2 Best Sights in City Center, Frankfurt

The story of Frankfurt's Jewish community dating from the 1500s is told in the former Rothschild Palais, which overlooks the river Main. Prior to the Holocaust, Frankfurt's Jewish quarter was the second-largest in Germany (after Berlin), and the silver and gold household items on display are a testament to its prosperity. The museum contains a library of 5,000 books, a large photographic collection, and a documentation center. Be sure to check out the wall of ceremonial menorahs. The museum reopened in 2020 after a five-year, $59 million renovation that included the addition of modern, light-filled annex for temporary exhibits, including focusing on anti-Semitism and current Jewish life in Germany. There's also a new restaurant, Flowdeli.

This branch of the Jewish Museum is built on the site of the Bornerplatz Synagogue, which was destroyed on Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) in 1938, and includes the foundations of mostly 18th-century buildings that were once part of the Jewish quarter, or Judengasse, dating from 1460.