Until the 1930s, up to 50 percent of the population of Vienna’s 2nd district was Jewish. Here, Orthodox Jews walk on Karmeliterplatz in 1915. SPECIAL REPORT MAZEL & MISHPOCHAVienna’s Jewish community is small, but thriving. Ever ilently, the breadcrumbs slipped more diverse, Vienna’s the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde (IKG), with back into the deep woolen pock- estimates of the total Jews in Vienna going as ets. They were supposed to feed Jews are making waves high as 20,000. But no one is quite sure. In re- the fish in the Donaukanal on a cent years, the community has been growing, cold autumn day. But this time, it on every level and fast. Jews who have just moved here will was different for the small group that gath- BY SARA FRIEDMAN & BENJAMIN WOLF encounter an established community – itself Sered by the river for Tashlikh, as is Jewish shaken up by the arrival of thousands of Jews custom on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New from Central Asia in the 1990s. It’s really Year’s Day. It was the first time the new chief besieged by well-meaning queries, the two several communities in one, each with its own rabbi, Arie Folger, led the ceremony and, as he men get a chance to toss some crumbs into the traditions and preferred way of Jewish life. explained, throwing bits of bread into the grayish water. They smile, satisfied. It was a The IKG represents all of them, presiding water – symbolically tossing one’s sins away – good start for the New Year, but also one with over an impressive Jewish infrastructure that was actually not part of the tradition. “But surprises, some cheeky defiance and a watch- includes a new campus on the edge of that’s the fun part!” whispered a young man to ful eye. Just the way Jewish life in Vienna rolls Augarten, opened in 2009, hosting the Mai- a friend, while the others struggled to focus on forward these days. monides retirement home as well as the Zwi the rabbi’s sermon over the professional/life- The community, once the biggest in Perez Chajes school teaching 700 children guard diving team sorting its equipment just Central Europe, currently numbers 10,000 and adjacent facilities for the revived Jewish meters behind. Finally, with the rabbi members within the official governing body, sport association, Hakoah. In Vienna, there december | january 2017 | 2018 43 SPECIAL REPORT Born in Israel, Haya Molcho moved to Vienna for love. Her restaurant chain Neni bears the initials of her four sons’ names (Nuriel, Elior, Nadiv and Ilan), three of whom work with her in the business. are 16 synagogues and Jewish houses of Austria to Israel and the United States, with public. In Budapest, by contrast, Rachel and praye, catering to groups as diverse as Ortho- some deciding to remain here. After the fall of her husband chanced upon an overt neo-Nazi dox Judaism, the Sephardic-Bucharic faith or communism, even more followed. rally while walking in a public park. But Reform Judaism. Their common aim is to “This place has its history, let’s put it like Austrian anti-Semitism prevails in a subtler tend the flame of an ancient culture that was that,” Daniel weighs his words carefully. But form, noted Anna, a retired civil servant born almost erased. But it’s not only officials light- he refuses to pass judgment on many who in Vienna, over coffee in her elegant, ing the fires of Jewish Vienna. went through the war, nor can he “judge peo- high-ceilinged living room. When the occa- Sagi Jay, a 23-years-old Israeli, moved here ple by what their grandparents did.” sional anti-Semitic remark is highlighted, the in 2014 on a hunch. “I left a great position for automatic excuse is “Wir haben es nicht böse this new adventure, without knowing much TAKING RESPONSIBILITY gemeint” – we meant no harm. Yet Hannah about Austria,” he told me over a mélange in Still, Austria’s past affects the city’s approach puts such remarks down to ignorance more Café Phil. “And this was probably the best de- to its present. One example is the Jewish than xenophobia. Whereas in the U.S., the cision I could have made.” Sagi has carved out Welcome Service, created in 1980 to bring presence of a large Jewish community has a niche with his “Secret Vienna” tours for émigré Viennese back to visit their former created widespread awareness of their con- tourists and locals. “From my observation, Vi- home town. Over three thousand survivors cerns, many Austrians have no idea that enna is a wonderful place for Israelis and Jews and their descendants have since made the they’ve ever spoken to a Jew, she suggests. who come with the right attitude, to adjust trip, from places as diverse as the U.S, Israel, “You have to explain more,” she said. and add their value to the city.” Denmark and Uruguay. There are also other ways to reach out and Sagi’s upbeat perception of his adopted “More than anything, it is about getting offi- tell the stories of Jewish life in Austria. The home contrasts sharply with some who grew cial recognition, being welcomed here in a Austrian Heritage Archive, a website which up here. Daniel, a 25-year-old Viennese who new and different Vienna,” explains Susanne went online this October, presents the life sto- works for the Jewish community, often wears Trauneck, program coordinator since 1996. ries of 12 Viennese who were forced to flee the a baseball cap over his kippah when he’s out “For many, it is a profound, healing experi- country before and during World War II. It is on the street. He draws a distinction between ence.” The visitors’ schedule is packed with only a small glimpse into the more than 600 Austria – the country whose passport he car- official receptions at the Rathaus, the presi- interviews with survivors that have been re- ries – and the city he calls home. “Vienna is dent’s office, concerts and the like, but search- corded over the last 20 years by volunteers – something different,” he says. ing for their very personal roots and memo- many of them them young Austrians serving Daniel’s grandparents were among the few ries is at least as important. Of course, they as Gedenkdiener (an alternative to military to return to Central Europe after World War also meet representatives and citizens of to- service), in cooperation with the Leo Baeck II. Of the more than 200,000 Jews who lived day’s Jewish Vienna. Institute in New York and Jerusalem. in Austria at the time of the Anschluss in Rachel, a young medical researcher and “It is a way to bring these stories back to 1938, only around 2,000 remained after the amateur filmmaker whose family is from Austria,” said Philipp Rohrbach, one of two war. Many have left since then but others have Eastern Europe, believes that Vienna’s Jews historians who initiated the project. “But it is come: In the 1970s and 1980s, more than have it relatively good, thanks to the Verbots- also about building bridges between an older 260,000 Soviet Jews emigrated via neutral gesetz outlawing anti-Semitic statements in and younger generation of Austrians – and / WJC RIGHT: TO FROM LEFT PAGE, NENI; NEXT THIS PAGE: COMMONS; WIKIMEDIA PREVIOUS PAGE: PHOTOS: WIEN INFO. VIENNA; YIDDISH FESTIVAL / GANSRIGLER SEBASTIAN 44 december | january 2017 | 2018 At the end of November, the Vienna Jewish Choir and writer Doron Rabinovici inaugurate the Yiddish Culture Festival with their concert “Oj, Chanukka!“ The Stadttempel is Vienna’s main synagogue. Its 12 ionic columns, ornate decorations and stunning star-studded cupola make it also its most impressive one. hopefully show ‘a different Austria,’” added ok,” she said, “there should be room for differ- – but sometimes an outside view is the most his colleague, Adina Seeger. ent opinions.” Hannah hopes this is the case. precious. “I think there’s a big misconception Whatever the baggage, Daniel wouldn’t She is a member of Or Chadasch, the only about Viennese people and the city itself,” swap Vienna’s Leopoldstadt for Brooklyn. Reform Jewish synagogue in the country. As Sagi told me. “I have met some amazing peo- The challenges encountered by Vienna’s evidenced by its trilingual prayer books, this ple and have experienced the depth of this small Jewish community help strengthen its community views “pluralism as its basis,” and city in such a way that I strongly disagree with commitment, he says. “We have to make an is more open for newcomers. the negative impression some people have.” effort to lead not only a religious life, but a Meanwhile, Jewish cultural and culinary The Stadttempel in the 1st district is Jewish life.” life is blooming. At the Kibbutz Klub, a period- Vienna’s only synagogue predating World ic Mizrachi music party event, you can feel War II. Just next to it is a kosher restaurant, WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A JEW the Oriental buzz while dancing under rain- where a friend and I headed for a traditional But identity has internal as well as external bow flags and shimmering stars of David (see Rosh Hashanah dinner. A long table is components. Depending on whom you ask, Metropole, April 2017, “Rainbow Sabbath”). prepared for mainly secular or moderate Vienna’s Jewish community is either unified The annual Jewish Film Festival draws audi- Jews, but just next to it is another, smaller – or deeply divided. ences with films like Louis Saul’s and Mica table, where the children wear long payots The reality is that a large group is Jewish Stobwasser’s The Taste of Israel, whetting the (side curls) and an elder dons a large round Orthodox in some form.