Throughout its history Modra has been a prosperous wine-growing town situated among the vineyards of the Small Carpathian hills. Its German-speaking inhabitants blocked the establishment of a Jewish presence for centuries. A small Jewish community was established here only during the second half of the 19th century. The synagogue, dating from 1902, is located on the southern edge of the historical part of the town, in the line of the town’s original fortification walls. The character of the building remains legible: a tri-partite façade vertically divided by lesenes and topped by an arched molding. Modern windows have replaced the historical round-arched fenestration and most of its decorative details have disappeared. The postwar owners completely altered the interior. The synagogue currently serves as a studio for an artist from Bratislava.
The rather forlorn cemetery is located in a pine forest, about 300-400 meters east of the edge of the village. The flat plot belongs to the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Slovak Republic. Only four fallen tombstones, belonging to Moshe Beckmann, Jakob Grünhut, Emanuel (Mendel) Pissk and Regina Kohn remain. They have Hebrew-German texts.
The cemetery is located in the northern part of village in a residential area. It is a small walled lot containing about fourteen graves, seven with standing tombstones. The local Jewish community was small: there were 17 Jewish residents here in 1927. The oldest tombstones are typical sandstone matzevot with semi-circular endings, while three later tombstones are period-typical black granite obelisks. The latest grave is from 1915 (Amalie Kohn). Several tombstones belong to the Weisz family. These include the neighboring graves of Adolf (Aaron Yehuda) and Regina (Rivkah), Marie (Mirel) and Nathan. Nathan’s sons Robert and Sándor Weisz, who died as little children, are buried in a twin grave and share a matzevah. The tombstone texts are bilingual, in Hebrew and German. The cemetery is in fair condition, and is maintained by the neighbors.
