Jewish History in Vienna: Culture, Cosmopolitanism, and Crisis

The Jewish City Temple, and an introduction to Judaism in Vienna

Our 3-hour Jewish Vienna walking tour begins outside the Jewish City Temple – the city‘s main synagogue and the heart of the Jewish community in Vienna. Few European cities have been so closely intertwined with Jewish history as Vienna, and even as far back as the Middle Ages, the Viennese Jewish community here was relatively large.

Despite two dramatic expulsions, Jews continued to settle by the banks of the Danube River, and in the years up to 1938, the Jewish community had become one of the largest in Europe. Some 185,000 Jewish people called Vienna home, including many brilliant leaders of the city’s intellectual, political, and economic spheres. The arrival of Nazism in Vienna caused a devastating rupture in the evolution of the Jewish community.

The Destroyed Leopoldstädter Temple and the Nestroyhof Theater

Continuing on, we wind through the second district to visit the memorial site of the destroyed Leopoldstädter Temple – today symbolized by four imposing white columns reaching up into the sky. We’ll also stop to admire the impressive Art Nouveau exterior of the Nestroyhof Theater, once home to Yiddish-speaking ensembles.

Taking in the sites of destroyed synagogues of both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities, we consider the forces of fascism and antisemitism in Europe and share stories of both victims and survivors of Nazi genocide in Austria.

Jewish Cultural Contributions to Vienna

As we stroll through the elegant Viennese streets, your guide shares insight into the considerable cultural contributions of Jewish men and women over the years, including figures such as Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis, Theodor Herzl, father of Zionism, men of letters such as Karl Krauss and Franz Werfel, and Gustav Mahler – once director of the Vienna Opera – along with other charismatic Jewish members of Viennese society.

Revitalization of the Viennese Jewish community