The capital of eastern Slovakia, Kosice is a large industrial city of 250000 inhabitants. Its sizable Jewish community was almost totally annihilated during the Second World War. The city os now home to 800 Jews.
The spacious nineteenth-century synagogue is in a building adjacent to the community headquarters. The building also includes a mikvah, a kosher butcher shop, and a prayer hall. This particular arrangement, unique in Slovakia, suggests a picture of Jewish life in this city before the Shoah. The city also has a new synagogue and a Jewish cemetery.