Selections
Flora Cassen: The Jewish Badge in Renaissance Italy (Opens .pdf in new window)
Note: The images showing "Lorenzo de Medici" and "Francesco Sforza" have been mismatched. The image identified as "Francesco Sforza" is actually Lorenzo de Medici. Francesco Sforza is the figure with the tall red hat.During the fifteenth century, throughout Italy, Jews were forced to wear a yellow circular badge on their chest, invariably represented by the icon "O" in the documents. While the O was a well-known sign used to symbolize the Jews, it was nonetheless replaced by a yellow hat in the sixteenth century. Given the endemic conflicts between the Italian city-states, both the widespread adoption of those signs as well as the synchronized switch to the hat are unexpected and suggest that their symbolic power could override political disagreement. Using archival and edited sources as well as art displaying the Jewish badges and hats, this poster examines the symbolic meanings of yellow O-badge and the yellow hat as well as their impact on perceptions of the Jews. Moreover, through a visual analysis of the written documents, it offers a framework for understanding the motivations of the authorities and the paradoxes of distinctive sign legislation.
Marina Karem: Before Memory Fades Away
Marina Karem: Venice and the Jews: A Reflection in the Visual Arts
Luis Shein: A photo poem to the women in Venice (.pdf in new window)
Taken and written during the 2006 NEH Institute
In the course of our work in the Institute, we tried to imagine the everyday life in Venice from the 16th century on. We did this not only for the various Jewish communities that existed in the city, but for the population at large.
Inspired by this perspective, I took it upon myself to try to understand, visually, how Venetians go about doing the things they do, in a city that makes everyday life so difficult.
Everything, in a city upon water, is complicated. Having children, going to the market, building, playing, even dying -- all of this has to contend with alleys, enclosed spaces, and, most of all, water all around.
It occurred to me that in Venice, being a woman -- from the 16th century and before, to this very day -- must be particularly challenging. It seems to me that women in Venice are unlike women from terra firma.
Because of this, in their honor, admiring them, I made this small visual poem.
Audio Samples
Shaul Bassi
Shakespeare's Venice: The Merchant of Venice/Othello
Audio 1 / Audio 2 / Audio 3
Maria Esformes
"Has bien no mires a quién" (Audio)
Ariella Lang
Simone Luzzatto's Discorsi: The Politics of Jewish Identity in 17th c. Venice
Audio
Rabbi Elia Richetti - Venetian Liturgical Music
A unique feature of the Venetian Ghetto was the density of its Jewish ethnic diversity. A significant aspect of this diversity was reflected in its many synagogues. Although only five synagogues remain in the Ghetto today, they provide ample evidence of this diversity, two being Italian Ashkenazic, one Italian, and two Sephardic (one Levantine and one Ponentine). The musical and liturgical traditions of these synagogues have evolved over time, and there is little possibility of recovering this history fully. In its place, the Venetian Jewish Anthology has set out to harvest the liturgical musical traditions from various communities across Italy, particularly those in the Veneto, whose diversity is akin to the diversity once apparent in Venice itself.
The following selection comes from the presentation on Venetian liturgical music made by chief rabbi of Venice Elia Richetti at the 2006 NEH Institute.
Audio: Sephardic Tune / Haftarot / Pesach 1 / Pesach 2 / SederVen 1 / SederVen 2
Paola Servino
Thematic Goals: Curricular Suggestions
Audio
Will Wells
Translations of Umberto Saba and Sara Copio Sullam
Audio / "Manifesto of the Jew" by Sara Copio Sullam (translated by Will Wells)
