Communal regulations (Hebrew, "Askamot") from the years 1623, 1646, 1661, 1715, 1718.

(ITALY)

(Venice)

phenomenon

Most of the regulations concern the orderly conduct of the synagogue services. The punishment of "Herem" or excommunication, is to be imposed on any who would defy central authority by establishing a breakaway minyan (prayer quorum). Though no explicit mention is made of the city of Venice, Rabbi Samuel Aboab (p.8), the renowned Rabbi of Venice (author Responsa Devar Shmuel) is noted; as well as the many allusions to the Levantine and Ponentine communities. Dating back to the 16th-century, the Jews of Venice were divided into Ponentines or "Westerners" (Marranos or crypto-Jews from the Iberian Peninsula) and Levantines or "Easterners" (mostly merchants from the Ottoman Empire). See B. Arbel, Jews in International Trade: The Emergence of the Leavantines and the Ponentines in: Davis and Ravid (Eds.) The Jews of Early Modern Venice (2001)