Venice. The so-called “German” Jews were allowed to remain in the city in an area that was the site of a new foundry called the “Ghetto Nuovo” (gheto in Venetian means casting, or fusion). Here they governed themselves with their own places of worship and engaged in the trade of second-hand goods and pawnshops, collecting so-called “usury,” limited by law to 15%. Venetians divided Jews into three groups: Levantines, Germans (actually mostly Italians), and Westerners.
