Showing results for "The Ghetto" in World

On March 29, 1516, the city council of Venice issued a decree forcing Jews to live in il geto - a closed quarter named for the copper foundry that once occupied the area. The term stuck. In this sweeping and original interpretation, Mitchell Duneier traces the idea of the ghetto from its beginnings in the 16th century and its revival by the Nazis to the present. As Duneier shows, we cannot understand the entanglements of race, poverty, and place in America today without recalling the history of the ghetto in Europe, as well as later efforts to understand the problems of the American city.

For 300 years the ghetto defined Jewish culture in the late medieval and early modern period in Western Europe. In the 19th century it was a free-floating concept that traveled to Eastern Europe and the United States. Eastern European "ghettos", which enabled genocide, were crudely rehabilitated by the Nazis during World War Two as if they were part of a benign medieval tradition. Here, Bryan Cheyette unpicks the extraordinarily complex layers of contrasting meanings that have accrued over 500 years to ghettos, considering their different settings across the globe.

In this powerful 1892 novel set in Londons Jewish East End, Israel Zangwill masterfully contrasts the seemingly bizarre and often misunderstood religious practices of Eastern European Jewish immigrants with the pressures of assimilation. Through his deep understanding of Yiddishkeit and a flair for melodrama, Zangwill crafts a series of unforgettable vignettes that shaped public perceptions of this often-stigmatized community. Born in London to Russian and Polish parents, Zangwill (1864-1926) is also credited with coining the term melting pot, reflecting the rich cultural tapestry of his time....