Il Ghetto (the Jewish Ghetto) in Venice is the area in which all Jews were forced to live from the 16th to the 18th century.

Jews were seen as a threat to Christianity, and in Venice a ghetto was created. But, despite this, there appears to be evidence of Venetian Jews being protected

A look back on the 500-year history and intellectual life of one of the world’s oldest Jewish quarters.

Jews in 16th-century England practised their religion secretly, and many of those raised in the Jewish faith either converted to Christianity or pretended to have done so. James Shapiro considers Elizabethan prejudices and paranoia about Jews, putting Shakespeare's Shylock in context.

George Orwell has included Chaucer and Shakespeare with others as authors of passages which "if written now would be stigmatised as antisemitism". In last year's Gesher I provided evidence that Chaucer was in fact satirising an insidious, sanctimonious form of antisemitism, albeit obliquely.

Queen Elizabeth I was an incredibly popular queen whose reign is remembered as a “golden age” of culture and growth even during foreign and domestic challenges.

In January 1564, three months before the birth of his son William, John Shakespeare noted in his accounts as chamberlain of the town of Stratford-upon-Avon that two shillings had been ‘paid for defacing images in the Chapel of the Holy Cross’.

Reformation, also called Protestant Reformation, the religious revolution that took place in the Western church in the 16th century. Its greatest leaders undoubtedly were Martin Luther and John Calvin.

The first stories of the Islamic faith entered England with the Crusades, but what is known of Elizabethan England’s longstanding encounter with the Islamic world? From trading initiatives to foreign policy, historian Jerry Brotton investigates…

Protestantism had been finally established as the national religion the year before Shakespeare was born. Hence, from his earliest days, he would be familiar with its rites and ceremonies. The images would have been torn from the church by the gentle river Avon, and the fires of the Marian martyrdom, as well as the burning of Marys and Johns, would be memories of the past. John Fox, the author of the "Acts and Monuments," had published the first volume of his history before the poet's birth, and he had been tutor to the children of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote.

Queen Elizabeth I wanted to build a stable, peaceful nation with a strong government, free from the influence of foreign powers in matters of the church and the state. To realise this vision it was necessary to reach a new religious settlement that was as inclusive as possible. Changes needed to be introduced with a minimum of confrontation in order to overcome fear and suspicion at home and abroad.

Shakespeare seems to have a complicated relationship with his female characters. Some of his heroines are quite timid and compliant while others are complex and strong.

Joseph Papp and Elizabeth Kirkland present an overview of the social conditions in which Elizabethan women lived.