Jewish Things

September 20th, Simon Wiesenthal died in Vienna at the age of 96. Wiesenthal was a Nazi hunter who sought to bring to justice those who were responsible for the Shoah (Holocaust). He is very well known for having contributed to the 1960 capture of Adolf Eichmann, who was hiding in Argentina. Israeli agents abducted him and brought him to Israel where he was tried and hung in 1962. Wiensenthal spent his life hunting down hundreds of others, too. There was a service for Wiesenthal in Vienna September 21, though he was buried in Israel. He lived in Vienna, and while he displayed a great deal of courage and self-sacrifice in decidingon the trajectory of his life's work, admired by many throughout the world, with centers for tolerance started in his name and inspiration, here in Austria he was hated by many non-Jews. (this is at the Jewish section of the Zentralfriedhof = cemetary the day of the memorial).

You see, in Germany it is actually against the law to deny the Shoah (not so in the US! - free speech); Germany was required to acknowledge its responsibility - German students visit concentration camps, German people know what happened. Not so in Austria. If you ask an Austrian, they may explain that Austria was a victim of Hitler (even though the fact is that many Austrians lauded Hitler's anexation of Austria). My roommate told me that she once spoke with another student her age who said, "wow, things would have been different if Hitler had remained in power." To hear someone say that in the US, you would expect that they would be on Jerry Springer - I mean, not in the mainstream, but here I get the impression that it is not so far of center for some people to believe that. Students are not taught the facts about the Shoah in school, and in some cases they are given incorrect factual information, and the biases and attitudes of the former generations are passed on through family and school. I really would like to stress that I would not say that ALL Austrians think/believe/say/behave a certain way. It seems like there is hope in the renewal of the generations, and especially as people come in from outside (ironically). The point it, however, that because Austria does not want to admit its responsibility, it is difficult to heal the wounds of hatred and fear, rather it festers.

This fear remains today, I believe the same as it ever was, and it is a fear of what is foreign. Today the member countries of the EU voted on whether or not to allow Turkey into the EU. There are 25 member countries of the EU - Austria was the only one to vote no. In one report I read, the journalist reported that Michael Emerson, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, said that "Austria is really a front for France and Germany," and that "Both are in a cimplicated political situation and public opinion in both countries is 70% to 30% against Turkish membership." Not sure what my take is on that, but I will say that it is certainly a complicated situation and this decision reflects someone's xenophobia.

More Jewish Things
Tonight began Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and I decided I would like to go to the synagogue to see what it is like here. There is one synagogue in the city and it is called the Stadttempel = city temple. This website has some great information on the history of Jews in Vienna! So, I had written an email to a very nice woman at the Israelitische Kulturgemeinde and she provided me with a ticket for high holiday services, which commenced Monday evening. I went to where office was which was also the Jewish Museum to get the tickets and I had to answer a lot of questions from the security guard and go through a metal detector in order to get in. The security guard asked me why I was there, and he asked me to name some Jewish holidays other than Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (kind of like a pop quiz on all those years of Saturday school - THANKS, MOM!). He asked me where I was from and what synagogue I went to, and what I was doing in Vienna. Fortunately I got in and got the tickets for the balcony of the women's section - orthodox synagogue - women sit seperately from men. I asked the woman if I needed to wear a special head covering - I really wasn't sure what to expect since I was not raised orthodox. She said I should only wear one if I was married, so I did not, but I did go home and change into some modest but nice clothes. I went back to the synagogue, which was roped off and protected by police. I saw that the policeman was talking to some people and I wasn't sure if I should wait, so I looked at him and he kind of gestured me in indignantly. OK. Then I went to the door of the synagogue and I was going to go inside and the man there, who was one of the several security agents asked me to show my passport and ticket. He asked me many of the questions the man asked me earlier, and some more. He asked me why I was there, and I said because it was Rosh Hashanah, and he asked me if someone told me to come there, and I said no. He asked why I was in Vienna and I told him I was a student with the Fulbright program, and then he asked if I told anyone I was coming here - I said I told my friend, Danny, who is a fellow Fulbright student and then he asked me all about Danny. He asked where I live, whom I live with, and why she wasn't there with me. Answered the questions and got it - success.

It is a very unassuming building outside - nice looking, but not really distinguishable as a place of worship. In side it is really lovely and it looks like a dome painted like the sky in teal with stars in gold. I went up the stairs to the women's section and found a book and sat down. I talked with a woman who was from Australia, but who lives in Vienna since she used to teach at the university. I also talked to a young woman who was from Romania - she was married and her husband was on the ground floor with the rest of the men.

Of course some things were noticably different to me, for example, everyone just kept talking whenever the rabbi started the service, there was no direction given by the rabbi or cantor (i.e., what page we were on...), and everyone says the prayers at their own pace. There are a lot of people dovening (rocking back and forth). Both the rabbi and cantor sang a lot and there was a quartet of four men who sang in four-part harmony at times during the ceremony, which was only about an hour and 15 minutes long. It was great to hear the music. The synagogue was quite full and I imagine that a good part of the Jewish population of Vienna was there. It was a good experience.

Some Prominent Viennese Jews

Arnold Schoenberg (1874 - 1951), musician, composer
Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911), musician, composer
Franz Werfel (1890 - 1945), author
Stefan Zweig (1881 - 1942), author
Karl Kraus (1874 - 1936), satirist, poet
Otto Bauer (1881 - 1938), socialist leader
Alfred Adler (1870 - 1937), psychiatrist
Arthur Schnitzler (1862 - 1931), playwright, author
Isaac Noach Mannheimer (1793 - 1865), Reform preacher
Joseph Popper (1838 -1921), social philosopher, engineer
Max Adler (1873 - 1937), socialist theoretician
Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), psychiatrist, creator of Psychoanalysis
Adolf Fischhoff (1816 - 1893), politician