The Jews in early modern Venetian Crete: community and identities

Abstract

This study deals with the Jewish communities in Venetian Crete (1204–1669), with special emphasis on the last two centuries of Venetian rule: their organizational structure by comparison with the corporations of the Christians, their internal social stratification, and their relations both with Catholic Venice as a political authority and with the indigenous Christian populations. It attempts to illustrate how the discourse of self-representation on the part of the Jews – but also the Christians' view of their ‘otherness’ – were decisive factors in the strengthening of identities and the consolidation of the Jews of Venetian Crete as a distinct community within the complex political, social, and economic landscape of the island.