With the inclusion of the ShUM Sites in Speyer, Worms, and Mainz on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021, an extraordinary chapter in German and European history was officially recognized: 1,000 years of Jewish heritage along the Rhine, shaped by scholarship, religious life, cultural exchange, and a social impact that extended far beyond the region. Five years later, the ShUM Association, together with the ShUM cities, numerous partners, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and the citizens, is celebrating this special anniversary with a year-long series of diverse festivities. The celebrations will kick off with the World Heritage Anniversary on July 26, 2026, at the Jewry Court in Speyer.
A special highlight of the day will be the musical and literary performance of the “Ring Parable” from "Nathan the Wise" by the duo Herschel & Lömsch. There will also be exciting activities for children and families, including the workshop “Reading and Writing with Jakub.”
“We look forward to celebrating the international appeal of Jewish life in a fitting manner with the World Heritage anniversary, together with interested visitors from the local area and the region, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and our partners.” (Birgit Kita)
The events marking the fifth anniversary of the ShUM sites are sponsored by the Angelika and Uwe Wöhlert Foundation, BASF SE, the Diocese of Mainz, Rheinhessen Sparkasse, and Sparkasse der Vorderpfalz.
News
Here you can find the most important news about our UNESCO World Heritage Sites. All dates and further informations can be found on our German-language website.
ShUM-Artist in Residence 2026
At the end of April, the highly anticipated international ShUM-Artists, Roy Efrat, Atalya Laufer, and Raphaël Fischer-Dieskau, arrived in Speyer, Worms, and Mainz, to begin their residencies. From then until the end of May 2026, they engaged artistically with the
At the end of April, the highly anticipated international ShUM-Artists, Roy Efrat, Atalya Laufer, and Raphaël Fischer-Dieskau, arrived in Speyer, Worms, and Mainz, to begin their residencies. From then until the end of May 2026, they engaged artistically with the history and culture of the ShUM communities in these cities. The residence program aims to bring historical sites, traditions, and spaces of remembrance into dialogue with contemporary artistic perspectives. This creates new ways of engaging with Jewish heritage along the Rhine. During "Artist Talks," the artists presented their projects, creative approaches, and initial impressions of the ShUM cities. The festive closing events provided a forum to present the results of these artistic processes to a broad audience. Through exhibitions, presentations, and discussions, the resulting works were shown in their final form, inviting dialogue between art, history, and the present.The residency was documented on film by the Worms-based agency, Lindwurm. The film will be made available shortly.
The ShUM Artist-in-Residence Program was funded by the Ministry of Family, Women, Culture, and Integration as part of the Rhineland-Palatinate Cultural Summer.
Images
Germany's first Jewish World Heritage Site is celebrating its fifth anniversary with a year of colorful festivities.
ShUM Celebrates 5 Years as a World Heritage Site
The moment had finally arrived on July 27, 2021, at 3:47 p.m. After years of effort, the ShUM-Sites in Speyer, Worms, and Mainz were recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site— the first Jewish World Heritage Site in Germany and
The moment had finally arrived on July 27, 2021, at 3:47 p.m. After years of effort, the ShUM-Sites in Speyer, Worms, and Mainz were recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site— the first Jewish World Heritage Site in Germany and a site of global significance. To mark the first anniversary of “Jerusalem on the Rhine,” the ShUM-Cities Speyer, Worms, Mainz Association, together with ShUM-Cities 2026, is holding a year of colorful celebrations.
The Jewish communities in the three cathedral cities on the Rhine—Speyer, Worms, and Mainz—have been closely linked since the Middle Ages and have had an immense influence on the architecture, culture, liturgical poetry, and religious law of Northern, Central, and Eastern European Judaism (Ashkenaz). Since then, the ShUM communities have been regarded as the center and cradle of Ashkenazi Judaism. Exemplary synagogue buildings, impressive and pioneering ritual baths, and the oldest preserved Jewish cemeteries in Europe were established here and can still be discovered today as testimonies to the rich Jewish life of the past. These sites are exceptional reminders of the 1,000-year history of Jews along the Rhine. The term ShUM is composed of the initial letters of the Hebrew city names: Schpira – Speyer, Warmaisa – Worms, and Magenza – Mainz. The ShUM sites and their heritage connect Jewish history with European and global history. Birgit Kita, the Site-Manager of the ShUM-Sites and the executive director of ShUM-Cities e.V., emphasizes the outstanding significance of the World Heritage Site: "Five years as a UNESCO World Heritage Site is an important milestone, yet ShUM has resonated throughout the Jewish world for nearly 1,000 years. The architecture, culture, and religious traditions that emerged here tell a unique story of the dark and bright times of Jewish life along the Rhine — a story that continues to shape identity in Germany and around the world to this day. Nowhere else are these historical traces preserved as impressively as in the 'Jerusalem on the Rhine".
Throughout the year, visitors can look forward to a diverse program ranging from exhibitions and festive events, such as the opening of the first ShUM Visitor Center in Mainz, the ceremonial presentation of copies of the World Heritage Certificate to the ShUM-Cities e. V. board members, and a festive annual celebration in Speyer, to academic lectures and workshops. "World Heritage connects us across time, religions, cultures, and borders. We look forward to celebrating the international significance of Jewish life with local residents and people from the region through the events of this anniversary year," said Birgit Kita.
Stefanie Seiler, chair of the board and mayor of the city of Speyer, adds: "The world has looked to ShUM since the Middle Ages. For five years now, our serial World Heritage Site has represented a history of international significance, as well as our shared responsibility to carry this heritage of humanity further into the world. The opening of the first World Heritage visitor center in Mainz and the presentation of copies of the World Heritage Certificate in Speyer highlight the collaborative efforts of all those involved. At the same time, this makes it clear that the significance of ShUM can only be fully experienced through collaboration among the participating cities."
Jewish Holidays 2026
Here are the Jewish holidays for 2026:
May 21–23: Shavuot
September 11–13: Rosh Hashanah
September 20–21: Yom Kippur
September 25–October 2: Sukkot
October 2–4: Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah
December 4–12: Hanukkah
Jewish
Here are the Jewish holidays for 2026:
May 21–23: Shavuot
September 11–13: Rosh Hashanah
September 20–21: Yom Kippur
September 25–October 2: Sukkot
October 2–4: Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah
December 4–12: Hanukkah
Jewish holidays begin the evening before and end shortly after nightfall the next day. On biblical holidays and Shabbat, work is prohibited, meaning no work may be performed and no fire may be lit. One may not cook, make phone calls, watch television, etc.
The Old Jewish Cemetery "Heiliger Sand" and the Old Jewish Cemetery "am Judensand" are closed on these holidays.
Our Website is Currently Being Updated
In order to provide an improved user experience, updated content and new features, our website is currently being redesigned.
As a result, some areas and functions may be temporarily unavailable or inaccessible. But don’t worry – we'll be back
In order to provide an improved user experience, updated content and new features, our website is currently being redesigned.
As a result, some areas and functions may be temporarily unavailable or inaccessible. But don’t worry – we'll be back soon!
You can still find valuable informations about the ShUM-Sites in Speyer, Worms and Mainz, as well as helpful details for planning your visit, on our website.
Stay tuned – we'll keep you updated, and we look forward to presenting our new website to you soon.
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The ShUM-Sites of Speyer, Worms and Mainz are UNESCO World Heritage Sites!
Since July 27, 2021, the ShUM-Sites of Speyer, Worms and Mainz are UNESCO World Heritage Sites!
The ShUM-Sites include unique, exemplary community centers, monuments and cemeteries. The are outstanding, outstandingly early and in singular density and completeness preserved testimonies of a living Jewish tradition in this region and beyond. The ShUM-Sites bear witness of the network of the ShUM communities in the Middle Ages. In these sites, the power of architectural innovation and outstanding scholarship can be seen. Here, intersections and also exchanges with the non-Jewish surrounding culture emerged. The brightest and darkest times of Jewish history are reflected here. Here stood the cradle of Ashkenazi Judaism and here the centuries-old roots reach into a Jewish present and future. UNESCO Website ShUM
Kehillot ShUM: UNESCO World Heritage!
In the Middle Ages, the Jewish communities of the cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz formed an association that shaped the architecture, culture, religion and jurisprudence of the Central and Eastern European Jewish diaspora. Synagogues, women’s shuln, teaching houses and ritual baths in Speyer and Worms as well as the old Jewish cemeteries in Worms and Mainz tell of the immense importance of the ShUM communities. ShUM has a special sound in the Jewish world to this day.
The ShUM sites attract interested people from many countries. ShUM is a magnetic field. ShUM is architecture, religion, scholarship. ShUM is 1000 years of Jewish history!
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Dannie Klompsma
»I do not have to explain it to you, but in Ashkenazi Jewish history the Rheinland is the cradle of European Jewry. To be around in the ShUM cities is connecting to the earliest traditions of the pioneer Jews who entered Europe through Rome and Italy. It connects us physically to the Chasidei and Chachmei Ashkenaz, who shaped (world) Judaism so prominently.«
»The ShUM-Sites of Speyer, Worms and Mainz are visible, exceptional Jewish heritage - and since the end of July 2021 also UNESCO World Heritage! To have achieved this goal after many years of intensive research, coordination and creative processes fills everyone involved with great joy. We would like to make the Jewish ShUM World Heritage Site even better known and show at these sites how diverse, innovative and formative the Jewish ShUM communities were. We hope that the three cities and all the guests who stand in amazement in front of and in the synagogues and ritual baths and visit the 'Eternal Places', the Jewish cemeteries, will carry our message further. For appropriate and careful treatment of the ShUM-Sites and for the responsibility we all bear for the Jewish past, present and future.«
»For Jewish life in Germany and Europe, the ShUM cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz are of decisive importance. They are the origin of a long and significant history, from the Middle Ages to the present. The traditions rooted in the ShUM communities are still valid today and have an influence on Jewish life worldwide.
Outstanding personalities, such as Rashi and Rabbi Gershom, have had a decisive influence on Ashkenazi Judaism from today's Rhineland-Palatinate.
With the recognition of the ShUM cities as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, it is possible to preserve the past of this globally unique heritage, bring it into the present and learn from it for the future.«
»As a woman from Worms, I grew up not only in the shadow of the thousand-year-old cathedral, but also in the immediate vicinity of the equally old Jewish cemetery 'Holy Sand'. Its crooked ancient gravestones - some topped with small stones - were familiar to me as a child and filled me with awe and pride, especially when I heard that this is the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe. Together with Mainz and Speyer, Worms formed the center of Jewish life in ancient times, when there was a thriving Jewish culture along the Rhine.
While today everyone knows the significance of the Romanesque cathedrals of Speyer, Worms and Mainz, not many know how much these three cities were also shaped by their Jewish inhabitants. Apart from the cemeteries, synagogues and ritual baths, women's shuln and Rashi's teaching house also bear witness to this. It was high time that ShUM became known as the cradle of Ashkenazi Judaism on the Rhine and was recognized as a World Heritage Site.«
Rabbi Dr. Elisa KlapheckRafael HerlichRabbinerin Prof. Dr. Elisa KlapheckFrankfurt am Main
»You can still feel the rabbinic genius loci in the ShUM Sites. A trip there always gives me inspiration.«
»The 'World Heritage' recognition makes it clear how unique the value of a cultural site is. The ShUM-Sites are not only significant today: many centuries ago, they already formed a network that was - and still is - formative for the architecture, culture, religion and jurisdiction of Judaism in Central and Eastern Europe. With the preservation of the ShUM-Sites, it becomes clear that Jewish life has always had its place in our region. This memory is the true heritage that the remaining historical testimonies show us today and in the future. We are therefore particularly pleased about the recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.«
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