Jüdisches Museum Worms

The Jewish Museum Worms stands beside the city’s synagogue in the heart of the old town. It occupies part of the Rashi House, a building whose cellars date back to the Middle Ages. The museum tells the story of the Jewish community in Worms and the wider SchUM network of Speyer, Worms and Mainz. The city itself runs the museum, keeping its collections and displays open to the public. The building’s medieval vaults form the core of the exhibition spaces. The museum is worth visiting because it holds nearly a thousand years of local Jewish history in four rooms. Its displays combine recovered objects, city archive photographs and personal donations from descendants of Worms Jews. The exhibition was redesigned in 2020 to support the SchUM cities’ successful UNESCO World Heritage bid. Isidor Kiefer, the first curator, saved records of the pre-war collection before he left in 1933. Petra Gerster presents news from the SchUM cities from 1104 to the present day. Visitors enter through a gate framed by an enlarged page from the Worms Mahzor. The ground floor shows models of the 17th-century synagogue and scenes of family life. Audio and video stations cover topics such as women’s roles, the mikveh and the Shoah. In the basement vaults stands a 1609 silver cup made for the burial society, the oldest surviving ritual object from Worms. The displays also trace the topography of the old Judengasse and the influence of the SchUM ordinances.