Discourse
The resulting work, entitled Discorso circa il stato de gl'Hebrei et in particolar dimoranti nell'inclita città di Venetia ("Discourse Concerning the Condition of the Jews, and in particular those living in the Fair City of Venice") was completed in 1638. Breaking from previous Rabbinic tradition, his work was not directly addressed to Venetian Jewry or to the official rabbinate of the time, but was instead addressed to the leaders of the Venetian Republic (called the doge, amongst others). Luzzatto argued for toleration of the Jews on the basis of their economic and social usefulness. The Jews, he wrote, performed tasks usually taken on by foreign merchants which, advantageously, were able to remain under control of the republic.
Further breaking from tradition, the discourse was not written in Hebrew, but rather in eloquent Italian. As a result, the discourse was successful in convincing the Doge to rule against the expulsion edict, allowing the Jewish population of Venice to remain and the crisis averted.
Read more about this topic: Simone Luzzatto, Expulsion of Jews
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