Jews in Renaissance Italy

 Though certain  Italian Cities States, such as Florence and Sienna, were relatively tolerant of their Jewish populations. Renaissance era Jews faced social as well as economic obstacles that were not necessarily felt by their Christian neighbors. For example, in 1557 Cosimo de'Medici allowed Jews from the Papal States to take refugee in Florence and refused to return the Jews to face unjust punishment during the Inquisition. But by 1567, he chose to enforce the wearing of the yellow badge, which signified a person as being of Jewish decent. Additionally, in 1553, previous to granting Jews asylum in Florence, Cosimo ordered the mass burning of the Talmud. Below is a painting of the Jewish Ghetto of Renaissance Florence, if you look closely you can see the traditional hats worn by Jews during the time period.



Jews tended to be "little people" or smaller, middle class businessmen, "they worked for the most part as butchers, bookbinders, domestic workers, notaries, scribes, itinerant peddlers, moneylenders, and physicians" (Zophy 22). However most Jews where excluded from economic success due to harsh segregation laws that restricted them to Ghettos, and coudl not own property, vote, or have certain occupations. The term Ghetto itself is of Italian origin, "from Venetian dialect ghèto island where Jews were forced to live, literally, foundry (located on the island), fromghetàr to cast, from Latin jactare to throw".

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0020_0_20118.html

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ghetto