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Monday - Saturday:  10:00  – 17:00 
Sunday:  10:30 – 13:30

Discovering

JEWISH LECCE

from the Middle Ages up to the present day

Located in the heart of the medieval Giudecca in Lecce, the Jewish Museum is a place for meeting, promoting culture and dialogue, besides being a reference point for discovering the traditions and the history of the Jewish community that inhabited Lecce in the late Middle Ages. Above all the Museum's aim is to enhance the cultural heritage, by reconstructing one of the missing piece of the cultural mosaic of the medieval Lecce, paying specific attention to the local Jewish community.

From the will of the founding members of the Jewish Museum of Lecce the MAiDE art gallery was opened in 2022. It is dedicated to contemporary art and houses the works of international artists of Jewish and non-Jewish culture as well as a place for painting workshops and events.

Visitors to the museum can see the pools that were once used for ritual bathing (mikwa’ot), the doorpost groove that housed the sacred parchment with religious verses from the Scriptures (mezuzah), as well as significant remains of the church that partially incorporated the earlier synagogue.

Visitors are invited to follow the threads linking the Jewish presence in Lecce and Salento from the Middle Ages up to the present day.

Discover

THE JEWISH SALENTO TRAVEL GUIDE

English version

Fabrizio Ghio and Fabrizio Lelli (authors)

David Katan (translator)

Capone Editore

 

This is your Guide to a journey not only in space but also in time. Our purpose is to contribute to the rediscovery of the role of Judaism in Salento, a role that has been totally hidden under the Baroque that surrounds us.

 

But also, from this strip of land we will see that the Jews, both individuals and their culture, contributed greatly to the regeneration of intellectual thought and daily life throughout the whole of the Western diaspora.

 

So, our purpose is also to allow this pas to take its rightful place in history for European Jewry today.

What's on

TEMPORARY EXHIBITION

Thanks to the help of those who believed in the project, the museum activity has expanded over the years: it has become a hub of exhibitions that offer local and international audiences themes for reflection on Jewish identity and on the dialogue between different cultures.

Current exhibitions

Puglia, crossroads of the Mediterranean - Mobility of people, goods and cultures

Date: January 26 to August 31, 2025

Curated by Fabrizio Lelli and Fabrizio Ghio.

Wander, Persist, Survive

Date: January 26 to August 31, 2025

Artist: Lenore Mizrachi-Cohen

Curator: Fiammetta Martegani.

Membership Program

Become a Member

Join the Jewish Museum's Membership program.

Joining the Membership program of the Jewish Museum Lecce (JML) means supporting a cultural institution in the heart of Salento, which has been designed as an international meeting point for reflection on the memory and identity of cultures.

What's on

news and events

Discover our news and events

Jewish Puglia

DISCOVER THE NEW WEBSITE OF JEWISH PUGLIA

Two thousand years of Jewish presence in Puglia

The Jewish Museum Lecce presented the new website Jewish Puglia on October the 2nd, 2023, at the Palace of the Presidency of the Region in Bari. The project, funded by Pugliapromozione, includes a map of places and itineraries of the Jewish presence in Puglia over the centuries, realized by the Jewish Museum of Lecce. The map can be viewed on the website www.jewishpuglia.com and it will be distributed in paper in Italian, English and Hebrew language.

MAiDE, a new gallery dedicated to contemporary art

In the area of the ancient Jewish district

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