Jewish community for Tyrol and Vorarlberg
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The Jewish community for Tyrol and Vorarlberg has its seat in Innsbruck and is the Jewish community of the two westernmost Austrian federal states. Today it represents around 150 people.
history
The original center of the religious community was in Hohenems , although individual Jews had also lived in the area of the County of Tyrol since the 13th century. In 1617, a letter of protection from Count Kaspar von Hohenems laid the legal basis for the settlement of Jewish families and the establishment of a Jewish community in Hohenems. The imperial count hoped that this would generate economic impetus for his market. In the 17th century there were evictions. Many Jewish people from Hohenems moved to neighboring Sulz , where they were expelled again in 1748. But after the Jewish families were allowed to return to Hohenems, the Jewish community flourished. A synagogue , a ritual bath ( mikveh ), a poor home and a cemetery were built. The community grew continuously until the first half of the 19th century, the basic state laws of 1867 and the associated free choice of place of residence for Jews then led to a strong emigration to surrounding cities.
A community was formed in Innsbruck at the end of the 19th century. Since the Hohenems community was only very small at the beginning of the 20th century, the Hohenems rabbi Josef Link moved to Innsbruck in 1914. At that time the church there was about 500 members. However, plans to build their own synagogue were not carried out. Despite a traditional Christian anti-Judaism , due to the strength and influence of the Catholic Church and the Christian Social and later the Patriotic Front in Tyrol, as well as a growing ethnic anti-Semitism , the community lived relatively undisturbed until the "annexation" to Nazi Germany. During the Reichspogromnacht in November 1938, there were serious riots in Innsbruck. Four community members were murdered by SS men in civilian clothes, including the community chairman Richard Berger . Gauleiter Franz Hofer , a staunch and brutal National Socialist, declared the goal to make his Gau Tirol-Vorarlberg " Jew-free " as soon as possible. By 1939, the majority of the Jewish population, or the population declared by the Nazis to be Jews according to racist criteria, was expelled from the Gau or deported to assembly camps in Vienna. At least half of all these people were either murdered in camps, took their own lives, or were otherwise put to death.
After 1945 only a fraction of the survivors, mainly elderly people, returned to Tyrol and Vorarlberg. In March 1952 the “Kultusgemeinde Innsbruck for the federal states of Tyrol and Vorarlberg” was legally re-established. For decades the religious community led a shadowy existence, even the official Tyrol did not erect any memorial or memorial for the crimes of National Socialism for a long time. The small religious community found a home in a prayer room on Zollerstrasse. In 1991 the construction of a synagogue in the Sillgasse started and in 1993 the synagogue could be built.
Todays situation
At the beginning of the 21st century there is a lively community life again. The community grew to more than 100 people at the end of the 20th century. A Jewish museum was set up in Hohenems to document the history of the local Jewish community. The former synagogue in Hohenems was renovated in 2003 and named after Chasan in Salomon Sulzer Hall, who came from the community .
Günther Lieder has been president of the community since 2016. The rabbi is the Vienna Chief Rabbi Arie Folger .