My
Viennese guide Friederike Krammer-Hirsch wasn't Jewish, but she certainly had
an interest in and affinity for the Jewish past and present of her city. First
she rattled off a list of some of the Jewish luminaries associated with Vienna (Gustav Mahler,
Sigmund Freud, Theodor Herzl, Franz Kafka, Martin Buber), then she spoke
liltingly about the waltz, and next she broached a subject that was nothing to
dance about: what happened to the Jews of Vienna during the
shudderingly-horrible days of World War II.
The
Jewish population hovered around 200,000. More than 65,000 Jews perishedBefore
the war, there were more than 100 prayer houses and 60 synagogues and the
Jewish population hovered around 200,000. More than 65,000 Jews perished, and
today the Main or Central synagogue is the
only historical synagogue remaining. When it was first constructed in
1782, it was indistinguishable from the houses around it because Jews had
permission to build a house of worship, but it couldn't be visible from the
outside. And when the Nazis burned all of the other synagogues in Vienna, they destroyed the
inside of this synagogue but did not burn it.
Very
few of the Viennese Jews returned to their city after the war. According to
Friedericke, in the 1970's the Soviets allowed Jews to leave, and there was a
transit camp in Vienna for those who were enroute
to Israel.
A number of the Soviet Jews who went to Israel
couldn't adapt and couldn't get back to Russia,
so they made Vienna
their home. Other Jews immigrated to the city, and today the population of
between seven and nine thousand is mostly comprised of Russians and immigrants.
Many young Jews leave to find spouses elsewhere, and the right wing parties
have made immigration exceedingly difficult, so the number of Jews remains low.
"Why
did so many Jews come to Vienna
in the past?" I asked Friederike, and she proceeded to give me a mini history
lesson. At the end of the l8th century, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II was
ruler of the Habsburg lands, which included Austria. He was a man of the
Enlightenment Age, and was called "The Peoples' Emperor" because he granted
rights like the freedom of movement and the ability practice any profession to
all citizens. Jews from elsewhere in the empire could move to Vienna, the capital city, and the population
exploded.
Although
the Jews who arrived were poor, education was a top priority to them. By
the second generation, there were many businessmen and buildings were
constructed around The Ring (a thoroughfare encircling the city center) by
Jewish industrialists. Their children became writers, philosophers, musicians.
In l895, the first Jewish museum in Europe opened in Vienna. Jewish geniuses like Gustav Mahler,
Arthur Schnitzler, Johann Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Ludwig
Wittgenstein, Alban Berg, Sigmund Freud and Max Reinhardt contributed greatly
to the cultural life of the city.
Jewish geniuses contributed greatly to the cultural life of the city. Historically,
highly influential and world-famous Rabbis were linked to Vienna as wellHistorically,
highly influential and world-famous Rabbis were linked to Vienna. Rabbi Yitzchak of Vienna, who lived from
1189-1250, studied with the Tosafists and Rabbi Avraham ben Azriel in Ashkenaz.
He was considered one of the luminaries of his generation, and he brought the
light of Torah to (what is today) Bohemia and,
later on, to Vienna.
The Or Zarua, which he wrote, is considered to be one of the most important
books of Jewish law written by an early Ashkenazi scholar.
Rabbi
Yisrael Isserlin, who lived from 1370 to l440, was born in Slovenia and came from a
distinguished line of scholars. He is considered as the last great rabbi of
medieval Austria,
and he started yeshivot and ordained other rabbis. He authored the Terumat
ha-Deshen, which is written as 354 responsa, and there is speculation that he
wrote the questions and answers himself. Another of his famous works, the
Esakim u-Kethahim, contains 267 decisions, mostly about marriage law. Rabbi
Iserlin also wrote an important commentary on Rashi.
Rabbi
Yom Tov Lipman Heller, known as the Tosfos Yom Tov (1579-1654), served for a
time as Rabbi of Vienna. After Vienna, he became
the Chief Rabbi in Prague,
where he was libeled and accused of slandering Christianity. He was sentenced
to death and imprisoned in Vienna.
It was nothing short of a miracle that his son Shmuel saved the wife and son of
a French general who had a prominent position in the court of Louis XIV. The
general petitioned on behalf of the Tosfos Yom Tov, and his sentence was
overturned. He still had to sell of all of his possessions to pay a large fine,
and he was removed as Chief rabbi.
Alas,
as Jews became more prominent and visible, anti-Semitism grew. In 1938, the
Nazis closed the Jewish museum and distributed the 6,000 objects to different
museums; Hitler's goal was to eventually open a museum of Judaism,
an extinct religion and race.
Today,
3,000 of the objects have been returned, other artifacts were obtained from
private collections and a Jewish museum was created in the house of a Jewish
banker. Among the unique objects on display are a silver spice box in the shape
of a locomotive, a menorah made from bottle caps in a Russian transit camp,
anti-Semitic figures of Jews conspiring to make money, and charred Torah crowns
from synagogues that were burned down by the Nazis. In a nod to the power of
technology, there is a hologram of Jewish history in Vienna, and it transports the viewer to the
first community, the golden years of Enlightenment, the contributions to social
welfare and the arts, Displaced Persons camps, architecture commissioned by
wealthy Jews, and Jewish inventions, like the matchbox.
In
the Fall of l946, the first post-war Jewish service was held in the synagogue,
without any restoration done to the looted and defaced building. Jews filled
the synagogue as the service was a symbol of and testament to their survivalInside
the museum is a restaurant and, to my surprise, when I casually asked the owner
if he was Jewish, so I could learn his family history, he became quite
defensive. "I'm more Jewish than many Jews!" he snapped at me. "Well, maybe
you're a reincarnated Jew," I joked, but he was not jocular. He said, flatly,
"I am here for professional reasons." "Okay, okay," I said, backing off and
away. I tried not to judge, and assumed there was a reason for his
defensiveness.
We
walked along the Judengasse; before l938, there were a lot of little Jewish
shops along the street. We passed Friedmann
Square, named after thee last president of the
Jewish community, who perished at the hands of the Nazis. Then we arrived at
the Main or Central synagogue in Vienna--where
tours are offered at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. –and passed through tight security
to enter the magnificent sanctuary with a sky blue, star-speckled dome
overhead. The gilded beams, white/ivory curtain in the women's section and
ovoid shape of the sanctuary made me feel as though I were inside a priceless
Faberge egg.
The
guide to the Orthodox synagogue –a non-Orthodox, Russian-born woman named
Franciska who was casually dressed in jeans and black tennis shoes--tried to
explain to the visitors why the synagogue was spared by the Nazis when all the
others were burned. The Hotel Metropol, which is 150 meters away, was the
headquarters for the Nazi party, and they didn't want a fire to spread to that.
Also, the administration of the Jewish community was housed in the synagogue,
and all the records, which the Nazis used to write deportation orders, would be
destroyed if the synagogue were burned.
In
the Fall of l946, the first post-war Jewish service was held in the synagogue,
without any restoration done to the looted and defaced building. Jews filled
the synagogue as the service was a symbol of and testament to their survival.
In 1963, the city of Vienna
provided funds for the restoration.
There are kosher restaurants, four Jewish schools, and you can get any
products needed to live a Jewish life"Today
there are twelve synagogues in Vienna, but the Main or Central one is the only one that was actually
built as a temple. It is the largest and most impressive. The others are rooms
or halls turned into prayer halls," the Russian guide informed us, adding, "one
third of the 700 synagogue members do not live in Vienna. They support the community because
their ancestors were members of the synagogue and they have strong emotional
ties."
Franziska
took a deep breath, smiled, and answered questions about Jewish life in Vienna today. "It's very
colorful and lively," she said. "We have Reform and Sephardic and Chassidic
Jews. There are kosher restaurants, four Jewish schools, and you can get any
products needed to live a Jewish life."
As
we passed through the lobby on our way out of the synagogue, we paused to look
at a memorial to the 65,000 massacred Viennese Jews who have no tombs, and a
plaque to the Jewish soldiers with names like Schreiber, Rosenberg, Nussbaum, Pollack, Herzl and Wolf
who faithfully served the emperor and died in World War I.
Next
to the synagogue is a glatt kosher restaurant named Alef-Alef, where a
man, who I believe is the owner, threw up his hands in annoyance when I asked
questions about the establishment. "You want to know the ganze geschichte!"
he exclaimed. ("You want to know the whole story!"). "Yes, I do. I am writing
about it," I replied, wondering what his problem was.
The
reception was much friendlier at Books + Bagels, a one-and-a-half year old shop
right down the block ( at Judengasse 11) that offers…books and bagels and
Jewish ritual objects. It's a small kosher chain that originated in Zurich, and the charming Chabadnik named Tamar who manages
the shop made me feel right at home, and insisted with a smile that they offer
the best coffee in Vienna.
Friederike
led me down a staircase named after Theodor Herzl, and we walked to the
Judenplatz, where Jews lived in the Middle Ages. They were situated near the
residence of the Duke, because he wanted his Jewish financiers close by. We
headed toward the Mizrahi association house, which contains a synagogue, youth
club and administration building and passed by a striking monument to the
65,000 Jewish victims of World War II. "It's an inside-out library," Friederike
explained. "The books face outward and there are no handles or doors. It
symbolizes that the Jews are gone." Then she pointed to a nearby plaque which
commemorates Jews who chose voluntary death in 1420-1421, rather than accepting
forced baptism. About 200 brave souls were burned at the stake. The text says
that Christianity regrets it share of the responsibility for the persecution of
Jews and asks for forgiveness.
Rabbi Jacob Biderman, a Chabad rabbi, helped ensure the survival of Judaism in
modern-day Europe with the establishment of
the first Jewish universityA
plaque outside the Museum Judenplatz is dedicated to the righteous Gentiles who
saved Jews during the Holocaust at great risk to themselves. And the Museum
itself is the most moving Jewish site I experienced in Vienna. I began by viewing a
highly-informative l0-minute film about the Jewish area in the Middle Ages (it
ended abruptly with a pogrom in 1421), including how Jews were not allowed to
join guilds, and the Duke wanted them to be money lenders so he could levy
exorbitant taxes on them. Others were wine growers and wine merchants, and the
population ranged from very poor to extremely wealthy. I particularly loved the
detail that the young boys in the Jewish boys' school sang verses because it
was believed that singing helped to move wisdom to all parts of the body.
The
synagogue itself looked unassuming from the outside, and walls separated it
from the outside world of commerce. Much learning and studying took place
inside, so it was a called a schul…the German word for school. The floor
of the synagogue was twenty centimeters below the street level because of the
verse, "Out of the depths I call to you, O Lord." When the building was
destroyed in 1421, it lay hidden for 500 years.
The
film prepared me for what came next—finds from the original synagogue,
including small pots, the base of a column, a carved stone, a tombstone, a ketubah,
a compendium of laws, a money lender's ledger, coins, lead tokens, gaming
pieces, a fragment from a comb. And then… the actual foundation stones from the
women's synagogue, the ruins of a bimah with an aron ha kodesh or
holy ark. As I walked among the ruins, a young couple walked in, and the
man, wearing a baseball cap, stopped in front of a section of wall, which faced
east, and began to daven. It was easy to imagine the thriving Jewish
community that once prayed, played, studied, loved and grieved inside the
synagogue.
"Now we have almost 500 kids in school. We've got a high school, a teachers'
seminary and a community center. The community has 240 members, and there are
two other Chabad shuls besides ours in Vienna"My
final stop on the tour of Jewish Vienna was an upbeat, warm, funny, informative
meeting with Rabbi Jacob Biderman, a Chabad rabbi. Within minutes it became
clear that he is a visionary. With the generosity of Ronald Lauder (son of
Estee Lauder, former American Ambassador to Austria
and president of the World Jewish Congress) and the support of the government
of Austria and the city of Vienna, he helped to ensure the survival of Judaism in
modern-day Europe with the establishment of
the first Jewish university.
"Until
now, Jews went to regular universities in Europe," Biderman explained, "but
now, in the l9th district of Vienna… in an ancient building that was
constructed for Maria Theresa and purchased by Nathaniel Rothschild, who
expanded it and donated it for a mental hospital…we have a Jewish university
with kosher food, where Jewish holidays can be celebrated, where men and women
can study together and meet and establish nice Jewish families. Next week we
will have our ninth Jewish wedding!"
The
university—which opened in 2005 with the Lauder Business
School, but will be
expanding with music and law schools --is for secular Jews, to help them
integrate into the fabric of European life without assimilating. The
first year, there were 44 students and today there are 300. The curriculum
includes four hours a week of Jewish studies. Almost all of the students (90
per cent) are Jewish and, Biderman said with a smile, it is his great pleasure
to sometimes teach philosophy there (he has a doctorate in philosophy).
"Why
did you feel it was important to have a Jewish university?" I asked him.
"Jews
in Europe generally get lost to Judaism in
public universities. The Jewish university was Ronald Lauder's idea, and we
dreamed it together."
The
modest Biderman, who was born in Jerusalem and is descended from the famous
18th century Rabbi Moshe Biderman (known as the Lelove Rebbe), was sent to
Vienna in 1980. He encountered mostly poor, Asian Russian Jewish families.
"The overwhelmed parents were looking for work, and the kids were left
alone at home and on the streets. Many of them skipped school to help their
parents out. We started with a kindergarten. We went and got kids from the homes
and the streets. Luckily, the parents trusted us. They had lost their own
culture and were lost here in Vienna.
Now we have almost 500 kids in school. We've got a high school, a teachers'
seminary and a community center. The community has 240 members, and there are
two other Chabad schuls besides ours in Vienna.
Our location is called Rabbi Shneerson Platz. The idea of naming the street
after the Lubbavitcher Rebbe passed unanimously—even the right wing party
accepted it. It's all a miracle."
Jews contributed so much to Vienna. The Nazis harmed themselves. Now Vienna is just a
provincial townWhen
I asked Rabbi Biderman about the acceptance of Jews in Vienna, he replied that there is not
aggressive anti-Semitism today. "There is more a feeling of prejudice. But the
authorities are friendly to Jews. About two years ago, someone broke into our
school and smashed l82 glass windows. It happened at 2 a.m. and was done by an
anti-Semite. Sometimes the kids get taunted or even beaten. We don't have
enough police security, and we're trying to get more. When things go badly in Israel, we feel
it here. You know, my family and I would be glad to live in Israel, but we are happy to be here as long as
there are Jews in Vienna."
According
to Biderman, there are probably between 20 and 30 thousand Jews in Vienna, but the majority
are not registered. "Jews are still hiding their Judaism. They are afraid of
being on lists because the Nazis used lists. Some don't want to belong to the
official Jewish community because they don't want to pay the annual fee. Others
don't feel affiliated. We do public events, and sometimes half of the audience
is non-affiliated Jews. You know, the wife of the current president of Austria is
Jewish and his grandfather was Jewish. The ex-wife of the mayor of Vienna was Jewish,"
Biderman said proudly. "At the beginning, Chabad in Vienna catered to poor immigrants. Now they
are middle class and much more prosperous. They have big families. They are the
future."
"Vienna demolished itself,"
he went on to explain. This was a metropolis of music, culture and art. There
were famous rabbis here. Jews contributed so much to Vienna. The Nazis harmed themselves. Now Vienna is just a
provincial town. By killing the Jews, they harmed themselves. In a quiet way,
we are trying to rebuild Judaism here, even if it is politically unpopular. The
younger generation of Viennese is much less prejudiced. The older Catholics are
sometimes imprisoned in old dogma. But the authorities are doing their best to
counteract that."
After
leaving rabbi Biderman, I stopped at the Zentralfriedhof cemetery, which was
established in 1874, and has an old Jewish section. Viktor Frankl (1905-1997)
is buried there, and stones are heaped on his tomb. On top of his sepulcher is
a memorial to his parents, who perished in Nazi camps. Nearby is a monument to
Jews who died in World War I, whose bodies are buried where they fell.
Jews
are so intricately interwoven with the history of Vienna, I thought. They made art, music and
philosophy. They fought in Austria's
wars and advised its leaders. Rabbi Biderman's words echoed in my ears: "Vienna demolished itself"
when it decimated the Jewish population. But, in spite of it, there is a return
of Jewish life to Vienna.
If you travel to Vienna:
The Main Synagogue
1., Seitenstettengasse 2-4
Tel. +43 1 535 04 31
www.jmw.at
The Jewish Museum
1,
Dorotheergasse 11 , Tel. +43 1 535 04 31 , www.jmw.at
Museum Judenplatz
1., Judenplatz 8
Tel. +43 1 535 04 31
www.jmw.at
CHABAD: Lauder
Chabad campus, Rabbiner Schneerson Platz 1, 1020 Vienna, www. lauder chabad.at
Zentralfriedhof Cemetery
11., Simmeringer Hauptstrasse 234
Telefon +43 1 760 41 - 0
zentralfriedhof@friedhoefewien.at.
Friederike
Krammer-Hirsch 664 486 5787
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