Today in Jewish History
• Jerusalem Walls Dedicated (335 BCE)
The rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem was celebrated with great jubilation nearly 88 years after they were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia.
• Venetian Ghetto (1516)
On the 7th of Iyar, 1516, the Venetian City Council decreed that all Jews be segregated to a specific area of the city.
Venice's ghetto was surrounded by water, with a canal leading to its gates. At night the "Christian guards" patrolled the waters around the ghetto to ensure that the night curfew wasn't violated. At the same time of the establishment of this ghetto, numerous other degrading laws were enacted, including the requirement that all Jews wear yellow stars as identification.
Despite all these restrictions, the Jewish community blossomed and functioned normally. In 1797, the ghetto was abolished by
Napoleonduring the course of the
French Revolution.
The site chosen to accommodate the Jews had once housed the city's foundries,
gettos in Italian -- and thus the eventual popularization throughout Europe of the word "ghetto" to describe the city sections where Jews were forced to reside.
• Rindfleisch Massacres Begin (1298)
Taking advantage of the state of anarchy in Germany, the result of a civil war between two contenders to the throne, a mob led by a nobleman named Rindfleisch murdered the Jews of Rottingen on April 20, 1298 (7 Iyar, 5058). Over the next few years, hundreds of Jewish communities in Germany and Austria were destroyed. Among the tens of thousands of martyrs were
R. Mordechai ben Hillel and his wife and five children.
Link:
10 Anti-Semitic Myths