The Jewish Museum of Switzerland was opened in 1966 as the first Jewish museum in the German-speaking world after the war. The first objects were given to the museum by the Judaica collection of the Swiss Museum of Folklore (now Museum der Kulturen, Basel). In the following years, the collection was expanded by objects from Basel and the Upper Rhine region, from the two Surbtal Jewish villages of Endingen and Lengnau, as well as from the rest of Switzerland Europe, North Africa, and Israel. The content focuses on ceremonial objects made of silver, richly embroidered textiles from the 17th to the 20th century and documents on the cultural history of the Jews in Switzerland. The monumental medieval gravestones and the Basel Hebrew prints are considered historically unique. Documents on the Basel Zionist congresses and original letters from Theodor Herzl, inventor of the "Jewish state," show Basel as a city that made world politics.

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