Wien, Austria

VIENNA (Ger. Wien) capital of Austria. Jews first settled here in the 12th century. They maintained a synagogue and owned houses. During the Third Crusade (1196) Jews were murdered. By 1204 a second synagogue was erected and by the end of the century, there were 1,000 Jews living in Vienna in a Jewish quarter. At the time of the Black Death persecutions (1348-49), the community served as a refuge for Jews from other towns. In 1421, the year of the Wiener Gesera persecutions, the community was destroyed and Jewish property confiscated. In 1512, Jews resettled in Vienna, numbering about 15 families. During the Thirty Years War (1618-48) the community suffered as result of the occupation of the city. In 1624, Ferdinand II confined the Jews to a ghetto which included 500 families in 136 houses. Jews mostly engaged in trade, some of them on an international scale. During the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648-49 Jews found refuge here, among them the rabbis Yom Tov Lipmann Heller and Shabbetai Sheftel Horowitz. In 1669, Leopold I expelled all the Jews from Vienna and converted the synagogue into a Catholic church, the present-day “Leopoldskirche." When the city ran into financial difficulties Jews were allowed to resettle, but had to pay high taxes. Among the founders of the new community were the Court Jews Samuel Oppenheimer (1630-1703) and Samson Wertheimer (1658-1724). In 1696, Oppenheimer built a hospital. In the 1740s the community supported the poor in Eretz Israel. In 1777, there were 520 Jews in Vienna, their number still restricted by the legislation of Maria Theresa. From the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century, Vienna became a center of the Haskala movement. Among its adherents were Peter Peretz Beer and Naftali Herz Homberg (17491841), who tried to introduce religious reform. At the time of the Vienna Congress (1815), the salons of such Jewish hostesses as Fanny von Arnstein were quite popular, providing entertainment and a meeting place for Congress participants. Noah Mannheimer (1793-1865), a leading preacher and creator of a moderate, compromise Reform ritual, served as head of the Seitenstetten Synagogue in Vienna. Together with the cantor Salomon Sulzer, he tried to introduce liturgical music during services, which became a model for all countries in Central Europe. Among Mannheimer's successors were Adolf Jellinek, Moritz Guedemann, and Zwi Perez Chajes, all of whom served as chief rabbis in Vienna. In 1857, the Jewish population was 6,217, rising rapidly to 40,230 in 1869 and 118,495 in 1890. After WWI, about 50,000 refugees from Galicia and Bukovina settled in Vienna and the Jewish population rose to 201,513 in 1923. By 1934, there were 176,034 Jews in Vienna, constituting 8% of the total population. Vienna maintained 59 synagogues, representing various religious rites. There was also a widespread educational network. In 1893, a rabbinical seminary was founded and Vienna, together with Berlin and Breslau, became one of the European centers for the study of Jewish literature and history. Vienna was also a scientific and cultural center and personalities such as Arthur Schnitzler, Franz Werfel, Stefan Zweig, Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg, Richard BeerHofmann, and Sigmund Freud gained international recognition here. Vienna was also a city of national awakening, where Peretz Smolenskin, Nathan Birnbaum, and Theodor Herzl published their first Zionist writings. But Zionism gained strength in Vienna only after WWI. In 1919 the Zionist Robert Stricker was elected to the Austrian Parliament. In the community elections of 1932, the Zionists won a majority. Jews were engaged in trade and were represented extensively in the professional class. About 60% of the doctors and lawyers in Vienna were Jews. The community supported many charity and relief organizations, including the Rothschild Hospital and three orphanages. In March 1938, there were 165,946 Jews in Vienna. Immediately after the Anschluss (13 March 1938), the leaders of the community were arrested and sent to the Dachau concentration camp, where some were murdered. Jewish organizations and activities were outlawed. The chief rabbi, Dr. Israel Taglicht, and other prominent Jews were forced to sweep the streets with their bare hands. Big property owners were arrested and sent to Dachau. The Nazis murdered those who refused to hand over their property. In March 1938, 311 Jews committed suicide; in April, 267. As result of persecution in other towns, Jews from the provinces began to arrive. In May 1938, the religious corporation (Kultusgemeinde) was allowed to open its offices again. The Zionist Palestine Office was permitted to organize legal and illegal emigration. From July to September 1938, 8,600 Jews emigrated every month. Vocational courses served as preparation for emigration. Until the end of 1939, 31,306 Jews participated in these courses. In October 1938, antisemitic riots erupted. Jewish families were thrown out of their homes and housed in certain districts of Vienna. In the same month Jews of Czech nationality were expelled to Czechoslovakia while thousands of Jews holding Polish passports were deported to the no man's land on the German-Polish border. On Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), 42 synagogues were burned and 4,000 stores looted. The interior of the famous Seitenstettengasse Synagogue was damaged but not set on fire since there were other buildings nearby. In September 1939, with the outbreak of WWII, 17,000 Jews holding valid visas were not allowed to use them. In October 1939, 1,600 Jews were sent to Nisko in the Lublin district (Poland), only 198 returned in April 1940. During the first months of the war, about 11,000 Jews emigrated to neutral countries. By the end of 1939, the community numbered 53,403, with 45,140 on relief. A total of 5,017 children attended the various educational facilities organized by the community. Of the approximately 131,000 Jews who succeeded in emigrating with the help of the Vienna Jewish community, 31,050 went to England, 38,340 to other European countries, 29,860 to the U.S., 15,200 to Palestine, and 6,220 to China. Between February 1941 and October 1942, about 46,000 Jews were deported, 11,200 of them to ghettoes in Poland; 5,000 to the Lodz ghetto; some 13,700 to ghettoes in Minsk and Riga; and some 14,000 to the Theresienstadt ghetto. In November 1942, the community officially ceased to exist. After the war it was reestablished with an estimated 12,000 members.