EUSTORY Academies in 2006: Venice/Italy
25.09. - 01.10.2006
The Ghetto: Its Origins, Transformation over the History and Actual Meaning
In cooporation with: Fondazione per la Scuola, Torino
Photo: Körber Foundation (Photo: Körber Foundation)
18 award winners joined the EUSTORY Youth Academy that took place from 25th September - 1st October 2006 in the Northern-Italian city of Venice. They came from Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Wales.
The term ghetto originated in Venice in the early 16th century to describe the enclosed Jewish quarter. Long before that date Jews lived in their separate quarters, first voluntarily, but from the later Middle Ages more and more by force. The development of the Spanish "juderia" and the Frankfurt "Judengasse", but also the "harat al-Yahud" in Arab countries were typical for this change. These terms described a clearly enclosed area that isolated religious minorities - in most cases Jews - from their surroundings.
Many ghettos were destroyed only in the late 18th century by the Napoleonic troops and the ghetto of Rome lasted as late as 1870. In the Nazi period, the term ghetto was loaded with a new meaning, this time as the last station before deportation to the death camps. After the Second World War, the term ghetto is also used for living quarters of the underprivileged, especially the black population in urban America. In autumn 2005 the French suburbs were shaken by riots caused mainly by young males who originate from immigrants of Arab background. This triggered off a European public debate about ghettoization as a growing problem in modern societies.
