FIVE PLACES
LIZ SPIKOL I JE STAFF
We’re Going
This Summer
Basilica Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, Italy.

S ince 1974, the Gil Travel Group, headquartered in downtown
Philadelphia, has been making plans for Jewish adventurers. Much
of that travel is to Israel.

“We send over 50,000 travelers to Israel every year,” said Iris
Hami, Gil’s executive vice president.

But the family business also sends tourists to other parts of the
world, sometimes for a Jewish-interest trip, sometimes with no par-
ticular focus at all. We asked Hami where Jews are going this summer,
and learned there are five places that prove to be particular draws.

Venice, Italy
Does anyone need an excuse to visit Venice? With its canals and
cathedrals, museums and mazelike alleyways, it’s an utterly unique
and exquisite travel experience.

This year, though, the city on the water has special appeal for
Jewish travelers: 2016 marks the 500 th anniversary of the establish-
ment of Venice’s Jewish ghetto.

To commemorate the milestone, city officials and members of
Venice’s Jewish community formed a committee to organize events
and exhibitions — and there are many. (The English word “ghetto,”
not coincidentally, comes from the Italian.)
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There’s an ongoing exhibit (“Venice, the Jews and Europe. 1516–
2016”) at Palazzo Ducale, with artifacts and a virtual reconstruction.

There are academically oriented conferences (“The Ghetto as Global
Metaphor”) and a symposium on “Venice and the Hebrew Book”
in collaboration with the National Library of Israel. There will be
the first ever performance of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice in
the Ghetto, where the play is set, and a concert at La Fenice Opera
House called The Music of the Ghettoes: Old and New Songs from
the Jewish Tradition with Frank London and Ute Lemper.

And that’s just for starters. For more information, go to
veniceghetto500.org. Iberian Peninsula
The great thing about traveling to Iberia is you can get two for one
— Spain and Portugal — and not break the bank.

“Portugal is not that expensive and has a lot of Jewish interest,”
said Hami, who sends a lot of local residents there.

Both countries have rich Jewish histories that are still evident
today in old synagogues, Juderías (Jewish quarters) and even Jew-
ish cemeteries.

In southern Spain, the Jewish legacy abuts the Moorish one —
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