The Renaissance, from approximately the early fifteenth to the mid-sixteenth century, offered some relief. The Counter-Reformation then shattered tolerance and introduced the phenomena of the ghetto; the word ghetto is said to derive from the Italian word getto, which means metal casting and refers to the iron foundries in the part of Venice where Jews were first confined in the sixteenth century. From there, ghettos developed in most major Italian cities and throughout Europe as well. Jews were confined to these ghettos for over two hundred years. Life in ghettos was characterized by harsh conditions, as well as humiliation and mistreatment by outsiders.
From 1848 on, recognition of the absurdity, inhumanity, and impracticality of the old restrictions began to quickly sweep them away. In 1860, with Italys unification, the last vestiges of these restrictions disappeared - except in Rome, where Jews would have to wait another decade. Without doubt, the Jews accepted emancipation with glee: the ghettos inhabitants burst forth into the wide world outside, and the more talented and ambitious Jews threw themselves with enthusiasm into the activities and professions from which they had previously been barred. Suddenly, a single generation sufficed to bring individual Jews to the forefront of several different professions. The final achievement of emancipation was greeted by Jew and non-Jew alike as simply the normal and civilized thing to do; perhaps in no other European country did it come with so little resistance by the majority and so much gratitude from its beneficiaries. .
Already before the turn of the century, Italys Jews appeared fully integrated into national life. Jews were distinguishing themselves everywhere: in science, in scholarship - and in politics. One may date the two decades from the turn of the century through the mid-1920s as a golden age of Italian Jewry, when they loomed largest in national life.
