The Mainz State Museum houses a highly significant collection of Judaica, particularly thanks to its medieval synagogue inscriptions and funerary monuments. The new publication, “A Crown for Magenza,” documents the significance of this collection of Jewish cultural artifacts for Mainz.

The book not only describes the history and provenance of these cultural artifacts but also presents the religious objects and their functions in a separate section of the catalog, with the inscriptions newly translated from Hebrew. The medieval Jewish tombstones housed at the Landesmuseum Mainz—including one of the oldest epitaphs ever found in Europe—are featured alongside the medieval synagogue inscriptions.

The volume also commemorates the small Jewish museum—now almost forgotten—that was located on Hindenburgstraße in Mainz from 1926 to 1938, on the site where the new synagogue stands today.

A large portion of the rescued religious artifacts is on display in the Landesmuseum’s Judaica collection.

“A Crown for Magenza” is another contribution to the preservation of Jewish heritage in the SchUM cities of Mainz, Worms, and Speyer. The state government is currently preparing an application to UNESCO to have the SchUM cities recognized as a World Heritage Site.

The richly illustrated volume was published by Michael Imhof Verlag in Petersberg and is available in bookstores for 19.95 (ISBN: 978-3-7319-0158-7).