Jewish Museum of Bologna

The Jewish Museum of Bologna (MEB,Museo Ebraico di Bologna) is located in via Valdonica1/ 5, in the former Jewish ghetto, in the 16th century Palazzo Pannolini, belonging to the Municipality of Bologna.

The Museum covers a surface of 500 m2, divided into three separate areas for a permanent section and an area for temporary activities on the ground floor and a documentation center on the first floor.

The permanent section is focused on the issue of Jewish identity and describes the highlights of Jewish history over nearly 4000 years, during which each generation has maintained strong ties with the previous one, thereby ensuring continuity between ancient, medieval, modern  history and contemporary Judaism.

Two rooms are dedicated to the long stay of Jewish people in Bologna and in Emilia Romagna, from the medieval to the contemporary age. 

The second section includes spaces dedicated to exhibitions, meetings, debates and educational activities for children. Here conferences, courses, workshops and presentations of books organized by MEB take place. There is also a well-stocked bookshop, where you can buy books and souvenir items.

The third section is the MEB Documentation Centre, comprising a specialized library and a cultural and promotion center, which is linked to the main museums, universities, libraries and research centers not only in Italy, but also in Europe, in Israel and in the USA.

History

The Jewish Museum of Bologna, established in 1999 is managed by a public foundation, which was created by the Municipality of Bologna, the Jewish Community of Bologna and by the “Friends of the Museum” Union, supported by the Regional Administration of Emilia-Romagna, the Provincial Administration of Bologna and the Institute for the Artistic, Cultural and Natural heritage of the Emilia-Romagna Region.

MEB is an interactive museum; the permanent exhibition is provided with multimedia tools and exhibition devices enabling detailed reading of the historical path at various levels  .

MEB is also a cultural center promoting the knowledge of the rich and unique architectural artistic, documentary and book heritage still present in Emilia-Romagna. A heritage that can be visited through specific routes both in Bologna and in the Region.

In Bologna, the itinerary involves the former Jewish ghetto, via Gombruti and  the current synagogue, the Certosa and the Jewish cemetery, the Medieval Museum with the sixteenth-century tombstones, the houses and the fifth-sixteenth areas where Jewish people lived before the establishment of the ghetto in 1555 (among others: Palazzo Bocchi and Casa Sforno Obadiah).

In the Region the route winds  both eastwards, with Cento, Lugo and Ferrara with its Jewish Museum, three synagogues, cemetery and ancient ghetto, and westward, with Modena and its monumental emancipation synagogue, Carpi with its Museum of the Deported and Fossoli  concentration camp, Reggio Emilia with the former XVIII century synagogue, the former ghetto and cemetery, Parma with the nineteenth century synagogue and Soragna with the Jewish Museum "Fausto Levi" and its adjacent neoclassical synagogue.