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Centuries, in fact, and ghettos weren't just a European thing, even though they existed from Britain to Eastern Europe, from Germany down though Italy and the Balkans. (In other words, most of Europe did have them. Often they went by the name "quarter" or had idiosyncratic names. In Prague the "Jewish quarter" or ghetto was Josefuv. "Joseph's."
To a large extent, Jerusalem and Aleppo and other ME cities were ghettoized. The only place where religious minorities could be given some freedom to display their signs and prevented from possibly dangerous confrontations when they let their guard down was when away from others, otherwise you could give offense by failing to dismount or show proper obeisance to your betters when you simply didn't notice or recognize your betters. And if you can't keep Xmas in public or mourn in public if the wrong public is around because their delicate sensibilities would be offended, you get together in an excluded and exclusionary way so that the wrong public isn't there any more.
It also allowed the local religious authorities to have a degree of self-governance, as well, including courts and rites that were in accord with their own religious traditions but which were often deemed inappropriate or even offensive.
(And kept the wrong sort together for the occasional pogrom or massacre, when necessary, whether in Muslim Spain or in Muslim Aleppo or in Xian Odessa.)
Sounds like it to me...
And in a Democratic Party supporting board.
Repugnant
