Location Village
The Baroque synagogue from 1730 is the impressive centerpiece of the Jewish Culture Museum in Veitshöchheim. This location was the center of the Jewish community from 1644 until 1942, when the last remaining Jews were forcibly removed. The interior of the synagogue was demolished in 1940 when the building was turned into a fire station. In 1986, many pieces of the demolished interior were rediscovered under the new flooring and a decision was made to restore the interior according to photographs from 1926. Since its inauguration in 1994, the synagogue is again a place of worship.
Adjacent to the synagogue, a residential building from 1738 was turned into a museum. The permanent exhibit with the title “Location Village” fills many rooms of the house and the synagogue. It chronicles what life was like for Jews in the village and the surrounding areas. The visitor learns about networks, interdependence, separations, norms and discrepancies that shaped Jewish life in this village.
The items on display are from the “Genisa” – a space in the attic of the synagogue where items that, per religious rules, could not be destroyed had been stored for safekeeping. The “Genisa” housed religious texts written in Hebrew and Yiddish, but also fairy tales, fables, stories, as well as letters, receipts, writing samples, and much more.
The collection allows visitors to get a nuanced view of Jewish everyday life in the past, and it tells a piece of Veitshöchheim history.