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Austria's Jews - at the Edge of the Abyss
As Austria entered the 1930s, the threat to its Jewish population intensified and would cul-
minate in cultural, intellectual and, above all, human tragedy.
Austrian Jewry enjoys a long and rich history. The first mention of Jews in Vienna was
in 1194, when a minter by the name of Schlom was appointed by the crown. The very
same man was subsequently murdered along with 16 other Viennese Jews by zealous cru-
saders on their way to the Holy Land. Gradually, a ghetto grew around today's Judenplatz
in Vienna, where a large synagogue stood in the 13th century.
Historically, Jews could only work in some professions. They were seldom allowed into
tradesmen's guilds or to engage in agriculture, and therefore earned a living through trad-
ing goods and selling, or through money lending, which explains many of the clichés of
the past and present. Two 'libels' in the Middle Ages made life difficult for Jews. One of
these was the 'host desecration libel', which accused Jews of desecrating Christ by acts
such as sticking pins into communion wafers and making them weep or bleed. The second
was the 'blood libel', which accused Jews of drinking the blood of Christians during
rituals. In 1420 these libels culminated in one of Vienna's worst pogroms, during which
many Jews committed collective suicide. The synagogue on Vienna's Judenplatz was des-
troyed and the stones of the synagogue were used to build the old university.
Jews were officially banned from settling in Vienna until 1624, but this law was regu-
larly relaxed. It did mean, however, that Vienna's Jews had a particularly rough time of it,
and in 1670 when Leopold I (1640-1705) drove them out of Unterer Werd, the quarter
was re-christened Leopoldstadt, the name it bears today. They returned, however, and this
district remained Vienna's largest Jewish quarter until WWII.
When money was tight following the 1683 Turkish siege, Jews were encouraged to
settle in town as money lenders. Interestingly, once the threat subsided from 1718, Seph-
ardic Jews from Spain arrived and were allowed to establish their own religious commu-
nity. An edict from Kaiser Joseph II (1741-90) improved conditions for Jews, and after
Kaiser Fr anz I remodelled himself into Austria's kaiser and allowed Jews to establish
schools, some of Vienna's Jewry rose into bourgeois and literary circles.
The revolution of 1848 brought the biggest changes, however. Vienna's Jews were at
the forefront of the uprising, and it brought them freedom of religion, press and schooling.
Indirectly, it also led to the founding of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde (Jewish Reli-
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