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The first signs of a Jewish presence in Venice dates back to the early 14th century, when Jewish merchants came to the city to buy and sell goods in the port.

During the second half of the century, the Jews began to estabilish themselves in this area. After the Chioggia War in 1381 the Jews reached the authorization to stay in this city and practise usury and “Strazzaria” (the sale of secondhand clothes and objects, literally rags). This lasted just a limited period of time, as in 1394 a decree stipulated their expulsion from Venice.

After 1492, many Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal settled in Veneto. Small communities were created in the mainland near Padua, Treviso and Bassano. From here, Jews began to move to Venice. Gradually their number and their importance within the city grew up.

In 1516, the Governor of the Republic decided that the Jews had to be localized in just one area of the city, the “Ghetto Nuovo”, a small island which became the first ghetto in the world. The word "ghetto" derives from the foundries that stood on the same island. The jet of the melted steel was called in Venetian "geto". For phonetical reasons it later became "Ghetto".

Jews of Italian and German origin moved into the Ghetto Nuovo whereas those coming from the Far East, Spain and Portugal moved into the Ghetto Vecchio.

The 17th century was the "Ghettos Golden Age", as Jews controlled much of Venice’s foreign trade. Later after anyway their economic conditions got worse and at the end of the XVII Century, anti-Semitic realized the importance of Jews for the life of the city and put limitations to their economical activities.

Everything changed in 1797 when Napoleon’s troops reached Venice. The Ghetto's gates were torn down, and Jews got the same freedom of Venitian citizens, but the Ghetto remained a meeting point for the Venetian Jewish Community until the German occupation in the Second World War. During this time of horror and war the ghetto wasn’t destroyed but unfortunately 200 Jews were deported and killed in the concentration camps.

Today Venice has a Jewish population of about 500 peoples, 30 of which live in the ghetto.

When we visit the Ghetto of Venice we enter into an extraordinary and unique district. Five synagogues are located in this small area: they represent the different Jewish ethnic groups who settled down in the Lagoon along the centuries.

An ever growing number of visitors come here from all over the world to admire the synagogues and the museum.

The Ghetto is divided in three parts:

- Ghetto Novo (New Ghetto) is the oldest part, assigned in 1516;
- Ghetto Vecio (Old Ghetto) granted in 1541;
- Ghetto Novissimo (the Newer Ghetto) granted after 1633;

The Museum of Jewish Art was opened in 1955 and has continued to enrich its collection thanks to important donations. The museum contains a collection of rare and precious textiles and silverworks (mostly from the five synagogues), and a series of Italian marriage contracts and other religious objects of foreign manifacture, privately donated to the Museum.

In the ghetto you can see 5 synagogues, the most interesting are:

The Sinagoga Tedesca (German Synagogue, 1528) is the oldest one in Venice and it was built for the Jews of German origin who represented the larger Jew community in Venice when the Ghetto was established.

Synagogue Levantina(1538): its external façade is by Longhena and carries two inscriptions: the first one commemorates the destruction of  the temple of Jerusalem and the second one commemorates the Venetian Jews who died during the First World War.