Until the 2000s, the Jewish Museum proceeded to acquire additional ceremonial objects at auctions and from art dealers. The museum also received objects from collectors such as Ignatz Bubis, Josef Buchmann and Siegfried Baruch.
Since May 2018, the provenance of the Judaica objects has become the subject of a two-year research project supported by the German Lost Art foundation (Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste). The research is focused on the history both of the objects and their previous owners. The core of the project consists in reconstructing the theft and expropriation committed between 1933 and 1945.
Prior to reopening the Jewish Museum on October 21, 2020, the project will dedicate its research to those objects to be displayed in the new permanent exhibition whose provenance between 1933 and 1945 had not been fully accountable. Moreover, the research findings have been incorporated into the online collection and published regularly on this website.
Just how this Kiddush cup survived the looting and destruction of the Börneplatz synagogue still remains a mystery today. It belonged to a group of objects that the Historical Museum Frankfurt returned from the Frankfurt Jewish Community in 1950.
This Torah shield was found in the Historical Museum’s post-war inventory in 1952. Bearing no indication of its origin, it was labelled as a "Jewish breastplate", accompanied by a note stating "Found in the museum without any number." It was transferred from the Frankfurt Historical Museum to the newly created Jewish Museum along with more than 100 other objects in 1987 in compliance with a city council decision. The shield had been commissioned by the community after the major Judengasse (Jewish ghetto) fire in 1711.
This Hanukkah menorah was acquired from an art dealer in 1994. Its form and gemstudded design is extraordinary; experts know of no similar piece of work.
In 2017, a Judaica expert at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw was studying photo documentation that had previously belonged to the Old Jewish Museum in Berlin. She happened to discover a photo of a surprisingly similar-looking lamp bearing the note "Flechtheim Collection." The ensuing investigations have not yet been concluded.
Our contact person for the research project about the provenance of our Judaica: