There was widespread rumour about Gorizia being Jerusalem on the Isonzo (Ital. Gerusalemme sull’Isonzo), while the Jews were probably present in Gorizia as early as the emergence of the town. Jews have played an important role in the city’s and region’s past, as it is obvious also from the naming of some streets after them. However, today only a few Jews still live in Gorizia.

The exhibition “The Jews in the Gorizia Region” presents a short history of the Jews and the Jewish community in the city of Gorizia, their involvement in the cultural and economic development of the city, their persecution and the destruction of the community during the Holocaust, the attempt to restore the community following the Second World War and its annexation to the Jewish community of Trieste in 1969. A special chapter is dedicated also to the former cemetery of the Gorizia Jewish community in Rožna Dolina near Nova Gorica. Today, it is the largest preserved Jewish cemetery on Slovenian soil and one of the most important remnants of Jewish heritage in Slovenia.

The exhibition was prepared in collaboration with the Associazione “Amici di Israele” – Gorizia (Združenje prijateljev Izraela). The project was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Maribor. Authors of the exhibition are Dr Renato Podbersič and Marjetka Bedrač.