Mikulov

Permanent Exhibition “Rabbi Loew and Jewish Learning in Moravia”

The permanent exhibition in Mikulov’s Upper Synagogue is one of ten thematic exhibitions in buildings that were restored as a part of the Revitalization of Jewish Monuments in the Czech Republic project, run by the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic. Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel (ca. 1525–1609) is said to have spent twenty years in Mikulov as Moravia’s Chief Rabbi. From the mid-16th until the mid-19th century, Mikulov was the religious, political, and cultural heart of Moravia’s Jews; the community’s size and population were unparalleled in Moravia. The exhibition presents the subject of Jewish learning within its historical and social context, depicts the course of Rabbi Loew’s life, excerpts from his literary works, his influence on Jewish society in Moravia, historical contexts (the status of the Moravia’s Jewish population in the 16th century), the scholars who influenced him, the Renaissance-era environment in Mikulov and nearby Jewish communi­ties, and the importance of Rabbi Loew’s work and his successors. The second part of the exhibition describes Jewish scholars in Moravia, religious and secular personalities in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Baroque, the Jewish Enlightenment (the Haskalah), and modern scientists in the period from the Jews’ emancipation in the mid-19th century until the boom in the early 20th century. The ground floor also contains an exhibition with a regional focus on the history and historical sites of the Jewish community in Mikulov. The former winter prayer hall serves as a lecture hall and a space for temporary exhibits.