The small Jewish community of Slovenia (Slovene: Judovska skupnost Slovenije) is estimated at 400 to 600 members with most living in the capital, Ljubljana. The Jewish community was devastated by the Shoah, and has never fully recovered. Until 2003, Ljubljana was the only European capital city without a Jewish place of worship. The Jewish community of Slovenia pre-dates the 6th century Slavic migration to the Slovene Lands. The first Jews arrived in Slovenia in Roman times, with archaeological evidence of Jews found in Maribor and Škocjan. In Škocjan, an engraved menorah dating from the 5th century AD was found in a graveyard.
In the 12th century, Jews arrived in the Slovene Lands fleeing poverty in Italy and central Europe. Even though they were forced to live in ghettos, many Jews prospered. Relations between Jews and Slovenes were generally peaceful. In Maribor, Jews were successful bankers, winegrowers and millers. Several “Jewish Courts” (judovsko sodišče) existed in Styria, though not in Carniola or Carinthia, settling disputes between Jews and Christians. Israel Isserlein, who authored several essays on medieval Jewish life in Slovenia, was the most important rabbi at the time, having lived in Maribor. In 1397, Jewish ghettos in Radgona and Ptuj were set ablaze by a secret society called Ungenannte Judenhauer. (The name, translated from German, means “Anonymous Jew-beaters”)
The first synagogue in Ljubljana is mentioned in 1213. Issued with a Privilegium, Jews were able to settle an area of Ljubljana located on the left bank of the Ljubljanica River. The streets Židovska ulica (“Jewish Street”) and Židovska steza (“Jewish Lane”), which now occupy the area, are still reminiscent of that period. The wealth of the Jews bred resentment among the rulers and nobility of the Slovenian Lands, with many refusing to repay Jewish money-lenders. Individual regions began expelling their Jews already in the 16th century, with the last Jews expelled by 1718.