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This article investigates the connection between the segregation of the Jews in ghettoes and the house of catechumens, founded in the Italian peninsula from 1543 onward with the aim of converting Jews, Muslims or non-Catholic Christians. Starting from this interconnection between segregation and conversion of the Jews and the concurrent foundation of the two institutions, rightly pointed out by historiography, we will try to delineate different typologies of this entanglement and evaluate their respective impact on the Jewish populations. This study is intended as a first step towards a broader, comparative research on this interconnection in light of a more general history of the conversionist politics and practices in the modern era.