Slovene Jewry before WW II

There is has not been a lot of organized research about Slovene Jewry so what you are about to read is a brief resume of the known facts.
Ever since the start of Jewish emigration from Palestine in the first century of our time until the 13th century there are no exact sources and reports of Jews on Slovene soil. Modern day Slovenia was part of the Roman Empire and Jews were present all over the Empire especially in the larger cities and commercial centres. Emona (nowadays Ljubljana) was one of those cities which means that it is very possible that there was Jewish presence. A well known archaeological find of an oil lamp with an inscribed Menorah is known from Škocjan. The area of Pulj on the Istra peninsula in the vicinity of what is nowadays Slovenia is known to have been very densely settled by Jews. During the years 500 - 1000 one of the main Jewish migration routes traversed Slovenia through the Ljubelj (Loibl) pass north through the Alps towards modern day Germany.
There are numerous reports of strong Jewish presence on Slovene soil starting from the 12th century onwards. Many came as refugees from German territories in flight of persecution, especially from the crusaders. Some immigrants were also from Italian speaking areas. There have been numerous Jewish settlements in different Slovene towns throughout the middle ages. Piran, Koper, Izola, Ljubljana, Maribor, Radgona, Slovenj Gradec, Ormož, Celje and Ptuj just to name a few.
In the late Middle Ages the more important Jewish settlements were in Maribor and Gorica. Jews are mentioned for the first time in Carinthia where the famously infamous Christian legend of the "wandering Jew" is part of the folklore. The wandering Jew is known to have been mentioned throughout Carinthia and also in the town of Beljak (Villach).
The 12th century is also the time when the thriving Jewish community of Maribor is supposed to have been established. The community was very advanced and numerous. The Jews of Maribor dealt with a wide variety of professions from money lending (which was officially forbidden to Christians) to trade and handicraft. Maribor Jewry owned mills and vineyards which a quite unusual and unique historical fact. In charge of community affairs was the local resident Rabbi and disputes with Christian neighbours were settled by the local Bet Din - a Jewish court. One of the most important personalities of Slovenia's Jewish history was Rabbi Israel Isserlein who was the chief Rabbi of Carinthia, Styria and Carniola and spent most of his life as a resident of Maribor. Unfortunately there have been no serious attempts to research his numerous written documents to date. Apparently they could pay a very important role to understand not only Jewish history in the region but the region in its broader historic sense.
The emergence of the plague in the 14th century caused a flood of anti-Semitic sentiment. In similar fashion as throughout the rest of Europe, Jews were accused of being the reason for the horrors of the plague. This soon gave rise to numerous pogroms and the burning of Jewish quarters in Ptuj, Gradec (Graz) and Radgona. Jews provided plenty of financial help to the (well known) Slovene counts of Celje but count Herman II. evicted Jews already in the 15th century.
Janez Vajkard Valvasor, a well known and studied Slovene historian, mentioned the restoration of the Ljubljana synagogue in 1213 in his famous History of the Duchy of Carniola. As usually the most common occupation of Ljubljana's Jewry was money lending and trade. The Jewish quarter in Ljubljana is still recognizable although only by the names of two small streets that are still named Jewish street and Jewish path. An edict in early 16th century ended the period of a distinct Jewish quarter in this city. Ever since (until lately) Jewish presence has only been temporary or very low in numbers.
On the 18th of March 1496 the Emperor Maximilian of the Austrian Empire issued an edict of eviction for the Jews of Carinthia and Styria. He was under strong pressure of the local nobility. The edict stated that the eviction is to be implemented no later than the 6th of January 1497. The edict did not include the eviction of the Jews of Carniola region (duchy). The Jews of Carniola offered a high amount of ransom money which exceeded the offer of the local nobility for the eviction edict. The pressures continued and even mounted during the next few years and the eviction was extended to the Duchy of Carniola in 1515. Most of the evicted Jews settled in neighbouring Hapsburg lands like Italy and western Hungary but some apparently also settled in Slovene villages (throughout Slovenia's countryside Jewish family names can be found to this day). Those expulsions gave rise to a new distinctly Slovene-Jewish family name - Morpurgo which denotes someone from Maribor (Marburg). Evictions continued during the next few centuries which is a clear indicator of Jewish presence and strong anti-Semitic sentiment. The last of these evictions was issued in 1828 but restrictions on settlement and business remained until 1861.
During Napoleons occupation of modern day Slovenia and the establishment of the Illyrian provinces Jewish settlement resumed for a brief period. With the return of the provinces to Austria in 1815 this period was over and an additional order was issued by Emperor Francis II. which forbade Jewish settlement in Carniola in 1817. Settlement in the above mentioned areas was very limited in the 18., 19. and 20. centuries.
One of the largest Jewish centers developed at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries in the far eastern parts of Slovenia - Prekmurje. There were very strong Jewish communities in the towns of Murska sobota and Lendava. Murska sobota was even the chief Jewish community of Slovenia from 1929 until WWII. In 1843 a Jewish school was established in Lendava and in 1853 a synagogue is mentioned for the first time in the same town. It was overhauled 50 years later for the last time.
The Shoa (Holocaust) which started throughout Europe in the 1930's came to Slovenia in 1941. About 4500 Jews lived in Slovene areas before 1941. The vast majority of Slovene Jewry perished in the crematoria of Auschwitz and other extermination camps. German forces kept deporting Slovene Jewry until 1945. There is a little known fact that Italian forces in western and southern Slovenia also deported numerous Jewish families to Italian concentration camps. The majority was deported to a concentration camp on the Croatian island Rab.
Later the Jewish prisoners from Rab formed a special Jewish battalion as an integral part of the Yugoslav resistance forces. The battalion was disbanded after half a year of heavy fighting because of intense German ideological pressure against a Jewish battalion. The battalion's members joined other partisan units throughout Yugoslavia. A number of Jews joined the Slovene resistance (partisan) forces in their fight against the enemy.

Slovene Jewry today

The majority of Jews who were lucky enough to survive emigrated immediately after WWII, most of them to Israel. Soon the Jewish Community of Slovenia was formed which was a part of the Federation of Yugoslav Jewish Communities unitl Slovenia's secession in 1991. Its development was seriously hampered by Yugoslavia's strong anti-Israeli sentiment and strict atheist communist society. The JCS was transformed to a great extent during these times. Aliyah (emigration) to Israel continued (the last family moved in 1987 while some individuals moved even at later dates). Due to migrations between the constituent republics of Yugoslavia the JCS today includes many Jews from other parts of the former country, many of them Sephardim (traditional Slovene Jewry was always Ashkenazi). Most Jews live in the capital of Ljubljana (apaprently more than 50%). Estimations of the JCS predict that up to 1000 Jews live in Slovenia and many more with Jewish ancestry. Since the fall of Communism the number of persons declaring themselves Jewish continues to rise which is a common occurrence in former communist states.
In 1997 the JCS bought a small office for the first time with help from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. In October 1999 the first ever Chief Rabbi of Slovenia - rabbi Ariel Haddad - was inaugurated.
Traces of Jewish history are to be found in the formerly rich community of Lendava - the rabbi's domicile and the synagogue - but officially only one Jew remains. Another synagogue remains in Maribor which has recently been restored but does not function as a synagogue. There are a few cemeteries in Lendava, Murska sobota and Nova gorica and a very recent cemetery in Ljubljana.