Today was our first day in Venice. A two-kilometer walk through the winding alleys and over the side canals brought us to the Jewish ghetto.
Until Napoleon opened its gates in 1797, the ghetto was certainly no tourist attraction for the nearly three centuries Venetian Jewry was compelld to live there. Crowded into a tiny area, builders added floors to accommodate residents because they could not expand beyond the ghetto’s confines. To this day, Venice’s tallest building is in the ghetto: a veritable “skyscraper” at seven stories!
Although the majority of Venice’s Jews, who number about 450, live all over the city, the ghetto remains the institional heart of the Jewish community and home to five synagogues. Today only two are used: the Spanish synagogue in the summer, the Levantine in the winter (because the latter has heating). That once upon a time five synagogues thrived here not only attests to the size of the Jewish population — 5,000 at its height — but the diversity of its origins. Jews from other parts of Italy mingled with those from Germany, France, Turkey, and Greece.
On the front of the Italian synagogue, built in 1575, there is a small unplastered square with Hebrew lettering that reads, “zekher la-hurban”, meaning “in memory of the [Temple’s] destruction.” Since Talmudic times it has been customary to leave a small unfinished patch in a Jewish home or a synagogue as a reminder of Jerusalem’s destruction, a statement that we are less than complete in her absence. Gazing upon this facade, I felt a deep connection to those who placed this simple, yet powerful message on the front of their synagogue 450 years ago. I found myself wishing that those who deny in the name of ignorance the link between Jews, Judaism, and the land of Israel could be transported to the spot where I stood and see those words. No matter where our people wandered — whether in Spain, Italy, or Jacksonville — our hearts are in the East though our bodies are in the West. A week from now I’ll be in Israel!
Ciao,
Jonathan Lubliner
Jack F. Shorstein Senior Rabbi
Rabbi Jonathan Lubliner 