Recommended reading: 'Shylock's Venice' by Harry Freedman (or Harry Freedman's Books ).Freedman, the London-based bestselling author takes readers on a journey through the 16-19th centuries where there was a cultural renaissance happening in Venice's ghetto. He discusses the history of the Spanish-Portuguese Jews who were forced out of their countries and find their way to Venice, Sephardic merchants who made their livelihood going back and forth from Turkey & Greece to Venice, and the historical personalities who contributed to all that made life in the ghetto so fascinating, in the place where and when Shakespeare's "Shylock" would have lived.Available on Amazon US (on pre-order) & UK.