1 The principle of the Jewish Einheitsgemeinde was enforced by the state, which recognized only one Jewish community in each city – by virtue of the Austrian Gesetz vom 21. März 1890, betreffend die Regelung der äußeren Rechtsverhältnisse der israelitischen Religionsgesellschaft (legislation regulating the relations between the state and the Israelite Religion Corporation of March 21,1890, RGBl. Nr. 57/1890, Israelitengesetz).
2 “old-Viennese Jews”: Jews who already before the war had been Viennese by culture, identity, and citizenship
3 Estimated numbers for this immigration waves are not available.
4 The Jews from Central Asia and the Caucasus lived in remote and less urbanized areas, where Soviet rule was weaker, and thus had been spared to a very high extent from the Soviet assimilatory policy and never had a communist orientation. Therefore, they managed to keep many of their ethnic and religious (Orthodox) traditions and did not try to assimilate into the atheistic mainstream. This stands in contrast to the Jews from the European Soviet Union, who had been strongly subjected to the Soviet assimilatory policy, and thus were generally stripped of knowledge of the Jewish religion and tradition (see: Alexander Friedmann, “Psycho-Socio-Cultural Rehabilitation in an Ethnic Subgroup: A 30-Year Follow-Up,” World Cultural Psychiatry Research Review 2, (April–July 2007): 89; Larissa Remennick, Russian Jews on Three Continents: Identity, Integration, and Conflict (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2007), p.18.)
5 Or Chadasch has only some 150 members, not all of whom are halachically Jewish.
6 According to different estimates, there are between 9.000 and 20.000 Jews in Vienna.
7 IKG Mitgliederservice, Mitglieder: Anzahl Nach Alter – Stand 28.07.2016 (private communication, 2016).
8 Zentralwohlfahrtstelle, Mitgliederstatistik der jüdischen Gemeinden und Landesverbände in Deutschland für das Jahr 2015 (Frankfurt am Main: Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Juden in Deutschland, 2016).
9 Information received per e-mail (July 28, 2016) from the IKG Member Service, and confirmed by the IKG Rabbinate.
10 In the first eight years after World War II, the IKG leadership changed eight times, with six leaders who represented three ideologically diverse political lists (communist, Zionist, and socialist).
11 IKG president Ernst Feldsberg’s statement that he “could not imagine any other country as his homeland even after 1945” (Helga Embacher, Neubeginn ohne Illusionen: Juden in Österreich nach 1945 (Vienna: Picus, 1995), p. 169) was typical of the Alt-Wiener Jews, but it was not shared by the general Jewish population.
12 For detailed information on both, see: Susanne Cohen-Weisz, Jewish Life in Austria and Germany since 1945: Identity and Communal Reconstruction (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2016), pp.273-276.
13 Anton Legerer, “Allgemeine Besorgnis auch unter den Juden: Österreichs Juden in der Doppelmühle,” haGalil onLine, February 14, 2000. http://www.hagalil.com/archiv/2000/02/austria-4.htm, accessed July 19, 2016.
Article Library / 2016
2016 Annual Assessment
- Foreword
- Part 1
- Part 2: Dimensions of Jewish Well-Being
- Geopolitics
- An Opportunity for a Geopolitical Adjustment
- State-Level Anti-BDS Legislative Initiatives – Overview and Recommendations
- Comprehensive Three-Dimensional Index on anti-Semitism in Europe
- India and Israel
- Two Years since Narendra Modi’s Election Victory
- One Man’s Whim – or Long-Term Forces of History?
- Why is India important? The Numbers
- India’s Soft Power Assets
- India’s Quest for Great Power Status
- Fast Growing Links with the Middle East
- Energy and Economic Links with the Middle East
- Islam: India’s Historical and Cultural Bonds with the Muslim Middle East
- Steady Growth of Indo-Israeli Relations
- A Dearth of Information and Cultural Links
- The India-Israel-Jewish People Triangle
- Endnotes
- Demography
- Bonds Within and Between Communities
- Identity Formation and Expression
- What are the Main Components of Jewishness? Results of JPPI Surveys
- After the Zionist Revolution: Patterns of Jewish Collective Identity among Israeli Jews
- Religious Zionism in Israel Today: Toward the Center
- Introduction
- The Drive Toward Political and Moral Leadership
- The Disengagement from Gaza and the Face-to-Face Project
- Integral Nationalism
- The Historical Antecedents for the Contemporary Jewish Home Party
- Religious Zionists in the Likud
- Jewish Home Control of the Ministries of Education and Justice
- Religious Zionists in the Army
- Religious Zionists in the Mainstream Electronic Media
- The Reduction in Religiosity
- Being Less Sectarian and Religious Increases the Impact and Appeal of Religious Zionism
- Conclusion
- Endnotes
- Material Resources
- People of the Book
- Geopolitics
- Part 3: Feature Articles
- Orthodox Jews in the United States
- Introduction
- Varieties of Orthodox Judaism
- The Hasidic Community
- The Yeshivish Community
- Heimish Jews
- The Modern Orthodox Community
- The Sephardic Community
- Chabad-Lubavitch
- The Challenge of Orthodox Growth to Mainstream Jewish Organizations
- General Education
- Citizenship
- Individual Rights
- Conclusion
- Endnotes
- French Aliyah: Governmental Efforts and Recommendations
- Successful absorption is the key to encouraging Aliyah
- Assessing the potential: 200,000 French Jews are considering immigration to Israel
- Socio-Cultural Profile of French Olim
- Employment prospects and Aliyah
- Employment Prospects and Aliyah
- Implementing Government Resolutions
- Additional Efforts Required in the Employment Sphere
- Employment and businesses
- Housing and Communal Life
- Conclusion
- Endnotes
- Austrian Jewry 70+ Years after the Shoah
- Introduction
- Communal Framework
- Demography
- Leadership
- From “Sitting on Packed Suitcases” to “Feeling at Home”
- External Representation – Changing Relationship with the Gentile Surroundings
- Restitution
- Changes in the Austrian Shoah Introspection
- Jewish Group Identity
- Infrastructure and Jewish Life
- Conclusion
- Endnotes
- Orthodox Jews in the United States
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