In the modern era, the character is associated with the 17th century pogroms in the Jewish ghettos of Prague.
Superman Is Jewish: The Hebrew Roots of America's Greatest Superhero|Rich Goldstein|August 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Among the masses, especially in the Northern ghettos, the situation remains about the same, and for some it is worse.
Alex Haley’s 1965 Playboy Interview with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.|Alex Haley|January 19, 2014|DAILY BEAST
His boxing, and his experience in the slums and ghettos of the world, had taught him restraint.
The Night-Born|Jack London
They were to remain shut up in Ghettos, and were to possess only one synagogue; the rest were to be destroyed.
History of the Jews, Vol. IV (of VI)|Heinrich Graetz
Down almost to our own time the Ghettos have existed in Europe, and popular tumults against them continue to occur.
Old-Time Makers of Medicine|James J. Walsh
This was the first ray that penetrated the Ghettos from without.
The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century|Leo Wiener
Thereat arose a new and stranger commotion throughout all the Ghettos, Jewries, and Mellahs.
Dreamers of the Ghetto|I. Zangwill
ghettos
SEE SYNONYMS FOR ghettos ON THESAURUS.COM
Originally, areas of medieval cities in which Jews (see also Jews) were compelled to live. Today the term usually refers to sections of American cities inhabited by the poor. (See inner city.)