Ground was broken May 8 for a new wing of the Jewish Museum of Franconia in Fürth, Germany. The 900-square-meter, €5.6 million extension will double the size of the museum and include space for a shop, library and temporary exhibits.
The Fürth museum, located in a 17th century Jewish home, opened in 1999 and attracts about 10,000 visitors a year.
It is the principle center of the Jewish Museum of Franconia’s three dislocated sites, each located in a historic building dating from 16th to the 18th century, and each housing important collections of Judaica and everyday objects.
The museum branch in the village of Schnaittach is located in a synagogue building that dates back to 1570 and includes the attached home for the rabbi as well as a ritual bath. The permanent exhibition here displays southern Germany’s most important collection of historical objects related to rural Jewish culture.
A third branch of the museum — set to open formally on May 23 — occupies a former Jewish home in the village of Schwabach, where a historic sukkah with wall paintings from the late Baroque period was found. “The symbolism found in the wall paintings is unique in Western Europe,” the museum web site states. In addition, a synagogue, the rabbi’s home, a school and homes of Jewish court agents and families stand nearby.