The Jewish Museum of Switzerland, located at Kornhausgasse 8, Basel, is the first Jewish museum founded in the German-speaking world after World War II, inaugurated in 1966 to house the rich collection from the Jewish community of Basel and the surrounding areas.
The collection includes approximately 3,000 objects spanning a period of 2,000 years, ranging from religious rituals, richly decorated textiles, Jewish prints, and historically valuable documents, to contemporary works and everyday objects.
Among the most extraordinary treasures are the Lengnauer Mappot, a collection of 218 Jewish ritual banners created between the 17th and 20th centuries, and the monumental medieval tombstones, rare testimonies of the Jewish presence in Switzerland. The museum also houses historical documents related to the Zionist Congresses in Basel and original letters from Theodor Herzl, emphasizing the central role of the city in the global politics of the 19th century.
