JEWISH HERITAGE EUROPE

An Online Resource Centre

SLOVAKIA

Jews in Slovakia
Jewish Cultural Heritage in Slovakia
Contacts
Sources

Jews in Slovakia
Slovakia was historically part of Hungary and then Czechoslovakia; its Jewish history in large part reflects the story of the community in these two states. However, Slovakia, unlike the rest of Hungary, remained under Habsburg rule after the Ottoman invasions of the sixteenth century. Here, as elsewhere, large Jewish inward migrations followed, and in an atmosphere of increasing emancipation, a cultural flowering took place known as the Jewish Enlightenment. Jews formed perhaps four per cent of the population by the Second World War. The territory was split between different Fascist regimes; the ensuing genocide killed the overwhelming majority of those Jews who had not fled. Although religious freedoms have been encouraged since the end of the Communist era, only about 3,000 Jews live in the country today.

Jewish Cultural Heritage in Slovakia
Dr Maros Borsky [Maroš Borský] of Bratislava has created a comprehensive inventory of existing and demolished synagogues in Slovakia, including over 100 synagogues and prayer halls and almost 700 cemeteries (the latter are still being identified and documented). Borský 2007 is thus the most complete and up-to-date account of Jewish heritage in Slovakia. See Dr Borský’s detailed website, Synagoga Slovaca:
www.slovak-jewish-heritage.org/

According to Dr Borský, Slovakian Jewish heritage is ‘one of the most endangered cultural heritages in Europe’. Only about half-a-dozen places of worship are still active, and most cemeteries are abandoned or overgrown.

Contacts
Dr Maroš Borský:

Address

Email
Website

Slovak Jewish Heritage Center
Kozia 18
814 47 Bratislava
Slovak Republic

heritage@znoba.sk
www.slovak-jewish-heritage.org/

Central Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Slovakia:

Address

Telephone
Email

Ul Kozia 21
Bratislava
Slovak Republic

+421-2/5441-2167
uzzno@netax.sk

Sources

Barkany, Eugen-Dojc [Bárkány, Eugen-Dojč]. L'udovít: Židovské náboženské obce na Slovensku, Bratislava, 1991

Borsky, Maros [Borský, Maroš]. Synagogue Architecture in Slovakia: A Memorial Landscape of a Lost Community,
Bratislava: Jewish Heritage Foundation - Menorah, 2007:
www.slovak-jewish-heritage.org/maros-borsky-book.php

Dorfman, Rivka and Ben-Zion. Synagogues Without Jews and the communities that built and used them,
Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2000

Gruber, Ruth Ellen. Jewish Heritage Travel: A Guide to Eastern Europe, Washington: National Geographic, 2007

(Updated February 2008)

JEWISH HERITAGE EUROPE

An Online Resource Centre

SLOVAKIA

contact us: editor@jewish-heritage-europe.eu Entire website © Jewish Heritage Europe 2004 - 2008 All rights reserved

contact us: editor@jewish-heritage-europe.eu

Entire website © Jewish Heritage Europe 2004 - 2008 All rights reserved