The Jewish community in Mainz gained fame through the work of its scholars, who made Mainz a cultural center of Judaism in the Middle Ages. At the turn of the millennium, Gershom ben Jehuda, one of the most influential scholars of the Western world, worked in Mainz, and his legal opinions and decrees remained valid for centuries after his death. Even today, a medieval memorial stone in the ancient Jewish cemetery commemorates this outstanding personality.

The Jewish residential area was located directly northwest of the commercial district between Fischtor and Karmeliterkirche and was not yet isolated from the Christians at that time. Instead, Jews and Christians lived together in close proximity and near monasteries and churches, one of which, the Chapel of St. Mary at the Flachsmarkt, was nicknamed "inter judeos" (among the Jews). 

In Mainz, no remains of the medieval Jewish quarter are visible after fire and war damage and new construction. This also applies to the later ghetto northwest of the medieval Jewish quarter. In many places in the 15th century, it was believed that with the relaxation of the Christian prohibition on interest, Jews were no longer needed. The Jews of Mainz were expelled in 1438 and their synagogue was used as a municipal coal storage facility.

The Jewish community was briefly reestablished in the summer of 1445. Another expulsion (1462) was followed in 1470/71 by the expulsion of Jews from the entire Archdiocese of Mainz. Archbishop Adolf II emphasized the irreversibility of this decision by converting the synagogue into a chapel dedicated to All Saints. For about a hundred years, there was no longer a Jewish community in Mainz. Only the community in Worms can boast an unbroken tradition – its 1000-year history was ended by the Shoah. However, the communities were weakened overall, and even the new foundations in Speyer and Mainz in the 18th century could no longer build on the great "SchUM era." Everything changed, including the architecture. The most elaborate new synagogue building was the new main synagogue in Mainz, built according to plans by architect Willy Graf in 1911/12. The impressive building's architecture met the needs of Mainz's large urban community.

These items come from the collection of the "Association for the Preservation of Jewish Antiquities in Mainz," which opened the Museum of Jewish Antiquities on October 3, 1926, in the side wing of the main synagogue in Mainz's Neustadt district, which had been inaugurated in 1912. This museum was closed by the National Socialists during the Nazi era. A large part of the collection of ritual objects, documents, and manuscripts was destroyed during the pogrom night of November 9, 1938. Most of the ritual objects that were saved are on permanent loan from the Jewish community in Mainz and are on display in the State Museum.