Jewish Museum of Venice Guide: Tickets, Synagogue Tours & Pass Compatibility

The Jewish Museum of Venice sits on Campo di Ghetto Nuovo, the square at the heart of the world's first 'ghetto' — the name itself originates here, from the Venetian word for the area's former foundry (geto). Established in 1516 as the confined Jewish quarter of the Republic of Venice, the Ghetto still holds several historic synagogues, a handful of which the museum's guided tours visit.

The standard ticket (EUR 12 adult / EUR 10 reduced) combines museum admission with a guided tour of two of the Ghetto's historic synagogues — the Levantine and Spanish synagogues on most days, or the Spanish synagogue and the Cohanim midrash on Fridays. A museum-only ticket, without the synagogue tour, is also sold (EUR 8 adult / EUR 6 reduced).

The museum is open Sunday-Thursday 10:00-17:30 and Friday 10:00-16:30, closed on Saturdays and Jewish holidays — the only major Venice attraction on this site with a Saturday closure, worth noting if that's the only day of your trip free for this part of town.

The museum is not part of any Venice city pass tracked on this site. It is independently run by the Jewish Community of Venice, outside the city's MUVE civic museum network and the Chorus churches circuit.

The Republic of Venice confined the city's Jewish population to this island in 1516, calling it the 'Ghetto Nuovo' after the area's earlier use as a copper foundry — a name that later became the generic English and international word for any enforced minority quarter. Over the following centuries the community built five synagogues here, each serving a different community of origin (German, Italian, Levantine, Spanish/Portuguese), remarkable for their plain, almost unmarked exteriors — a precaution in an era when overt Jewish worship could draw hostile attention.

The museum, founded in 1953, preserves ceremonial silver, textiles, and historic manuscripts from the community's long presence in Venice, while its guided tours are the only way most visitors can see the still-active synagogue interiors firsthand. The adjoining Campo del Ghetto Nuovo also carries Arbit Blatas's bronze memorial reliefs, commemorating the roughly 200 Venetian Jews deported to Nazi camps during the Second World War.