Jewish Vienna, Vienna

Many different communities and generations have left their mark on the oldest part of Vienna, among which, however, the Jewish community with its cultural heritage stands out. Today, on an ancient Roman fortification, on the north side of the Stephansdom, stand historic buildings where the heart of Jewish Vienna once beat. Among them stand out landmarks such as the Jewish Museum and the Holocaust Memorial, as well as the only surviving synagogue of the Jewish genocide, the magnificent Stadtampel. Today, most of Vienna's Jewish community lives in Leopoldstadt, but the old European quarter remains an important cultural centre.

If you want to explore Vienna's Jewish Quarter, head to the Wedding Fountain and from there along Judengasse you will reach the outskirts of Vienna's historic Jewish Quarter. In the 19th century, the Jewish community flourished, it was the most prestigious, influential and culturally developed in these parts. In 1782, the Jewish community reached its apogee with the issuance of Joseph I's Edict of Religious Tolerance. With this Edict, the Jews gained many more rights.

In the 19th century, the Jewish community continued to develop at a rapid pace, with many impressive buildings dating from this time, architecturally subordinate to the Biedermeier style. Unfortunately, however, the anti-Semitic mayor Karl Luger expelled most of the Jews in the early 20th century. This process of hostile politics and anti-Semitic sentiment did not abate and the Jewish community in Vienna came under great pressure and thousands left the city, with things becoming more critical after the Anschluss. Those Jews who failed to leave the city became the target of increasing violence and discrimination, before finally being sent to their deaths in camps across Eastern Europe.

But let's stop talking about violence and death and immerse ourselves in the beauty of this Jewish neighborhood. Walking down Seitenstettengasse, one comes to a beautiful imposing gate of an apartment building with a Hebrew sign above it. This gate is the entrance to the Stadttempel, which was once the most beautiful synagogue in Vienna, and today is the only surviving synagogue from that time. The Schattempel was built in 1825 and its appearance was determined by a discriminatory clause in Joseph I's Edict of Religious Toleration of 1782. It stated that only the facades of Catholic churches could face the main streets, and minority churches had to be hidden in courtyards and small streets. Starting from this clause, several residential buildings were erected and in the interior around them the Stadtampel with its unusual appearance was built. The buildings are inextricably linked to the synagogue as they share common walls and foundations.

On the one hand, the observance of this clause has a beneficial influence on the Shattempel. An example of this is the events of Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938, when the synagogue was saved from being burned down - in order for it to be set on fire, the surrounding homes and the people in them must first be burned down. The shtetl underwent a major restoration in 1961, thanks to funds from the Vienna municipality. Today, this magnificent building is once again a place of worship for the growing Jewish community. An interesting and important fact that every visitor should know is that they must carry some form of photo identification for safety reasons. Moving from history to architecture and interior, let's describe the synagogue from the inside. The entrance leads visitors into an oval hall, at the bottom of which are several rows of seats facing the Torah reading area. The rows are surrounded by 12 marble columns symbolizing the 12 tribes of Israel and support the galleries on the second and third floors. Above the ornate reading area are two large stone tablets inscribed with quotations from the Law of Moses and decorated with gold and silver ornaments. The ceiling of the synagogue is painted sky blue and is studded with hundreds of silver stars.

In the foyer of the Stadtampel synagogue is a memorial to the Austrian Jews who perished in the Holocaust, a group of slowly rotating stone tablets with the names of all 65,000 victims, topped by a broken granite column symbolising the destruction of the community.