In Heidelberg, there was not one book burning, but two - and always on a 17th: The first time the books of unpopular authors were burned on May 17, 1933, and again on July 17. Each time, according to contemporary witnesses, it must have been a kind of public festival on University Square; the "Heidelberger Tagblatt" described the atmosphere as "Palatine exuberance": there was even a real funeral pyre into which the books were thrown. Not only the Nazi student body joined in, but also many Burschenschaft members - their associations were not dissolved until the following year; the professors present held back on speeches, but did not intervene against them either.

On May 17, 2011, a memorial plaque commemorating the book burning was unveiled between the Old and New Universities in the presence of 112 former Jewish residents of Heidelberg.

It bears as an inscription a Lessing word: "What is once printed belongs to the whole world. No one has the right to destroy it."

In the middle of the 14th century, the synagogue of the medieval community was built at Dreikönigstraße 25/corner of Untere Straße (on the site of today's building at Untere Straße 24). It had an extension of 8.4 by 14 m in its interior and was probably designed as a hall building. It included a walled courtyard, a garden, and another building.

Shortly after the expulsion of the Jews in September/October 1390 under Ruprecht II, the synagogue was consecrated as a church to the glory of God, Mary, and St. Stephen by the Bishop of Worms in a solemn service on Christmas Day (December 26, 1390). For a long time it was the university chapel and the auditorium of the Faculty of Theology and Law, later also of the Faculty of Medicine. In 1689, the chapel burned down during the destruction of Heidelberg in the Palatine War.

On April 12, 1878, the then new synagogue was consecrated in Große Mantelgasse on what is now Synagogenplatz. Right next to the synagogue was the community centre.

On the night of the pogrom on November 9, 1938, the synagogue was set on fire by SA people. The synagogue was completely destroyed. The Torah scrolls and ritual objects stolen from the synagogue were taken to the police station. National Socialist-minded Heidelberg citizens and especially students burned them on the University Square about a week after the destruction of the synagogue.

In 1978, the synagogue square, which was initially used as a parking lot, was transformed into a park; another complete redesign was undertaken in 2001. Since then, the layout and various details of the former synagogue have been highlighted in the paving. A memorial stone has also been placed in the area of the former Torah shrine. In 2004, plaques with the names of the 292 people deported from Heidelberg to Gurs in 1940 were placed on the north wall of the house at Große Mantelgasse 3 (former rabbi's house).

The VPST (von Portheim Foundation) Ethnological Museum in the Palais Weimar dates back to 1921; the first exhibition was on view in 1924.

In 1919, Victor and Leontine Goldschmidt, née von Portheim, established the Josefine and Eduard von Portheim Foundation for Science and Art (J. & E. von Portheim Foundation), named after Victor Goldschmidt's mother and Leontine Goldschmidt's father.

The seat of the foundation and the museum is the Palais Weimar, one of the oldest city residences in Heidelberg. Built around 1710, the baroque palace between the main street and the Neckar River looks back on an eventful history. Named after its last owner, Prince Wilhelm of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach, it was acquired in 1921 by the founders of the foundation, Victor Goldschmidt and Leontine Goldschmidt.

They brought their extensive private collections of European and non-European art and ethnographica into the foundation, housed them in the Palais Weimar, and thus intended to permanently guarantee the research activities of the scientific institutions they had established. Thus they stand in the great tradition of Jewish support for art and science in Germany.

Of these institutions, only the Ethnographic Institute survived the Nazi era and continues to exist today as the Ethnological Museum. Despite the considerable material and immaterial damage that the Nazi period left on the foundation and its collections, the Ethnographic Museum has excellent holdings. In addition to historical photographs and manuscripts, they include exquisite works of art and ethnographic objects from Asia, Africa, and Oceania, which have been expanded in recent decades through targeted acquisitions and extensive donations. Today, these collections are not only the basis for current museum work but also an essential working foundation for scholars from all over the world.

Changing exhibitions present aspects of art and culture from different regions on the basis of selected themes.

In the 1980s, the main building was extended by a modern annex. The museum's boat collection can be seen in the arcades on Neckarmünzplatz.

Victor Goldschmidt, although baptized, was forced to immigrate to Austria after the Nazis seized power in 1933 because of his Jewish background. He died during a stay at a health resort in Salzburg on May 8, 1933. He found his final resting place in Heidelberg, the site of his scientific work and the whereabouts of his life's work. His grave is located at the Bergfriedhof in Heidelberg.

Leontine Goldschmidt committed suicide on August 25, 1942, after learning of her impending deportation to Theresienstadt.

In 2010, after years of discussion, the first laying of so-called "Stolpersteine" began in Heidelberg.

After further installations throughout the city, there are currently more than 200 stones (as of 2020) dedicated to victims of Nazi tyranny, primarily Jews.

The University of Jewish Studies is the largest European location for Jewish Studies - in association with the humanities and social sciences in Heidelberg and other cooperation partners. It is an academic teaching and learning centre for Jewish and non-Jewish students.

In 1979, the Board of Directors of the Central Council of Jews in Germany decided to establish a Jewish Theological College in Heidelberg. Two years later, it was recognized by the state, thus laying the foundation for the independence of the course of study, which was unique in Germany at the time. With the award of the right to confer doctoral degrees in 1995, the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien was finally established in the academic landscape of Germany.

Since 2001, the Hochschule has held the right to train Jewish religious teachers, the first institution in Germany's history to do so.

In 2009, the new building of the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien was completed.