Ancient community Ormož Regional Museum The ancient Jewish community of
Slovenia predated the 6th-century
Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps, when the
Slavic ancestors of the present-day
Slovenes entered their current territory. The first Jews arrived in what is now Slovenia in
Roman times, with archaeological evidence of Jews found in
Maribor and in the village of
Škocjan in
Lower Carniola. In Škocjan, an engraved
menorah dating from the 5th century
AD was found in a graveyard. In the 12th century, Jews arrived in the
Slovene lands fleeing poverty in
Italy and
central Europe. Even though they were forced to live in
ghettos, many Jews prospered. Relations between Jews and the local
Christian population were generally peaceful. In Maribor, Jews were successful bankers, winegrowers, and millers. Several "Jewish courts" (
Judenhof) existed in
Styria, settling disputes between Jews and Christians.
Israel Isserlein, who authored several essays on medieval Jewish life in
Lower Styria, was the most important rabbi at the time, having lived in Maribor. In 1397, Jewish ghettos in
Radgona and
Ptuj were set ablaze by anonymous anti-Jewish assailants. The first synagogue in
Ljubljana was mentioned in 1213. Issued with a
Privilegium, Jews were able to settle an area of Ljubljana located on the left bank of the
Ljubljanica River. The streets
Židovska ulica (Jewish Street) and
Židovska steza (Jewish Lane), which now occupy the area, are still reminiscent of that period.
The expulsion of the Jews The wealth of the Jews bred resentment among the
Inner Austrian nobility and the burghers, with many refusing to repay Jewish money-lenders, and local merchants considered Jews to be competitors. The antisemitism of the Catholic Church also played an important role in creating animosity against the Jews, In 1494 and 1495 the assemblies of Styria and Carinthia offered Austrian Emperor Maximilian a bounty for the expulsion of the Jews from both provinces. Maximilian granted their request, citing as reasons for the expulsion the Jewish pollution of the Christian sacrament, the ritual killings of Christian children, and the defrauding of debtors. The Jews were expelled from Maribor in 1496. Following separate demands by the citizens of Ljubljana for the expulsion of the Jews, Jews were expelled from Ljubljana in 1515. After the expulsion of the Jewish community, the
Maribor Synagogue was turned into a church. Soldiers returning from the front and locals looted Jewish and Hungarian shops. On November 4, 1918, in Beltinci, locals looted Jewish homes and shops, tortured Jews, and set fire to the synagogue. Rampant
anti-Semitism was among the reasons why few Jews decided to settle in the area, and the overall Jewish population remained at a very low level. In the 1920s, after the formation of the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (
Yugoslavia), the local Jewish community merged with the Jewish community of
Zagreb,
Croatia. with Catholic papers writing about "Jews" as "a disaster for our countryside", "Jews" as "fraudsters" and "traitors to Christ", while the main Slovene Catholic daily, Slovenec, informed local Jews that their "road out of Yugoslavia ... was open". and that from Slovenia "we export such goods [I.e. Jews] without compensation". Then in 1940
Korošec introduced two antisemitic laws in Yugoslavia, to ban Jews from the food industry and restrict the number of Jewish students in high schools and universities Slovene Jews were severely affected, as Sharika Horvat noted in her testimony for the Shoah Foundation, "everything fell apart .... under the Korošec government." In 1944, the Home Guard newspaper wrote: "Judaism wants to enslave the whole world. It can enslave it if it also economically destroys all the nations. That is why it drove nations into war to destroy themselves and thereby benefit the Jews. Communism is the most loyal executor of Jewish orders, along with liberal democracy. Both ideas were created by Jews for non-Jewish peoples. The Slovenian nation also wants to bring Judaism to its knees, along with its moral decay and impoverishment." The influential Catholic priest, Lambert Ehrlich, who advocated collaboration with the Italian Fascist authorities, campaigned against "Jewish Satanism," which he maintained was trying to get its hands on other peoples’ national treasures. The Jews of
Prekmurje, where the majority of Slovenian Jewry lived prior to World War Two, suffered the same fate as the
Jews of Hungary. Following the
German occupation of Hungary, almost the entire Jewish population of the Prekmurje region was deported to
Auschwitz. Very few survived. All together it is estimated that of the 1,500 Jews in Slovenia in 1939, only 200 managed to survive, meaning 87% were exterminated by the Nazis, among the highest rates in Europe. Some Slovene Jews managed to save themselves by joining the partisans. Unlike the Polish resistance, which did not allow Jews in their ranks, the Yugoslav partisans welcomed Jews. 3,254 Jews in former Yugoslavia survived by joining the partisans, more than one-fifth of all survivors. After the war 10 Jewish partisans were named Yugoslav national heroes. For assisting Jews during the Holocaust, 15 Slovenes have been named
Righteous Among the Nations, by Yad Vashem.
Post-war community , in the eastern Slovenian
Prekmurje region Under
Communism in
Yugoslavia, the Jewish community in
Socialist Republic of Slovenia numbered fewer than 100 members. The Federation of Jewish Communities was reestablished and upon the establishment of the State of Israel (1948), the Federation sought and received permission from the Yugoslav authorities to organize Jewish emigration to Israel. 8,000 Yugoslav Jews, among them Slovene Jews, who were all allowed to take their property with them, left for Israel. These properties included the Ebenspanger Mansion (used by
Boris Kidrič), the Mergenthaler Mansion (used by the
OZNA, or secret police), and the Pollak mansion (used by
Edvard Kocbek). the successor of the
Communist Party of Slovenia. The
Judovska občina v Ljubljani (Jewish Community of
Ljubljana) was officially reformed following World War II. Its first president was Artur Kon, followed by
Aleksandar Švarc, and by Roza Fertig-Švarc in 1988. In 1969, it numbered only 84 members and its membership was declining due to emigration and age. In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a revival of Jewish themes in
Slovenian literature, almost exclusively by women authors.
Berta Bojetu was the most renowned Jewish author who wrote in
Slovene. Others included
Miriam Steiner and
Zlata Medic-Vokač. == After 1990 ==