Living in Ghetto, mandatory or optional?

Jews have always tried to pretend that, living in the ghetto neighborhoods in the past centuries has been because of forcible policies and compulsion of enemy, and they have never wanted to live in the chambers of ghetto at their discretion; but obvious reasons and strong evidences suggest that this people due to the spirit of isolationism have diagnosed living or refuging in the ghetto as the best way to withdrawal and isolation of other social contexts.
Jews rejected any rights and freedoms to which they were sometimes given and insisted to stay in the ghetto neighborhoods.
Abraham Artsborg, Zionists researcher, in the book the Zionist idea, says:
Jews had special and a full life in the ghetto. Life outside the ghetto was not reassuring and was at the risk, but inside the fortress of ghetto, Jewish life was very firm and stable and all the Jews’ necessary social elements were gathered there.
Since the Jews had experienced beneficial effects of life in the ghetto, in dealing with others, they used to imagine themselves in a mental ghetto which its walls were invisible and much higher than the stone walls of the ghetto neighborhood. Their habits and traditions and rituals were all in order to preserve Jewish identity and preventing mixing with non-Jews and thus reminding the Jews that destroying needs abandonment of Jewish properties.
Thus, the solitude and isolation was the foundation of the Jewish religious practices and the truth of the faith.
As the statement of Artsborg, invisible spiritual ghetto is a ghetto temperament based on the spirit of this tribe seeking seclusion, so that even after the abolition of the ghetto neighborhoods, the mood still persisted. Under this vision, the world is divided into two distinct areas: Akhyar which are Jews, and aghyar or strangers, who are non-Jews. These people have always seen non-Jews by hatred and fear of and they never felt comfortable and safe among them. Therefore, the more gates of the ghetto walls were taller and stronger, the more comfort and safety were there.
Among the Zionists, Jacob Klatzkin (1882-1948 C.) has emphasized more than others on Jewish isolation. He said:
Withdrawal and isolation from others, is not a moral feature for us, but it is an integral part of Jewish religious laws and systems. Our religion is in conflict with pure morality.
He insists:
Living on the margins of society and lack of interaction with others, is due to Jewish experiences and Torah’s training.
Thus, living in the ghetto castle is a direct result of the thick and tall walls which Jews had been built around themselves along with their moral and psychological characteristics, to prevent mixing with other tribes since ancient times.
Before being resettled in the ghetto, because of their features of introspective spirit and their commitment to preserve their racial originality, as God's chosen people, Jews lived in every community by trying to surround themselves in an independent island, in a ghetto like place with invisible walls.
"Superiority" and "social isolation" was the medieval and modern Jewish philosophy, which is rooted in the teachings of the Torah. This clan in different ways was slowly making others’ wealth and property as their own from the other side of the ghetto’s walls and this issue provoked hatred and rage of people towards Jews, and made them a petty and cheap tribe in their looks.
On the other hand, not only the Jewish community, but also their prominent and famous figures did not know themselves equal with other nations, and saw their essence and nature apart from human beings.
Yehudah Leib Pinsker (1821-1892 C.) says:
When civil rights are granted to a Jew, we should not forget that he is first and foremost, a Jew ... and to enjoy the rights of citizenship is not the sense of releasing from Jewish identity.
Max Nordau (1849-1923 C.), famous Jewish and Zionist writer and doctor, said:
Ghetto is as a sanctuary which has been dedicated to the Jews, and even it is his spiritual and moral home… freedom in the Jewish concept, consists of isolation and solitude.
Jews’ religious conviction to their excellence of other nations is the underlying rock of racial prejudices and the main cause of their isolation from other people. The Torah and the Talmud have emphasized on the Jewish people that they are distinctive of other nations and better than them.
Torah (in Leviticus, Chapter 20, and sentence 24) states:
... I, the Lord, am your God, who has separated you from other nations.
And among the 26 sentence of the same chapter says:
be holy for me; for I am God, and I am holy, and I have separated you from other peoples to be mine.
In Deuteronomy, Chapter 14, sentence 2 said:
You exclusively belong to the Lord, and he has chosen you among the nations of the earth to be his special people.
The Talmud (Talmud) steps beyond and in addition to the obvious emphasis on Jewish superiority over other nations, has spoken a lot in contempt of "others" with their boycott. Including the topic "Avodah Zarah, p. 4, A" has mentioned:
God said to Israel: the way I behave towards you and other people, is not the same. I will give you as much support and attention to that much which if only a little bit of good behavior you do, such as chicken scattered droppings on the ground, it will become as good deeds to you and it will be great for you.
This book orders of not mixing with "others" on the topic of "Yebamoth, p. 109. The Talmud declares that Jews are superior to the angels for God and the difference between humans and animals is such as the distinction between Jews and other ethnic minorities.
The Talmud even states that except the Jews no one else deserts to enter Paradise.
These arrogant and racist emphasis and trainings flows as blood in the arteries of the Jewish and they deeply believe that their race is superior to others.
These heart beliefs are sometimes seen in the grotesque statements of Jewish religious leaders.
Abarbanel, Jewish rabbi, writes: the chosen people is a nation that is worthy of eternal life, but other nations are as herds of donkeys! And their temples are like cattle’s stables.
Rabbi Menachem also said: O Jews! You are the generation of human beings as the origin of your spirit is of God’s spirit, but other nations are not the same, the origin of their souls is of the evil.
Jewish ethnic literature also had been whispered legend of Jewish supremacy since old times. For example, Shaul Tchernichovsky, Jewish poet, wrote in the ode entitled "Cradle Song":
My baby! You're Jew
Good luck and your suffering to you is of this matter.
Human lineage of a noble nation
Your glory overcomes all the nations.
One of the external works and social manifestations of this belief is rejection of coexistence with non-Jews and turning to enclosed and independent ghetto.
Life in the ghetto neighborhood also affected Fiction. Israel Zangwill (1864-1926 C.), the British Jewish storytellers, wrote some books inspired by the culture of the ghetto, including: Children of Ghetto, Ghetto’s Boys (1892 C.), ghettoish tragedy (1893 C.), those who dream about Ghetto (1898 C.) and chests of ghetto (1907 C.).
Nevertheless, the ruling feudal system of medieval Europe had an important role in Jews refuging in the ghetto fence.
In explaining this issue we have to say: essentially feudal societies have been closed and each people have been in the position of a certain class. Thus, the gap class was the most striking feature of the feudal and agrarian societies in the medieval West.
In these societies, strangers usually were not allowed to stay long-term in a city or even had to pay a heavy toll for temporary accommodation.
In mentioned communities each category of professionals and jobs, in addition of transfer of the art and expertise to their children as inheritance, they also lived in a special area or neighborhood.
Jews as a specific social class were employed in business and commerce and usury in these communities. They were under the support and approval of the ruler or the feudal area to who they paid complications and the funds.
But because these Jews were considered alien compared to the local merchants, their presence and activities in the city was considered unpleasant and sometimes dangerous for local traders. Therefore, taking refuge in the castle of ghetto for the Jews was the best way to provide security and a sense of relief.
On the other hand, a Jew could never harmonize himself with the requirements of a feudal society and involve in agricultural or military careers, the two main pro-Western societies in the middle Ages, and thus could not connect with this land. So there again he was considered as alien. As a result, living in the ghetto for Jews was crucial and not only ensured their survival and existence, but it would also protect Jewish identity. It must be said that Jewish life in the ghetto was the psychological need of this tribe and has been because of their attitude towards the majority society (host).
Christians of Frankfurt every three months signed a contract with Jews which the City Council and representatives of the Jewish were made to sign. In this agreement it was confirmed that:
Jews are only allowed to settle in specific neighborhoods of themselves. They are not allowed to have shops and business in public markets.
In this treaty Jewish merchants could deal their goods by house to house selling and offering them to people only in the legal days and hours out of the ghetto.
But imposing this restriction, not only did not narrowed down the trade of Jews, but also the general public purchased more of their goods due to the higher quality and lower price of Jews’ goods.
The reason for this was that Jewish financiers were taking advantages of the situation in the ghetto’s atmosphere and mindset of their coreligionists about non-Jews and their unsociable spirit.
These capitalists had a large number of skilled and young Jewish workers who worked for them with the lowest wages. These products and goods of capitalists had very low prices and were presented to the market in this way so that their Christian counterparts were not able to compete with them.
However, primarily Jews recognize mixing and coexistence with other people as racial pollution and the loss of religious authenticity and their ethnic characteristics. They are proud of themselves that in the midst of all human ethnic groups they were the only ones who did not get along with aliens over the centuries and their clan’s privacy and family have been kept from mixing with other people.
Access approaches to these demands included sheltering and independent living in a castle and it always has been ghetto.
Whatever made Jews more interested in living in the ghetto was adhering to a series of special Jewish customs that were easily implemented in the safety of the ghetto. These customs and traditions included food provisions, the prohibition of marriage with non-Jews, the prohibition of drinking wine of foreign products, circumcision, to achieve the necessary quorum to conduct collective worship, ritual burial of the dead of Saturday which could not be done easily enforcement of foreigners.
Thus, at first living in the ghetto was not a mandatory thing, but it was the public demands of the Jews that even for achieving Ghetto sometimes they tried to buy or rent there.
When Andalusia fell into the hands of the Christians, the Jews were demanding the right to live in the ghetto.
Jews believe that the superior property of James I, King of Aragon, was that in the year 1239 C. he allowed them to live in their own neighborhood (ghetto).
Jews who thought were full of hatred of other people toward themselves and thought they were seeking to abuse them under any circumstances, gathered in the ghetto according to their liking and choice in order to provide their comfort and security. For this reason, they tried to place their lives at the nearest point to the ruling palace to offer bribes and gifts to the ruler so that they can benefit from his loving support.
The Hebrew Encyclopedia (vol. 3, p. 525) while acknowledging the above point, writes: deployment and concentration of Jews in one street was due to their lack of security in the face of pressure and harassment of other citizens to them.
Cecil Roth has said: the Jewish religious and social unity along with the hatred that people had of them, made this tribe to gather in one street or in a special area of each city.
Jacques Toni, US Senator said:
Jew was prisoner of places where he was born and grew which Jewish system dominated there. His life was nothing but obedience of the traditions that his beliefs imposed upon him.
In June 1945 C. Rabbi Elmer Berger, officially opposed to independence and freedom of the Jews during a speaking at the annual conference of Council of Jews in America in Philadelphia and said:
Jews opposed to such freedoms since past. For example, in the 1795 C., when the Dutch government equalized Jews’ rights with other Dutch, the Jews rejected this plan. At that time, 50 thousand Jews lived in the Netherlands that thousands of them on behalf of their coreligionists, signed a regulation and gave it to the Dutch government in which they asked not to have equal rights with others, and begged him to be excused and asked him to allow them to live as minority immigrants and refugees, particularly in their ghetto.
Rabbi Berger stressed that Zionism was founded based on this which Jews can live in a ghetto and motto of torture would operate in favor of Zionism.
This sensitivity and commitment of Jews to live in certain and independent neighborhoods was so serious and severe that integration of non-Jewish communities was considered like melting and dissolving their existence.
Other rabbi has said: the difference between a Jew with others is such as the difference between diamonds and salt. If one of the "others" enters into a new community, he will melt in that community as easy and fast as salt melts in water, but Jewish people preserve their nature, and not only do not melt and fade in the community, but they reserve their originality and existence with building an iron coating of Jewish faith and traditions and habits around themselves.
The rabbi adds: We have been successful in the creation of the ghetto's Jewish neighborhoods and "we" made them think that we have been captured... while the castle ghetto was really a place where we were safe in it and worshiped there freely and practiced to form a government. Thus, when the appointed day arrived, promptly we took off and had power.
Even some Jewish writers and leaders have emphasized that the real Jew is the one who lived in the ghetto. For example, Rabbi Di Sulabul emphasized during his speech at the temple of the Jews of Spain and Portugal in the "central Barack" in New York "in the neighborhood of the ghetto, the Jewish tradition observance and protection of them was a natural and definitive affair, because life on Judaism was only possible in the atmosphere of the ghetto environment.”
Max Nordau, famous Zionist and close friend of Theodor Herzl's, has also spoken about the heart's desire of Jews to live in ghetto neighborhoods and described its positive aspects:
Jewish man is very greedy to retreat and withdraw, and if the ruling powers do not isolate him, he will choose his own independent region for isolation to live alone and away from Christians. While today the term "Jewish neighborhoods" or "isolation area" is a sign of disgrace and shame, but psychologists and experts in issues of race and history know that in the past the ghetto was as a shelter for Jews not a prison. These areas released Jews from persecutions during the middle Ages, because the Jews did not feel safe out of the ghetto, and they have always seen themselves in danger. Even it has to be said that the Jews in the ghetto created an invisible fence around themselves which was much stronger than stone walls around the ghetto. All customs and traditions of the Jews were only noticing one thing: to protect the Jews, through lack of mixing with foreigners- others-. Moses Mendelssohn, the Jewish philosopher who lived in the time of Catherine, the Russian Empire, said about the invisible ghetto:
Jews had put themselves in an intellectual and spiritual fence, as their location was moved to the ghetto neighborhoods.
It should be noted that if the Jews’ living in the ghetto neighborhoods was forced or compulsory and they did not look at it willingly, then Jewish settlers living in Italy would not celebrate the anniversary of establishment of the ghetto every year at the site "Viruna” to pray and give thanks.
In short, Jews have always viewed the world outside the ghetto with skepticism and have known it as a risky and unreliable world. Hence, the desire for isolation and being away from the majority of society was so strong and serious among this tribe that it became at least their second nature, so that even when they were released in the free environments for security and safety, they still retreated away and crawled in blocked areas and catacombs enclosed in their own preferred.
From the first, they chose to stay in the ghetto as a superior way of life, and it was according to their own will.
In explaining the reasons for this, a few key factors can be noted:
A) This people with the illusion of being God's chosen people prevented to mix with other nations from any other of the people who were considered beneath them.
B) For what they read as "maintaining their ethnic authenticity", they did not want grovel their so-called superior race by mixing with other races in order to protect their folkloric and racist benefits. Thus, they involuntarily had an introspective feeling and isolated themselves from other people and tolerated solitude and isolation.
C) Gathering of this clan together in the neighborhood of the ghetto was in order to escape from the pressures and abuse of others and the wanted to shelter in a safe and sure castle to always be safe of persecution risks of their enemies.
D) They integrated the Jewish ghetto as the best and safest place to practice their religious affairs and prohibiting others from interfering in their religion.
But it is needed to remind that in the next period of history in terms of hatred of the host society of these mysterious guests, they took them more seriously and forced them to stay in the ghetto.
Jacob Leschinsky in this regard says:
The first ghetto neighborhoods were free choice of the Jewish minority to enjoy a comfortable life with a sense of confidence and security; but later living in that environment was imposed to Jews and made them suffer of all kinds of harassment against them.
However, in the meantime, people like Cecil Roth has expressed an opposite view and has told: the Jews at first opposed with pressure that was imposed upon them about resettling in the ghetto, but gradually they became accustomed to it and enjoyed it.