Collection

Online catalogue

The Jewish Museum of Switzerland houses objects spanning 2000 years from Basel to Riga, from Aleppo to Eilat and from Spain to South America. The collection focuses on ceremonial objects made of silver, ritual textiles from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and documents on the cultural history of Jews in Switzerland. With a steadily growing collection, the museum also collects contemporary Judaica, everyday objects, art and provenance research.

In the field of museo­lo­gy, «pro­ven­an­ce» refers to the histo­ry an object, and «pro­ven­an­ce rese­arch» to the stu­dy of its histo­ry, par­ti­cu­lar­ly its owner­ship history.

When the Jewish Muse­um of Switz­er­land ope­ned in 1966 as the first of its kind in Ger­man-spea­king Euro­pe after World War II, it initi­al­ly pos­s­es­sed only a small coll­ec­tion of Judai­ca. In the deca­des that fol­lo­wed, the museum’s coll­ec­tion grew through loans and dona­ti­ons made available to the muse­um by pri­va­te donors and insti­tu­ti­ons, as well as through acqui­si­ti­ons. Our muse­um pre­ser­ves, rese­ar­ches, ana­ly­ses, and exhi­bits the­se objects. They have been key to the Jewish Muse­um of Switzerland’s edu­ca­tio­nal work in con­vey­ing Juda­ism to its visi­tors, as they offer insight into Jewish reli­gious, cul­tu­ral, and social life.

Jewish life was des­troy­ed during the rule of the Natio­nal Socia­lists (1933–1945) in the Ger­man Reich and in the Nazi-occu­p­ied ter­ri­to­ries. Many ritu­al objects, books, and simi­lar items were loo­ted from com­mu­ni­ties and pri­va­te indi­vi­du­als. Many Jews had to sell their pro­per­ty under pres­su­re, as they were fle­e­ing per­se­cu­ti­on. Num­e­rous Judai­ca were brought into Switz­er­land, espe­ci­al­ly during the war years and in the deca­des the­re­af­ter, becau­se the coun­try had a sta­ble art mar­ket, but also in hope of brin­ging them to Switz­er­land into safety.

Today, Jewish life and insti­tu­ti­ons have re-emer­ged whe­re they had been des­troy­ed during the Nazi era. At the same time, Jewish muse­ums are incre­asing­ly shed­ding light on the pro­ven­an­ce of their objects.

Our muse­um is curr­ent­ly exami­ning its coll­ec­tion in search of objects suspec­ted of having chan­ged owner­ship under the pres­su­re of Nazi per­se­cu­ti­on, as well as the objects for which we have litt­le infor­ma­ti­on about their whe­re­a­bouts bet­ween 1933 and 1945. Pro­ven­an­ce rese­arch offers the muse­um the oppor­tu­ni­ty to unco­ver the his­to­ries of such objects and to seek fair and just solu­ti­ons. This work is sup­port­ed by the Guth-Drey­fus fami­ly and par­ti­cu­lar­ly by the pre­si­dent of the Asso­cia­ti­on for the Jewish Muse­um of Switz­er­land, Nadia Guth Biasini.

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Highlights

Pocket Watch
from La Chaud-de-Fonds

This silver and brass pocket watch was made by Jules Levy in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1901, as can be deduced from the inscription: «Jules Levy. Chaux de Fonds. Tischri 5662. Mon cher oncle.» Levy's «dear uncle» was Aron Rhein.

Tishri is the first month of the Jewish calen­dar year, fal­ling bet­ween Sep­tem­ber and Octo­ber. The hour nume­rals are repre­sen­ted by Hebrew cha­rac­ters. The Jewish com­mu­ni­ty of La Chaux-de-Fonds was foun­ded in 1833 and quick­ly grew, coun­ting cir­ca 900 mem­bers in 1900, when the local watch manu­fac­tu­ring indus­try was at its peak.

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Lengnau Mappot

One of the most extensive collections of wimpels was found in the 1960s in the Surbtal in the Swiss canton of Aargau. The 218 textiles, which had been discovered in the women's gallery of the synagogue in Lengnau, span three centuries.

The oldest one dates back to 1655. In 1967 the wim­pels were exami­ned by Dr. Flo­rence Gug­gen­heim-Grün­berg. They are now part of the coll­ec­tion of the Jewish Muse­um of Switzerland.

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Torah Mantle
from Endingen

This Torah mantle was found in the storage room of the synagogue in Endingen (Aargau) in 1967, and since it was no longer in use, was donated to the museum.

The mate­ri­al was a French eigh­te­enth cen­tu­ry silk ori­gi­nal­ly used as a ladies’ dress, per­haps even a wed­ding gown. It was repur­po­sed as a Torah man­t­le, a con­tro­ver­si­al yet fair­ly com­mon prac­ti­ce befo­re the twen­tieth century.

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Collotype
of the First Zionist Congress

The collotype process of the mid-nineteenth century made it relatively easy to produce hundreds of photographs at a time. This collotype shows the 162 participants of the First Zionist Congress, which took place in Basel in 1897.

While most par­ti­ci­pan­ts were men, some women took part as well. Their pho­tos are on the bot­tom row. Women were allo­wed to par­ti­ci­pa­te, but not to vote.

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J-stamped
Passport

On 30 December 1938, Agatha Süss's German passport was stamped with a J to mark her as Jewish.

Becau­se her daugh­ter mar­ried a Swiss man, the 63-year-old suc­cessful­ly pro­cu­red a visa for Switz­er­land and was able to take up resi­dence with her son-in-law in Basel, thus esca­ping near-cer­tain depor­ta­ti­on to a con­cen­tra­ti­on camp.

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