Ljubljana

LJUBLJANA (Ger. Laibach), capital of Slovenia; until 1918 in Krain, Austria. Individual Jews are mentioned in Ljubljana during the 12^th century, and the repair of a synagogue is attested in 1217. A "Jewish Road" and a "Jewish Street" are remains of the former Jewish quarter. The Jews of Ljubljana were merchants, moneylenders, and artisans, and were allowed to own real estate. During the Middle Ages they were from time to time accused of child murder, well poisoning, etc. They were not expelled together with the rest of the Jews from Carinthia and Styria in 1496; in 1513, however, Emperor Maximilian gave in to the burghers' claims and forbade the Jews to engage in commerce, and in 1515 expelled them from Ljubljana. Under Leopold II in 1672 the whole of Krain was forbidden to Jews. Later Joseph II allowed them to visit the fairs.

During the Napoleonic Kingdom of Illyria, Abraham Heimann from Bavaria settled in Ljubljana with two relatives under protection of the French governor and opened an official money changer's office. When Ljubljana reverted to Austria in 1814, the emperor confirmed Heimann's right of residence, but he had to fight with the municipal authorities until the 1848 Revolution. After the *emancipation in 1867 Jews again settled in Ljubljana, and by 1910 there were 116 of them, but without an organized community. They were attached to the community of Graz in Austria until 1918, and after Slovenia became a part of the new Yugoslav kingdom, they were attached to the Zagreb community. Only one extended Jewish family remained there when the Germans took the town and handed it over to the Italians in 1941. A memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust was erected after World War II. The Ljubljana community, founded after World War II, had 84 members in 1969. In the 1990s the renewed community took on the name "Judovska skupnost," availing itself of the services of a visiting rabbi from Trieste. Members used prayer books in the Slovenian language and even the Haggadah could be read in a Slovenian version.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.