The Jewish community in Gorizia, like in other cities in Central Europe, has ancient roots. In the past, Gorizia's Jewish community was so famous that the town was known as "Little Jerusalem on the Isonzo". With the deportations to concentration camps in 1943 and 1944, the community was virtually destroyed, leaving behind only a synagogue built in 1765 in the old Gorizia ghetto on the Italian side and a cemetery in Rožna Dolina in Slovenia.
The Little Jerusalem project aims to renovate the cemetery and to rediscover Jewish heritage at a national and an international level. In 2025, the cemetery will become one of the emblematic sites of the European Capital of Culture and the focal point of a new cross-border-themed cultural and tourist route.
