NOTE: The May dates of this tour are almost sold out, so book via the button below and pay your deposit asap. Due to the amount of interest, we have also added a second date in September 2026. If you want to join us, reserve your place 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 Karol 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.
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 four-star 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: 11.55am depart Heathrow – 3.05pm arrive at Venice Marco Polo
Sunday 10 May: 4.35pm depart Venice Marco Polo – 5.50pm arrive at Heathrow
Check back soon for recommended September flights.
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 Carnival Palace Hotel. We will introduce ourselves and handout print itineraries, maps and audio headsets, then travel by coach to our first location: The Guggenheim Collection. There, we will have a private tour led by Grazina Subelyte, curator of the museum’s exhibition about Peggy Guggenheim’s British connections. We will also meet Karole Veil, director of the museum and Peggy’s granddaughter. This will be followed by a group dinner.
Venice Ghetto from above © San Marco Venice
DAY 2 – THURSDAY
7-10am – Breakfast at the hotel.
10am – Today our programme will take place in Venice’s Jewish Ghetto, the ancient Jewish quarter in the centre of the city. 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 comes not only from the fact it is the world’s first ghetto (as reported by the Guardian on its 500th anniversary), but also its five synagogues.
We will begin with an illustrated talk about Venetian Jewish history, followed by visits to the Synagogues & Jewish Museum of Venice. After a break for an independent lunch, we will have a walking tour led by members of the local Jewish community.
4.30pm – Programme ends for the day.
You will have a free evening to explore Venice and have an independent dinner.
Burano, Venetian Lagoon © Vladimir Srajber
DAY 3 – FRIDAY
7-10am – Breakfast at the hotel.
10am – We will check out of our Venice hotel and transfer by coach to the northern end of the Venice lagoon, where we will travel by water taxi to the islands of Murano and Burano. We’ll learn about the crafts of glass-blowing and lace-making, and have time for an independent lunch before heading back by boat to the Venice ferry port, where we will reboard our coach and transfer to Ferrara.
3.30pm – Coach transfer to Ferrara.
The beautiful north Italian city of Ferrara has been a hub of Jewish life and culture for centuries. Join us to hear about its fascinating medieval and Renaissance history, a time during which it became a rare beacon of sanctuary for Jews fleeing the Inquisition. In more recent times, the writer Giorgio Bassani used Ferrara as a backdrop to trace the shock-by-shock impact of the rise of fascism on the city's Jews, most famously in his novel The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. Today, it is home to a tiny, but active, community and is the base for the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah (MEIS), which tells the story of Italian Jewry, as well as Italy's experience of the Holocaust.
We will have some free time to settle in the new hotel and change for Shabbat before we reconvene for Friday night services and a group dinner in the Ghetto Ebraica.
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 go to synagogue, explore Ferrara or simply relax at the hotel.
1pm – Group Shabbat lunch in the Ghetto Ebraica.
3.30pm – Historic walking tour of Ferrara, led by members of the local Jewish community.
We will start at the ancient Jewish cemetery, close to Ferrara’s city walls, which contains Jewish graves from many different eras and the funeral monument of Giorgio Bassani. From there we will wander through the medieval streets of the ancient ghetto, where the synagogues and Stolpersteine are located, studying Ferrara’s complicated Jewish cultural life as we go, finishing at the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah (MEIS), at which we will have a private tour led by the director Amedeo Spagnoletto.
Free time for an independent dinner. For those who are shomer Shabbat, a pre-booked meal will be arranged.
For those who wish, we will end the day with a short (and creative) group Havdalah ceremony.
San Polo, Venice © Zairon
DAY 5 – SUNDAY
7.30-9.30am – Breakfast at the hotel.
9.30am – We will check out of our Ferrara hotel and transfer by coach to the Leonardo da Vinci Museum in Venice’s San Polo district, exploring the life and art of the quintessential Renaissance painter. The official version of da Vinci’s birth is that it was the fruit of a brief fling between the Florentine solicitor Piero da Vinci and a young peasant from Tuscany called Caterina, of whom almost nothing was known. However, new research based on a recently discovered document suggests that Caterina was a Jewish slave brought to Italy from the Caucasus. Whether or not his own family history was of Jewish descent, da Vinci’s work was certainly influenced by Jewish mysticism and he was contemptuous of the Inquisition, so we will consider his work in relationship to the contemporaneous Jewish community.
12.30pm – A final group lunch. This will finish by 2pm and we will offer a group coach transfer to the airport for those travelling home, reaching the airport by 2.35pm in order to allow those getting the BA flight to Heathrow at 4.35pm plenty of time to check in.
2.30pm – Tour Ends.
