Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Slovakia
Slovakia: its Jewish community and relations with "Israel"
About 2,600 Jews live in Slovakia, according to the World Jewish Congress (WJC).[1] In 2024 Slovakia ordered six Israeli Barak-MX air defence systems.[2]
Jewish community
The Federation of Jewish Communities in Slovakia is the WJC's affiliate. The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation runs a Jewish kindergarten together with Chabad of Slovakia, which also runs other educational programmes.[1]
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
The WJC notes that Chabad of Slovakia runs educational programmes.[1]
Holocaust
According to the WJC, the Tiso regime actively assisted the Nazis in concentrating Slovak Jews in camps, and in 1942 some 58,000 Slovak Jews were sent to extermination camps, notably Auschwitz-Birkenau. Deportations resumed after the Slovak National Uprising in 1944.[1]
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy
The Israeli foreign ministry's 2011 list of missions records relations with the Slovak Republic as established in January 1993, with "Israel" represented by its embassy in Bratislava.[3] The WJC says that full diplomatic relations were established in 1993. The Israeli embassy is at Gorkého 106, 810 00 Bratislava.[1]
Arms trade
SIPRI records Slovak orders for six Barak-MX air defence systems with Barak-ER missiles (2024), 11 M-2084 radars (a EUR148 million deal from 2021, including component production in Slovakia) and Spike-LR2 anti-tank missiles (2020).[2]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics reports that "Israel" imported goods worth $126.8 million from Slovakia in 2025 (2024: $194.5 million) and exported goods worth $28.4 million to it (2024: $22.1 million).[4]
Political interference
UN voting
Slovakia voted in favour of the September 2025 General Assembly resolution endorsing the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[5]
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Austria
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Czechia
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Hungary
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Poland
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Portugal
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Spain
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Switzerland
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 World Jewish Congress, Community in Slovakia worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy).
- ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).