European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 23, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Artefacts finely worked prayer shawls and Community documents like the illuminated 1837 hebrew marriage contract of Elia Vivante and Fanny Forni of Mantua. Upstairs in the museum building visitors see the German synagogue where Gilt lettered ten commandments in hebrew Circle the dark Walls. This the first of the venetian synagogues was built in 1528 and expanded in the 17th Century to include an enclosed Balcony where women could worship. Nearby restoration has just been completed on the top floor one room Canton synagogue Canton meant Quot Corner in medieval venetian. Visitors Are told that it is the Cne a synagogue in Europe decorated with paintings. Small insets in the dark Wood panelled Walls depict Jerusalem the red sea Sodom and gomorrah and the arrival of manna from heaven. The Canton completed in 1531, is also embellished with a panel of stained Glass from nearby Mura no. Its five windows face a canal that marked the old ghetto Boundary. What is called the italian synagogue the third. Facing the ghetto Square has been restored but is not open to visitors. In the 1540s, the venetian ghetto Felt the Impact of the expulsion of sephardic jews from Spain a Hal Century before. So called Marrano came to Venice in two Waves a from constantinople and from Portugal. To accommodate them the ghetto was expanded to part of an adjoining  sometimes Nasty relations with earlier settlers the Spanish newcomers quickly became a majority in Tho ghetto. On their Island they built two synagogues the Spanish which is the largest and boasts an unlikely Organ and the levantine which is heated and still used for Winter services. After centuries of misery the jews of Venice started toward emancipation when Napoleon conquered the venetian Republic in 1797 and Flung open the doors of the ghetto. Quot that Day every jew with 10 lire in his pocket set off to find himself someplace else in Venice to live Quot says Roberto Bassi president of the jewish Community. Today Only a handful of jewish families still live along the old ghetto streets but the spirit of their forefathers survives in the candelabra lit old synagogues evocative and moving. For a visitor Venice s ghetto is easier to find than 1o forget. A amps photos by l. Emmett Lewis or. So snap modern jewish Community struggling an Al but empty Square in the lev ish ghetto the historic jewish Community of Venice born in the worlds first ghetto seems to be on its deathbed. But it is Loo soon for mourning with great vigor and invention there May yet be renewed health. Roberto Bassi a dermatologist whose office overlooks Venice s storied Lagoon constantly recruits immigrants. Unless there is new blood he warns Venice will be left with carefully restored monuments to jews but with no resident jewish Community. Quot we have great development and a very Lively Community but at the same time we face the danger of extinction Quot Bassi says. It is ironic that the survival of the venetian jewish Community is threatened now when its old ghetto is better maintained better known and More visited than Ever. Nearly 1,000 tourists a week now roam the Narro w streets and visit a museum and five restored synagogues on the two islands w hich by order of the doge in 1 is it became a jewish ghetto. The jewish Community is almost As old As Venice. The oldest grave at the jew ish cemetery on the Lido dates to 1 us it and the population grew steadily to Crest at 5,000 in ibid according to Cesare Vivante a part time Community historian. The decline of the jews rumours the a arming decay of Venice itself. More d Mere visitors flock to fragile a n c Venice. More and More venetians leave for belter housing and better jobs on the Mainland. Population has declined since the end of world War ii. Venice was annexed to the third Reich in 1944, and about 200 venetians were among 11,000 italian jews murderer in nazi concentration Camps. Bassi s family like most venetian jews who Torild. Afford it fled wartime persecution. Until the germans left Bassi a Schoolboy with false Dru merits was sheltered Al a Catholic orphanage in Rome. Quot after the War most of us tame Bat a but Many emigrated a to the big Ilies to Israel the u.s.,&Quot says Bassi now so. I to Heads the department of dermatology at Venice s largest Hospital. When the w a ended there were about 1,500 jews among 200,000 venetians today with the t Ity s population around lieu xxx Only about 550 of Italy s 30,000 jews live in Venice there Are Slilo a few jews in tire old ghetto but most of Venice s 200 jewish families Are s altered across the City As they have been sins e the ghetto died with the venetian re Ruble in i 797. There Are no jews among the Young venetian guides who walk visitors through lire ghetto. Ghetto monuments have been restored with private funds and handsome i Untrif Bulins from the italian government but there is no rabbi 1 the left a few months ago for Trieste where there is i hebrew  for his it Hildren to attend. Emigration though is less a threat now than age about 100 of the remaining venetian jews ire Ondr a than 70, Bassi says fast year two jewish babies were Boro. Counting them there Are fewer than 5b jewish Hildren under the age of 1b. , a Nuguit 23, thu if Ope Fri a Gavin 9