of the word and you sing the word then it's pretty much speaking italian so it doesn't take much for instance when you go down venice of course is is a city on on on the water and all canals uh all these little islands and bridges and waterways so the main waterway going through the city is the grand canal so it's the canal le grande and all of a sudden you said the same exact thing in italian so i want to focus on on venice venezia padua is of course a separate story we'll have to save that for another time the very important part of jewish history in padua as well the university of padua was the first university in in pretty much in the world or at least in europe to accept jewish students there was also a rabbinical school later on in in padua one of the great rishing mari mints was a rav in padua for nearly a half a century 47 years there are many other great rabbis uh there as well let's we're going to save that for another time there's also a great center of haskala the famous shadal david member of the very prominent lutsato italian family um of course the ramkhals remember the same family a century earlier he himself grew up in padua also but shaddoll is also a fascinating story i believe i think as far as i know fiorella laguardia who is who had jewish ancient ancestry descended from the lazatos and i think shadow himself was an ancestor of laguardia either way that's all that's all uh we're going to focus on venice venice is this beautiful city on the water um with all its canals and bridges like i said and the it was a republic it was a city-state uh for about a thousand years from the eighth century until the napoleon conquest napoleonic conquest in 1797 so over a thousand years it's a republic it's a city-state it is not there's no kingdom of italy that's a product of the 19th century and european nationalism and it's not part of the papal states um which is the set which is central italy in northern italy there's lots of these um city-states and very important ones very centers of commerce and the rise of banking and and and mediterranean commerce uh ports and everything goes through venice and many other cities of northern italy very important for that uh time period very wealthy city states and many jews live that's why many jews live there of course whenever there's commerce so there's the when jews live in venice they're living in this republic it's not in italy it's not in rome it's not under the pope it's the republic of venice the deja is the duke basically of uh he's like the king he's like the ruler the the local politician of this little country basically and what happens is is that as time goes on um 1492 of course there's the expulsion from spain and um some spanish jews make it to venice which increases the jewish community then there's there's several different jewish communities in venice there's there's a older one of the oldest and most prominent jewish communities in venice was the ashkenazi jewish community they came south from germany through the rhine river valley in southern germany and they moved south and eventually hit italy in the settle in venice so there's this ashkenazi community there they're from the oldest poorer they engage in money lending which is the only thing that the christian authorities allow them to do there is also an italian jewish community which is distinct it's not ashkenazi or sephardic and they come from rome from central italy and they settle down in venice as well and then following the spanish explosion so sephardic jews from spain from portugal from the iberian peninsula they arrive at the beginning of the 16th century as well to venice and there's eventually a second sephardic community the levantine jewish community as well from the levant from the from the mediterranean basin from asia minor from the middle east however you want to call it whatever the terminology is uh so they they settle there also it's a different type of sephardic jewelry it's not exactly from spain it's from the middle east so there's these four distinct and they remain distinct which is very interesting because venice becomes one of the earliest cities in the world where there's this cosmopolitan different types of jewish communities there most most jewish communities until modern times until our modern urban post-war world our uh most most most uh jewish communities until that time are homogeneous not heterogeneous uh amsterdam is is an exception yerushalayim is an exception um other cities bucharest and romania is an exception other places as well where there's different types of jewish communities with different backgrounds and different customs but venice might be perhaps the most diverse especially that early on in the 16th century they already have four different distinct jewish communities there with their own shules their own ways of prayer their own customs their own halacha their own rabbanim their own everything their own culture their own language everything is different and they all live side by side and most importantly following the year 1516 they're all in a ghetto together the deja of venice decides that there's too much competition from the jewish merchants and it's not good they need to isolate them from the christian population and they enclose them in a specific neighborhood and dispute till today where the name comes from but eventually it comes to be called the ghetto probably because of the the foundries the the metal works that were in that neighborhood before the jewish neighborhood emerged there and was enclosed there um but there's all kinds of other speculative theories about where the the name ghetto comes from which is uh an interesting discussion but eventually the jewish quarter the jewish neighborhood emerges with the name ghetto the pronunciation ghetto probably comes from the german ashkenazi jews who were the original community in the ghetto the spanish jews only arrived there later and they're enclosed in there and there's guards christian guards at the entrances to the ghetto that the jewish community has to pay for um to enclose themselves inside they're not allowed outside after midnight and they're they're only allowed out with the church spells of saint mark's uh basilica when they ring in the morning then the jews are allowed out they're allowed to only engage in money lending and very very limited other trades shemata trade you know used clothing and several others they are they have to wear a distinctive jewish dress we have to wear originally a yellow uh distinctive mark on their dress which eventually is copied by the nazis and the idea of the ghetto is copied again by the nazis in a much more extreme conditions obviously um not really a comparable story at all the nazi ghetto to the venetian ghetto but the idea of it that the jews aren't closed off uh in in in their own secluded area and also marking off the jews with a yellow uh mark and eventually it's a yellow hat this is the the original men with the yellow hat were the jews of venice um and then uh and then the um and then it becomes a red hat actually so they have to wear a red hat there are exceptions you know some certain privileged ones aren't doctors jewish doctors didn't have to either way there's all kinds of restrictions taxes and and uh very oppressive lifestyle it was not not very friendly the government was not very friendly the populist was not very friendly um all kinds of anti-semitic decrees and restrictions and threatened expulsions and pogroms and it was a not very great situation but the jews were happy that they were able to live there in this wealthy city and republic and center of commerce especially since they were expelled out of so many other countries and on the flip side you had a amazing it happens almost the same year it's almost like a you know incredible hashgraph of jewish history that that 1516 the ghetto was established and a year later 1517 daniel baumberg his printing press opens to put with the publication of jewish books hebrew books in in venice daniel bamberg is this christian from amsterdam and he becomes the greatest printer of hebrew books possibly in jewish history up until art school maybe um he he is the the pioneer of jewish of hebrew printing and he's as a christian and he know hires this jewish team to edit it and and and and work on it rabbis and others and and and and he publishes the first complete shots until that you had gershon sancino a jewish italian printing individual volumes of shas and here bamberg prints an entire set of shots he's he's the first complete shot is printed by this christian he prints them across with many many many more sperm a fascinating story daniel baumberg himself over 200 different titles he goes ahead and prints and he pioneers many things that we take for granted today in both shas and hummish he is the pioneer the pages of shasta the way we count the duff till till today in the dark is his pages the layout which originally had from sansino the the gemara in the middle arashi and isis on the side but uh bamberg solidified that layout in the rest of shas and bamberg adds the rush and the commentary of the rambam and mishnais and other things in the back of the gemara he pioneered like that he created the standard of sha's also in something even more that we take for granted the idea of the division of humish and tanakh to be divided into chapters is of course of christian origin jewish origin in the jewish origin of tanakh there is no um chapters and i mean there is division of sukken but not numbered the numbering of the 1 2 3 4 or aleph base gimmel however you choose to do it that is all of christian origin and of course the division into him into chapters is for sure of christian origin how did it get into our mushroom so that's bamberg bamberg puts in the prakhim bamberg numbers the absukam and then everything afterwards is copied from it and we can't even imagine having a humish without uh prakham and sukim and you know we need to thank bomber for that as well um many many other things uh once we talk about printing by the way now i said i was also in padua which is right near venice of padua which he was you know he was very involved in in printing also working for these christian printers so he himself wrote a commentary to the rambam and he was going to have it printed by uh later on the the the successors of bomber bamberg returned to amsterdam and later on following his passing uh his printing press closed down but there are other christian printers um and uh they they took over they were they were printing and um the maharam of padua worked for one of them and he was going to have exclusive rights that his commentary to the rambam would be published by one of the printers and the other one pirated uh this rambam and its commentary and was selling it as a smaller and cheaper edition one of them was probably mispronouncing them both the italian names are rather difficult for me to pronounce and these two christian printers are both printing the rambam with the maram of padua's commentary and this goes out into a full-fledged bitter dispute the maram of padua ramir katznellenbogen who is a friend and relative of the rama in krakow uh he has um print a a manifest a remy a uh a warning that no one's allowed to buy the stolen edition everyone has to buy the authentic and original edition because the other one was stolen and um and it becomes a whole dispute between these two christian printers and eventually there's also a you know converts jewish mishumadam who converted to christianity who get involved and between these two christian printers of hebrew books and the misumaddin working for them on their behalf there's a lot of informing to the church and to the vatican and to the pope that the these subversive hebrew books have all kinds of anti-christian doctrines and anti-christian statements and anti-church writings and therefore they need to be banned and burned and and so on until uh pope louis the um excuse me pope julius pope julius iii makes a burning of the talmud decrees the burning of the talmud in 1553 on rosh hashanah in rome and it eventually spreads to the cities of northern italy and it's burned in venice a year later under the rialto bridge which is like a big tourist attraction to go to the rialto bridge over the canal grande and there peop very few people know that the talmud was burned there it's very tragic place also a place of destruction and that became pretty much the end of uh all hebrew brooks and printing in italy for that time either way that was an another tragic story the abarbanel donetsk his last stop of his tragic life was in venice last five years of his life he lived in venice trying to intercede with the authorities to allow jews to engage in the spice trade he had lived prior to that in naples before that he was of course expelled from spain and he was the secretary of treasury of king alfonso of portugal king ferdinand and queen isabella of castell aragon and spain and then later on of the king of naples and then later on he lived in venice the last five years of his life until he passed away in 1508 or 1509 he lived in venice and then he's buried in in padua um so it's it's it's it has a very very diverse and rich history um the ramakhal grew up in nearby padua but his he he um he had also he was um you know was misunderstood throughout his most of his life and he he and his writings were excommunicated several times the first one took place in venice um the besden of venice um they excommunicated the ram khal and banned his writings and that took place in a formal ceremony in one of the prominent schools of the venice ghetto um in in the early 1700s so so that took place in venice as well so there's uh there's a a long jewish history there and we i mentioned the venetian jewish economy um and i want to mention something else in that context there is a very famous play written by william shakespeare in late 1590s 1598 1599 called the merchant of venice and it describes this whole story of where one of the main characters the antagonist the protagonist is this is the merchant of venice a fellow by the name a christian by the name of antonio and the antagonist is a jewish money lender named which is not really a jewish name but that's a different story and of course the story the plot is made up but you know between this myth and reality between this legend or or work of art or play however you want to call it and then there's the reality of the jews living in venice which is you know an interesting story because it does fit into some sort of historical context um and and that's what i was fast one of the things that i was fascinated by when i was exploring venice last week was how much of the merchant of venice is really expressing a reality of the way the jews of venice lived at that time in the venetian ghetto of course shakespeare himself never visited venice he never left england he didn't travel and in elizabethan england there were no jews so shakespeare never met a jew the jews were expelled from england in 1290 and they weren't allowed back in until uh the 1650s with oliver cromwell so shakespeare in the late 1500s obviously never met a jew but the point is is that the the story of of um of how is is trying to extract as much he has this unreasonable claim to antonio that he's going to take a pound of flesh um for as as a bond as as as when antonio is is uh is is borrowing the money or not really borrowing the money bassanio is borrowing the money but antonio is signing it off on his behalf and and he says if you don't pay it back in time i'm going to take a pound of flesh and it's because feels wronged antonio had disgraced in the past had shamed him had done all kinds of nasty things to him because he treated him as a second-class citizen because he was a jew and therefore feels that this is his way of restoring his pride and dignity and then later on when antonio can't make up for the money and they go to court and demands the pound of flesh and and then you know sharlak has his own family issues his daughter jessica had married a christian so she had left the faith um this fellow named lorenzo and then this lawyer who's really a female dressed up as a male portia and she's the one who who it seems outsmarts the jew but really she's acting pretty nasty to him as well because she says that he has to forfeit all his property he has to give it to antonio has to give it to the government he has to give it to the church whoever he has to give it to and then he has to convert to christianity or he has to die i mean it's a pretty nasty outcome and the the there's like this christian victory at the end of the play um where the jew is humiliated and many see it as an anti-expression of anti-semitism of william shakespeare but it also could be expressing a very real reality of what venetian jews were living through at the time the discrimination the fact that they were almost all of them especially the ashkenazi jews were only allowed to engage in money lending that was the only profession that they were allowed to the portuguese the spanish and portuguese jews had a few more sources of income um over time and but that was and they were restricted they were in the ghetto they were discriminated against they were very often forced into these forced conversions or to give up their property to the state or unreasonable taxes and demands on them and they were treated as second-class citizens so there's there's this certain reality there and whether shakespeare himself personally was an anti-semite could very well be and it's it's somewhat irrelevant to the to the question because uh the reality is is that is that it is an expression of a very real anti-semitism of of venice of of of of the way jews had to live in venice at that time and not necessarily uh uh shakespeare's personal opinions not only that there's also this um this this almost a rachmanist almost like you feel bad for at some level and you see that they're really really not treating him nicely and shakespeare does in in almost all of his plays bring out the complexities of his characters and therefore it's not so simple and and he deliberately leaves his characters not not as a black and white as the good guy and the bad guy shakespeare is not hollywood his his characters are much more complex and deep and multifaceted and shades of gray so there's all these sides too to how to view shilok and portea and antonio and all these people inside and and and actually does draw a lot of sympathy and and in in in saying hey this is this is wrong this is the the christians are dealing the jew in a very wrong way and and this is not you know to do he he he did lend the money he didn't demand interest um and he uh he's and and this is not fair that he's being forced to give up all his assets afterwards and he's being forced to convert to christianity or else he's he has some sort of death sentence why is that fair and then shakespeare puts in the words of shilak one of the greatest speeches of all time and since it's so great i'm going to quote it in its entirety and actually read from the script of shakespeare uh from to what he says to to the judge or to the court um when they ask him why do you want this pound of flesh what are you gonna get from getting a pound of antonio's flesh what are you going to get from it so answers to bait fish with all if it will feed nothing else it will feed my revenge he hath disgraced me and hindered me half a million laughed at my losses mocked at my gains scorned my nation thwarted my bargains cooled my friends heeded mine enemies and what's his reason i am a jew hath not a jew eyes hath not a jew hands organs dimensions senses affections past passions fed with the same food hurt with the same weapons subject to the same diseases healed by the same means warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a christian is if you prick us do we not bleed if you tickle us do we not laugh if you poison us do we not die and if you wrong us shall we not revenge if we are like you and the rest we shall resemble you in that if a jew wrong a christian what is his humility revenge if a christian wrong a jew what should his sufferance be by christian example why revenge the villainy you teach me i will execute and it shall go hard but i will but i will better the instruction so that's fantastic i mean he's he's he's bringing out something that today of course we take for granted because we believe in in all these wonderful liberal ideas of of equality and for us it's we take for granted that jews should be treated as equal but in the 16th century in places like venice or even in the elizabethan england where there were no jews all together the fact that a jew could go ahead and declare to the world that really i'm a human being just like you that was revolutionary and and shakespeare's putting that speech in shylock's mouth and today it's become such a famous speech and it you know it even has cometic uh uh knockoffs of you know like people who pick their noses and instead of prick like there's pic right so there's there's all kinds of spin-offs of this speech um but but there's but the idea here that that uh you know that that shilok is is expressing what the jews of venice really were probably saying at that time that we're we're just people we don't deserve to be in the ghetto we don't deserve to be treated this way and uh and uh and it it's in a certain way expressing very much the reality of venetian jewelry at that time so this is your hoodie gabriel with jewish history soundbytes you can reach me at yahoo.judygiver.com for questions comments sources tours trips sponsorships lectures um you can subscribe to jewish history soundbytes on podbean or your favorite podcast platform and i hope you enjoyed