Interfaith Journeys
  • Home
  • Interfaith Journeys
  • Stella Reekie

A Magical City

5/12/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
I’m often amazed how things I would like to do somehow come to pass. This happened to me last week when I visited Venice, a city I had wanted to see for a long time – not quite on my bucket list but lingering somewhere in the depths of my psyche. Like all cities today it was familiar to me through art, television, photographs, literature. However no matter how familiar a place seems from a distance it’s quite something else to experience the reality of it. I was with some friends and we approached the city across the lagoon. It was truly magical to step from the vaporetto water bus on to the main boulevard in front of the Doges Palace. It felt like a floating world, a floating city which gave it an air of unreality.  It was busy but not too crowded with gave plenty of opportunity to stroll over bridges, beside canals and through narrow streets. We did this as we walked from one side of the city to the other as we sought out the Jewish Ghetto.
​
Once we entered into the Ghetto from a fairly busy thoroughfare it was like being in another world. There were kosher restaurants and shops and few people, most of whom were obviously Jewish. The whole atmosphere was quite different from the pomp and splendour of St Mark’s Cathedral which spoke of wealth, power and prestige though the synagogues were also impressive and reflected the wealth and splendour of the Jewish community in past times.  It was a place in which the past seemed to be present not just in the Jewish museum but in the very atmosphere of the place. This was the first ghetto, a word which originally meant a foundry, but whose meaning changed over time as a place to isolate minorities but which is associated with the isolation of the Jewish community. Within the confines of this place had lived a community which had suffered as other Jewish communities did in the Middle Ages. Banned from occupations and professions they focussed on commerce and money lending, forbidden to live in the city they were confined to a particular area, allowed to leave during the day they were locked in at night, seen as outsiders they were subject to additional taxes, marked out as different they had to wear distinguishing clothing, continually under suspicion they were often threatened with expulsion.

But within the walls of the ghetto Jewish life thrived. Jews fleeing persecution from Italy, Spain and Portugal and Eastern Europe moved into the ghetto bringing with them their own traditions. Principally these were Sephardic, a tradition from the Iberian Peninsula and Ashkenazic, a tradition  associated with Eastern Europe. Both traditions lived side by side but kept to their own customs, building their own synagogues and speaking their own language. We were able to visit three of the five synagogues in the area, all from the 15th and 16th cys. The Sephardic one was bigger and  wealthier, reflecting the wealth of that particular community while the others were simpler and smaller. A fellow tourist commented that the same kind of thing happens in present day Israel. Within a small area of a small town there are several synagogues, each one associated with a particular culture so that there is an Iranian Synagogue, and Egyptian Synagogue, an American synagogue etc . It reminded me of the joke, often told by Jews of the man marooned on a desert island who builds two synagogues and when rescued explains there is the one that he goes to and the one that he doesn’t go to. It’s only natural of course that immigrants want to preserve their own culture and retain their own language. In a strange land worshipping and associating with those from one’s country of birth is comforting and stabilising but in danger of stopping integration, always a concern for social cohesion. However in the Israel example the different cultures do come together  in that sometimes the only way to get a minyan i.e the ten men necessary for synagogue prayer is to get together in one of the synagogues – united in their orthodoxy. Today in Venice the different synagogues are used on different occasions. With a small Venetian Jewish community the large Sephardic one is used for Yom Kippur and during the summer months when there are lots of visitors, one of the smaller ones for smaller congregations and another during the winter because it has heating. But again all these synagogues are orthodox. I’m not so sure that such coming together would be possible between orthodox and reform Jews.

Judaism, of course, is not the only religion that expresses itself in different cultures or has different divisions. Christianity has many different denominations and before the ecumenical movement one denomination would not be worshipping or even associating with another. Buddhism has its own schools and while I’m not aware of animosity between them I’ve heard one Buddhist school say that it’s way is best and most Buddhists in my experience know very little of any other school. And the tension and violence even between different denominations of Islam is lived out on the global stage never mind the local. It makes me realise that while interreligious dialogue and interfaith relationships are important so too is intra –religious dialogue. Charity begins at home and this is as true for religion as it is for any other aspect of life. interreligious dialogue mustn't close us to this reality or obscure its necessity. 
   

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I am  a Catholic nun, involved in interfaith relations for many decades.  For me this has been an exciting and sacred journey which I would like to share with others.

    Picture

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    RSS Feed

    Categories
    Religious Performances
    ​​

    All

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.