Shabbat and Jewish Holidays: What Closes on a Heritage Trip
Which synagogues, Jewish museums and memorials close on Saturdays and Jewish holidays, country by country, with the 2027 Passover and Shavuot dates. Checked October 2026.
Plan the synagogues and Jewish museums of a heritage trip for Sunday to Thursday. Almost all of them close on Saturday, Shabbat, and on the main Jewish holidays, and several close early on Friday afternoon. The memorial sites and the city walks are a different matter: most of them run every day. Get the order right and a week covers everything; get it wrong and you arrive at a locked door on the one free day of your trip.
The rule is simple, but each city applies it differently. This guide sets out what closes where, and the holiday dates for 2027.
What closes on Saturday
| City | Closed on Saturdays and Jewish holidays | Open every day |
|---|---|---|
| Prague | The Jewish Museum’s synagogues and cemetery; the Old-New Synagogue (also an hour before Shabbat on Friday) | Terezín Memorial (its crematorium closes on Saturdays) |
| Budapest | The Dohány Street Synagogue (early closing on Fridays) | The Jewish quarter walks |
| Venice | The Jewish Museum, the synagogues and the cemetery | The Ghetto itself |
| Amsterdam | The Portuguese Synagogue | The Jewish Museum, 11:00 to 17:00 daily |
| Paris | The Mémorial de la Shoah (also some Jewish holidays) | The Marais walks |
| Kraków | The Remuh, the working synagogue | The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial (closed 1 January, 25 December, Easter Sunday) |
| Warsaw | Not the POLIN Museum: it closes on Tuesdays | POLIN, every day but Tuesday |
Checked October 2026 against the venues’ own pages and the tour listings; opening hours change by season, so confirm the day before you go.
Two exceptions are worth remembering. Warsaw’s POLIN Museum closes on Tuesday, not Saturday, and is free to the core exhibition on Thursday. Córdoba’s medieval synagogue closes on Monday, and in the evenings from 15 June to 15 September.
The tours follow the venues
A guided tour that goes inside a synagogue cannot run when the synagogue is closed. Get Prague Guide’s Jewish Quarter walk, the most reviewed in Prague with every entry included, says so in its listing: it does not run on Saturdays or on Jewish holidays. Its calendar simply shows no dates on those days, which is the easiest way to check: open the calendar for the tour you want and see whether your date is offered.
See the Prague tour's weekday dates →
Dates and Prices
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Walks that stay outside, such as Budapest’s exterior walks of District VII or Rome’s Ghetto walks, often do run on Saturday. They are a good use of Shabbat in a city whose interiors are closed.
The holidays that close the sites
Jewish holidays begin at sundown on the evening before the first day. The ones that close synagogues and Jewish museums are the festivals of the autumn and the spring:
- Rosh Hashanah (the New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), in September or October.
- Sukkot, a week later, with Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah at its end.
- Passover in the spring: in 2027 from the evening of 21 April to 29 April, with the first and last days the closing days.
- Shavuot, seven weeks after Passover: in 2027 on 11 and 12 June, from the evening of 10 June.
In autumn 2027, by the Hebrew calendar (hebcal.com), Rosh Hashanah falls on 2 and 3 October, from the evening of 1 October; Yom Kippur on 11 October, from the evening of 10 October; Sukkot from the evening of 15 October; and Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah on 23 and 24 October. Each museum publishes its own closure list each year.
How to order a week
A route that never meets a closed door:
Synagogues and museums
Josefov, the Dohány Street Synagogue, the Venice Ghetto's synagogues: every interior you want to see.
Check dates →A memorial or an outdoor walk
The memorial sites open on Saturdays, and the walks that stay outside run as usual.
See the Warsaw walk →Mornings only
Synagogues close early on Friday afternoons; a short morning visit fits before they do.
See the Budapest visit →Figures as of October 2026: the shape of the market, not a quote. Check the price and the conditions on the date you choose.
Put the memorial visits on the Saturday: the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, Terezín, Sachsenhausen and Dachau open on Saturdays, and a day of that weight sits better away from the busiest sightseeing. Keep Friday for a morning synagogue and an afternoon walk. Sunday is a full working day for the Jewish museums in most of these cities.
When the holidays are worth planning around
Some visitors want the opposite: to be in a city for a festival and attend a service. Synagogues in Rome, Budapest, Amsterdam and Paris hold services that visitors may attend, under their own security rules; contact the community in advance, carry your passport, and expect a security check at the door. That is a different trip from a sightseeing tour, and none of the listed tours offer it.
In short
- Synagogues and Jewish museums: Sunday to Thursday, Friday mornings.
- Memorial sites and outdoor walks: any day, including Saturday.
- Warsaw’s POLIN Museum closes on Tuesday, Córdoba’s synagogue on Monday.
- In 2027, avoid the first and last days of Passover (from the evening of 21 April) and Shavuot (11 and 12 June) for interiors.
For the countries one by one, start with Prague and Terezín, Budapest or Venice and Rome.
Reserve the Prague Jewish Quarter Tour on a Weekday
Every entry included: the Maisel, Pinkas, Spanish and Old-New synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetery. The tour does not run on Saturdays or Jewish holidays.
Check weekday dates