Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Vienna

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City temple of the IKG in Seitenstettengasse
Main entrance of the city temple
Memorial plaque of the Jewish Community of Vienna at the Mauthausen Memorial

The Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien ( IKG ) is the Jewish community in Vienna . Today it has around 7000 members and has always represented almost all of Judaism in Austria , which only counts smaller communities ( Israelite religious communities ) in a few other cities in Austria .

organization

The Israelitische Kultusgemeinde offers its members various services in social, religious and educational matters. The official organ of the IKG Vienna is the monthly magazine Die Gemeinde - Insider , which can be read online in the archive on the IKG Vienna website.

The Viennese religious community is also entrusted with the general affairs of the Israelite Religious Society in Austria , the body in which Judaism has been a legally recognized religious society in Austria since 1890 .

The contact point for Jewish victims of Nazi persecution in and from Austria supports and advises those affected and their relatives in relation to restitution and compensation payments. Oskar Deutsch has been president of the community since 2012 , Arie Folger has been the chief rabbi and Shlomo Hofmeister has been the community rabbi since 2016 .

In March 2012, the reform Jewish community Or Chadasch (Hebrew: 'new light') applied for the establishment of its own religious community. The Or Chadasch association's application was rejected by a decision by the Ministry of Education in June 2012, so Austria will not have its own liberal Jewish religious community for the time being. The Ministry justified the decision by stating that the right of self-determination of legally recognized religious societies includes the right of internal organization and includes the admission of members. The background: Some of the members of Or Chadasch are not recognized by the Israelite Religious Society. These are those who converted to Judaism according to the liberal rite and are not recognized by the rabbinate of the IKG Vienna. As Chief Rabbi Paul Chaim Eisenberg emphasized, this decision was based on the fact that the Vienna rabbinate would otherwise not be recognized by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the European Rabbinical Conference.

Due to a resolution of the IKG, its members should not have any contact with FPÖ politicians.

history

The history of the Jewish population of Vienna goes back to Roman times . The Jewish population of Vienna was unable to organize itself due to anti-Semitic discrimination on the part of the state and civil society.

Only with the tolerance patent of Emperor Joseph II could the situation improve, but religious practice was limited to private circles. After 1848 it came to the emancipation of the Jewish population. In a speech on April 3, 1849, the young Emperor Franz Joseph I used the words: "Israelite Community of Vienna". Three years later, a provisional municipal law came into force in 1852; this year is considered to be the founding year of the Viennese religious community. In the already existing building complex of the Vienna City Temple in Seitenstettengasse, the premises and offices of the religious community were set up. In 1890 the final state recognition of the Mosaic faith in Austria-Hungary (Israelite Law) takes place .

Before the " Anschluss of Austria " to the German Reich in March 1938, the Viennese community had around 185,000 members. In 1938 the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde was closed by the National Socialists. In May 1938 it was reopened under the name of the Jewish Community of Vienna in order to act as a buffer organization between the Nazi regime and the Jewish population and, under duress, to organize emigrations and later also the first deportations for the Central Office for Jewish Emigration . See also Austria in the time of National Socialism . In Vienna the war ended in April 1945 .

Since 1945, the community has been called the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien again .

On August 29, 1981, a terrorist attack with hand grenades and firearms took place on the synagogue in Seitenstettengasse, known in Vienna's city ​​temple , which resulted in two deaths and 21 injured. It is believed that the attack was carried out by the Palestinian extremist group Fatah Revolutionary Council of the terrorist Abu Nidal . Since then, strict security precautions have been in place at the entrance, and Seitenstettengasse is protected by the police.

Today the IKG Vienna is responsible for Vienna, Lower Austria and Northern Burgenland, since the merger with the IKG Graz in May 2013 also for Styria, Carinthia and Southern Burgenland.

President of the IKG Vienna since 1853

Oskar Deutsch , President since 2012

Rabbi of the IKG Vienna since 1824

Paul Chaim Eisenberg , Chief Rabbi from 1983 to 2016, at the Vienna Book Fair 2017

Archive of the IKG

The archive of the Vienna Kultusgemeinde is the only known fully preserved archive from the beginning of a Jewish community up to the post-war period and thus one of the most important in the German-speaking area. Minutes of meetings, resolutions, minutes, reports, letters, emigration and financial documents, deportation lists, card files, books, photographs, plans and posters document the history of the IKG and its members. The oldest documents date from the 17th century. 1816 is considered the official founding year of the archive. From the middle of the 19th century, the handling of files became increasingly professional.

The files and files created between 1938 and 1945 formed the basis for the National Socialists to manage the emigration and deportation of Austrian Jews. Today, the documents are used to provide information on the fate of those who have been displaced and murdered and to support survivors' claims for restitution and compensation.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Law of March 21, 1890, regarding the regulation of the external legal relationships of the Israelite religious society. StF: RGBl. No. 57/1890; amended April 2012 (as amended online, ris.bka ).
  2. ↑ ORF religion: Liberal Jews want their own religious community ; Retrieved April 12, 2012
  3. ^ Wiener Zeitung, Alexia Weiss: The liberal religious community remains a decision of the IKG ; Retrieved December 12, 2012
  4. ↑ IKG: boycott of the FPÖ is upright. Retrieved May 4, 2018 .
  5. ↑ hagalil.com | The terrorist attack on a synagogue in Vienna
  6. ↑ Graz Synagogue: "The house is not even open to its own people". Colette M. Schmidt in Der Standard online, February 5, 2015.
  7. ^ T & ag of the open door in the Graz synagogue. ( Memento of the original from May 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. IKG Vienna, undated (March 13, 2016).  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ikg-wien.at
  8. ^ Report: Chief Rabbi Arie Folger resigns. Retrieved June 25, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Engelmayer new chief rabbi of the IKG Vienna. In: ORF.at . February 25, 2020, accessed February 25, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Chief Rabbi Engelmayer takes office. In: ORF.at . August 21, 2020, accessed on August 21, 2020 .