Jewish community, Okružná 32, 080 01 Prešov, Slovakia

tel. office: +421 (0)51 773 12 71, tel.museum:+421 (0)51 773 16 38,

e-mail: kancelaria@synagoga-presov.sk, account number: IBAN SK27 3100 0000 0043 4001 4239

Bank: Prima banka Slovensko, a.s. - Prešov branch

SWIFT code: KOMASK2X

Bárkány Judaic Exposition,

Prešov, Okružná 32,

Slovakia

History News Service Bulletin Museum Library Cemetery

Office hours of operation of the Jewish community Prešov:

Monday - Friday: 8.30-12.00 hrs

contact person: PaedDr. Peter Chudý. chancellor ŽNO

The Jewish Museum in Presov came into being in 1928, the first of its kind in Slovakia. Head of geological community, Mr. Eugen Bárkány, and son of famous rabbi of Presov, Dr. Teodor Austerlitz had been major contributors to building-up of said Museum and to accumulation of its exhibits. They succeeded in acquiring roughly 300 articles, originating in Slovakia, numerous grants from abroad, and other exhibits. They also gained adequate spaces in so-called Water Bastion (vodna basta), called Kumšt, where, starting in 1931, the Museum commenced its operation. Museum’s activity ground to a halt during WWII, and after the war, no concern was shown for its renewal. Consequently, the exhibits started to fall into disrepair. This was the reason, why E. Bárkány had the exhibits deposited into the State Jewish Museum in Prague, where they had rested until the dissolution of Cesko-Slovensko. Collection had been returned to Slovakia in April, 1993. General public gained access to the exhibition, which became known as Permanent Judaic Exposition as soon as 25 November, 1993. It has been installed in Presov Orthodox Synagogue ever since.

Synagogue - part of Jewish communal institutions. The Orthodox synagogue in Presov, built in 1898 by construction company Kollacsek & Wirth, is a two-storied building, lacking towers. Relatively austere, neo-roman-Moorish facades hide, literally, a treasure of synagogal architecture. Relatively richly ornamented interiors, with fully preserved inventory, belong to the most attractive Jewish monuments of Slovakia. The edifice has served, up to the present day, as a place of worship. The so-called Bárkány Judaic Exposition - exposition of Jewish Culture Museum, has been installed in the Women’s Gallery. The Synagogue is a part of valuable complex of Jewish communal institutions (meeting-house, Cheder [a school for Jewish children, in which Hebrew and religious knowledge are taught], rabbinate, ritual slaughter-house), which had been built beyond the city walls by the orthodox community in the eighties of the XIX century.