The first official ghetto was established in Venice in 1516. Jews were locked in from sunset to sunrise in Canareggio, in the northernmost area of Venice. Sarra Copia: A Locked-in Life is historical fiction based on the title character, who lived there from her birth in 1592 until her death 49 years later. Sarra’s father, a successful merchant, encouraged and supported her secular as well as Hebrew education. She studied classical literature, music, and science, wrote poetry, and, years after her father’s death, established a literary salon in the ghetto. For three years, Sarra’s salon flourished, attended regularly by Catholic poets, intellectuals, and priests — until one priest, whom she considered a friend, publicly accused her of heresy, putting Sarra and the entire Jewish community in jeopardy from the Inquisition. The novella begins when Sara is eight. It portrays Sarra’s family relationships, takes us inside her salon, and explores her strong but troubled connections with the Christian world, a world that never forgave her for being a Jew.
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Fiction
Sarra Copia: A Locked-in Life
- From the Publisher
September 1, 2023
Discussion Questions
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