NOTE: The May dates of this tour are now sold out. In case of cancellation, we have a waiting list, which you can join via the button below. Due to the amount of interest, we are also running a second trip in September 2026. Places are selling fast, so if you want to join us, reserve your place asap by filling out the form below.

Wednesday 6 – Sunday 10 May 2026 // Wednesday 2 – Sunday 6 September 2026

“Venice is not only a city of fantasy and freedom. It is also a city of joy and pleasure” – Peggy Guggenheim

Join JR in spring 2026 to explore the rich Jewish history of Venice and its surrounding regions. From Shakespeare to TS Eliot, Brodsky to Proust, Venice has occupied an important place in both the semitic and antisemitic literary imagination: the first ‘modern’ city, home of canals and romance, of mercantile trade, blood feuds and the ghetto. Led by JR’s executive director Dr Aviva Dautch, we’ll trace the landscape of both the real and imagined city, walking in the footsteps of Jewish writers and artists who came to Venice to find themselves.

The connection between Jews and the creative arts in the area goes back to the 16th century. We’ll find out about interesting figures from the past, including the real Venetian musicians who may have influenced the writing of The Merchant of Venice and “the Black-Jewish Messiah”. Plus, we’ll travel to the islands of Murano and Burano by boat to learn about Jewish artisan crafts, meet members of the Jewish community and spend Shabbat in Ferrara’s Ghetto Ebraica. Ferrara is the setting of seminal Italian Jewish film, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, and home to The Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah, so we will have plenty to explore.

Since our trip takes place during the opening weekend of the Venice Biennale, we’ll focus particularly on visual culture, thinking about the complex political and artistic history of the Israel Pavilion, which is currently more controversial than ever.

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is the most important museum of 20th-century European and American art in Italy and, in May 2026, will host a landmark exhibition about Peggy Guggenheim’s time in London. Our trip will include a curator-led private visit plus a chance to meet with Karole Vail, the museum director and Guggenheim’s granddaughter.

This tour is arranged in association with Bespoke Kosher Travel and is for Jewish Renaissance subscribers only. Not currently a subscriber? Click here to subscribe.

REFUNDS DISCLAIMER: Please note that due to the multiple bookings involved in organising a JR tour, we are unable to offer refunds, except in the event that the tour does not go ahead. We recommend that you arrange your own travel insurance to cover any individual circumstances. There is a possibility, but no guarantee, that we might be able to refund you if there is a waiting list for the trip and we can fill your space.

Tour info

Destination: Venice
Dates*: Wednesday 6 – Sunday 10 May 2026 & Wednesday 2 – Sunday 6 September 2026
Cost**: £1,795pp (sharing double/twin room), £2,075pp (inc single supplement)
Deposit required: £725pp due asap for the May 2026 tour; for the September 2026 tour, a deposit of £725pp is due by 20 November 2025.
Booking: To reserve your place, please click the relevant button above and complete the form.

*The trip will begin at 4.30pm on the Wednesday. It will conclude at 2.30pm on the Sunday.

**Price includes:

Comfortable, well-equipped and well-located accommodation in both Venice and Ferrara;
All transport within Venice, Ferrara and surrounding areas throughout the trip. Please note that your return travel to and from Venice is not included and is your own responsibility;
All entrance tickets to museums, including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and Museo Nazionale dell'Ebraismo Italiano e della Shoah (MEIS);
Guided walking tour around the Cannaregio region of Venice;
Boat trip to Murano and Burano islands, learning about the Jewish origins of glassmaking;
Additional expert lectures contextualising our explorations;
All applicable taxes and tips;
All breakfasts, plus two dinners and two lunches (not inclusive of alcohol), including Friday night dinner and Shabbat lunch. All food provided will be vegetarian or pescatarian (no seafood/non-kosher fish). If you require hechschered Kosher food, this is available at a supplemental cost - please email tours@jewishrenaissance.org.uk to discuss before booking.
All single travellers will be given sole occupancy of a double room.

Please note that although Jewish Renaissance is arranging this trip, the travel company you are contracting with is Bespoke Kosher Travel, who are making all the bookings within the above package and providing your package protection (IATA and PTS registered and bonded) – this covers all elements of the tour as described above, but does not include issues caused by your flights or individual circumstances. It is highly important that you also arrange your own individual travel insurance.

This is a high-end tour, in both comfort and quality, however Jewish Renaissance has partially subsidised the single supplement to help lower the cost and overall has set the price as low as possible, so that cost isn’t a barrier. If you would like to support this tour or JR’s work with a voluntary contribution, please donate here.

This tour involves a substantial amount of walking. If you have mobility or accessibility issues, please contact us via tours@jewishrenaissance.org.uk before booking.

ARE YOU A SUBSCRIBER?

JR Tours are open to subscribers only. Subscriptions start at £33/a and can be purchased at subscribe.jewishrenaissance.org.uk.

RESERVE YOUR PLACE

Please complete the form below to reserve a place on this tour. If you require assistance completing the form, please contact the JR office on +44 (0) 7340 137 450 (calls, texts or WhatsApp welcome) or tours@jewishrenaissance.org.uk. Once your form is received and your JR subscription confirmed, you will be contacted regarding payment for your deposit.

Venice Hotel: Carnival Palace

The Carnival Palace is a new hotel that offers characterful modern rooms. Set in Venice's Jewish Ghetto, it is 10 metres from the Tre Archi Vaporetto water bus stop. A full breakfast is served each morning. The hotel is less than 10 minutes' walk from Venice Santa Lucia Train Station. It is well connected to St Mark's Square by the Vaporetto water bus lines 5.1, 5.2 and 4.2.

Ferrara Hotel: The Touring

Hotel Touring provides comfortable, elegant accommodation in central Ferrara, just 50 metres from Estense Castle and close to Ghetto Ebraica. Each morning an extensive continental breakfast is served. The Touring is located within easy walking distance of all the places we intend to visit over Shabbat. Should you wish to adventure further during your free time, Ferrara train station is 1,500m from the hotel. Alternatively, you can rent bikes from the hotel reception or use the local bus network.

Recommended Flights

Your travel to and from the points of arrival and departure should be arranged independently as many of you are coming from different places. However, several of you have asked for recommended flights. The timing of the tour has been planned to tie in with the following BA flight options:

Wednesday 6 May: 11.50am depart Heathrow – 3.05pm arrive at Venice Marco Polo
Sunday 10 May: 4.30pm depart Venice Marco Polo – 5.50pm arrive at Heathrow

Wednesday 2 September: 11.50am depart Heathrow – 3.05pm arrive at Venice Marco Polo
Sunday 6 September: 4.30pm depart Venice Marco Polo – 5.50pm arrive at Heathrow

Itinerary*

*Please note that the following programme is provisional. Due to the current political situation, the Israel pavilion at the Venice Biennale is not scheduled to open in 2026. However, should the ceasefire lead to a long-term peace treaty, for which we are hoping, this may change. If so, we will adapt the programme to ensure a visit to the pavilion is possible and arrange to meet the Israeli and other Jewish artists involved in the Biennale.

*Peggy Guggenheim Collection © Peter Haas*

DAY 1 – WEDNESDAY

4.30pm – Please check in and store your bags, then be ready to meet at reception of The Carnival Palace Hotel. We will walk to the Jewish Ghetto where we will have an introductory talk.

Venice’s Jewish Ghetto is the ancient Jewish quarter in the centre of the city, which was Europe’s first official “ghetto”. Its origins and historical events have made it glamorous over time, with its tall buildings in warm and welcoming colours overlooking wide spaces, surrounded by canals. Its uniqueness is due to its five synagogues.

5pm – We will introduce ourselves and hand out printed itineraries and audio headsets, then enjoy an illustrated lecture, exploring the historical and geographical territory we will be covering over the next few days.

Aviva will be joined by Alan Verskin, Professor of Jewish History at the University of Toronto, for this talk. Alan will be accompanying us for much of the tour and will also be our Shabbat service leader.

7.15pm – Those who wish, may have a pre-prandial drink or a little wander to stretch your legs before dinner.

8pm – Group dinner at Ba’Ghetto, a kosher restaurant within the ghetto.

*Venice Ghetto from above © San Marco Venice*

DAY 2 – THURSDAY

7-9.30am – Breakfast at the hotel.

9.30am – Meet at the hotel reception for a short walk to the Jewish Ghetto. There we will be joined by local experts and have a guided tour of the area. We will be able to visit three synagogues, but please note that the German Synagogue and the Museum are closed until next October.

12.30pm – Free time for an independent lunch.

1.45pm – Please meet us outside the Goppion Caffetteria (1903 Calle del Pistor) for the walk to our boat stop. We will then board a boat to take us through Venice’s waterways to the Guggenheim Museum.

3pm – At the Guggenheim, we will split into two smaller groups for a private tour of the house and their exhibition about Peggy Guggenheim’s British connections.

5pm – Official programme ends for the day. You will have a free evening to explore Venice and have an independent dinner.

6pm – However, for those who wish, we are all invited to the opening event of the Yiddishland Pavilion (a non-national pavilion hosted alongside the Venice Biennale). More details will be revealed at the informational Zoom.

*Burano, Venetian Lagoon © Vladimir Srajber*

DAY 3 – FRIDAY

7-9am – Breakfast at the hotel.

9.15am – Please check out of your room and meet us with your luggage ready and packed. A luggage transfer facility will load our cases and take them to our meeting point for our 4.30pm coach transfer to Ferrara. We hope to have all the cases loaded and be ready for the group to leave promptly at 9.30am.

9.30am – Walk to the railway station, where we will board our boat for our day trip to the islands of Murano and Burano. It will take c45mins to travel to Burano.

11am – In Burano we’ll start in a secret garden, where Sybil will deliver a talk about the Jewish relationship to artisan crafts and history of Jewish trading, focusing especially on some of the notable Venetian Jewish women. Then we’ll learn about the craft of lace-making.

There will be free time for exploring, shopping and an independent lunch.

1.30pm (TBC) – Our boat will leave Burano for the short journey (c20mins) to Murano to learn about glass-blowing. We’ll have a little free time there for walking the streets and shopping.

3.30pm (TBC) – The boat will take us on its final hop from Murano to Tronchetto Island, where we will meet the porterage service to claim our luggage and load it onto the coach. Each person needs to be responsible for transferring their own cases. The storage facility is c80metres from where the coach will be parked.

4.30pm – Coach transfer to Ferrara.

6.30pm approx – Arrive in Ferrara.

Ferrara Hotel: Hotel Touring

Hotel Touring provides comfortable, elegant accommodation in central Ferrara, just 50 metres from Estense Castle and close to Ghetto Ebraica. Each morning an extensive continental breakfast is served. The Touring is located within easy walking distance of all the places we intend to visit over Shabbat.

We will have some free time to settle in and change for Shabbat before we reconvene.

We are a group with a wide range of Jewish praxis. Therefore, we are trying to find a happy medium for everyone over Shabbat. In order to do this, we will enable those who are Shomer Shabbat to be comfortable, but also recognise that those who are more liberal or, indeed secular, are also accommodated for.

In terms of ritual, all those things that have halachic requirements will be led by artist and cantor Leon Fenster together with Professor Alan Verskin, plus there will be study provided by Rabbi Sybil (religious) and Aviva (cultural).

8pm – Candle lighting, followed by a musical Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat service led by Leon Fenster together with Alan Verskin.

8.30pm – Group dinner. Over dinner Aviva will lead a brief study session drawing on Ferrara’s literary history.

*Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah (MEIS) © Nicola Quirico*

DAY 4 – SATURDAY

7.30-10.30am – Breakfast at the hotel.

Free morning for those who wish to explore Ferrara or simply relax at the hotel.

Timing TBC – For those who wish to have a Shabbat morning service, we are hoping to join the local community at the synagogue. However, if this isn’t possible, they will join us instead for a service led by Alan and Leon, with a study session led by Rabbi Sybil.

1pm – Group Shabbat lunch.

3pm – Historic walking tour of Ferrara. Our guide Laura will lead us through the medieval streets of the ancient ghetto, where the synagogues and Stolpersteine are located, discussing Ferrara’s complicated Jewish cultural life as we go, finishing at the entrance to the Museum of Italian Jewish History and the Shoah.

4.30pm – Visit to the Museum of Italian Jewish History and the Shoah.

6pm – Free time for an independent dinner. For those who are Shomer Shabbat, a pre-booked meal will be arranged.

9.30pm – For those who wish, we will end the day with a short musical and creative group Havdalah ceremony led by Leon Fenster.

DAY 5 – SUNDAY

7.30-8.30am – Breakfast at the hotel.

8.45am – Please meet in reception, having checked out and with luggage ready to be loaded onto the coach for a prompt departure for the Ferrara Jewish Cemetery.

9am – Laura will take us on a guided tour of the ancient Jewish cemetery, close to Ferrara’s city walls, which contains Jewish graves from many different eras, including the funeral monument of writer Giorgio Bassani.

10am – We will reboard the coach for our journey to Padua.

11.20am – When we arrive in Padua, we will have a short (c15min) walk through the Ghetto area where, from 1603 to 1797, four gates were placed to separate the Jewish quarter from the rest of the city. This will take us to the Jewish Museum of Padua. This is a small museum housed in a restored 16th-century Ashkenazi synagogue, rebuilt in the late 1990s after being destroyed by a fire set by a group of fascists in the spring of 1943, and we will have some time to explore the museum.

12.30pm – A final light group lunch at a restaurant in the Ghetto area.

1.40pm – The coach will collect us from the restaurant and, all being well, will arrive at Marco Polo Airport by 2.35pm, in order to allow those getting the BA flight to Heathrow at 4.35pm plenty of time to check in.

2.35pm – Tour Ends.