Jewish Welcome Service Vienna

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The Jewish Welcome Service Vienna (JWS) is a non-profit organization founded in 1980 and based in Vienna . The president of the association is the mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig . Leon Zelman was the director until 2007 .

function

The main task of the association is to introduce Jewish Viennese displaced or fled to Austria during the National Socialist regime and their descendants to the Vienna of today and thus enable them to have a positive attitude towards the former home of their families.

For this purpose, the JWS conducts international public relations work for the Jewish culture of Austria and Vienna, projects in the school and adult education sector as well as an invitation program for displaced Jews and their descendants and offers assistance in contacting authorities and Jewish organizations. As part of the “Welcome to Vienna” project, around 4,000 Austrians who had to leave the country in the course of the “ Anschluss ” in 1938 and did not return after the end of the war, and their relatives, have been given the opportunity to visit their old homeland.

In 1984 the JWS organized the series of events Sunken World (see section Literature). In the same year the JWS was recognized by the World Jewish Congress (WJC) in New York. In 1985, at the suggestion of Leon Zelman and the invitation of Federal Chancellor Fred Sinowatz, a council meeting of the WJC took place in Vienna.

In the commemorative year of 1988 and the following years, the JWS showed the exhibition "Jewish Vienna - Heritage and Mission" (opening in the Park East Synagogue in New York with Leon Zelman, Anton Pelinka and Hubert) in a number of cities in the United States Pfoch on December 1, 1988). The tour was made possible by the Vienna Tourist Board with funds from the City of Vienna.

structure

The Jewish Welcome Service Vienna was in December 1980 at the initiative of the then mayor of Vienna Leopold Gratz , of the terrorist from a member on May 1, 1981 Abu Nidal Organization murdered councilman Heinz Nittel (both SPÖ ) and the publicists and tourism manager Leon Zelman founded .

The main sponsors since then have been the City of Vienna's cultural department and the Vienna Tourist Board . The invitation and visit program was and is (with the exception of the years with Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel 2001–2006) largely funded by the Federal Chancellery and continuously by the City of Vienna.

The Österreichisches Verkehrsbüro AG, where Zelman was employed as an Israel expert until his retirement for reasons of age, is also one of the pillars of the JWS by providing free space for the information office and "back office" in their travel agency on Stephansplatz until 2009 and today the JWS - Space requirements in the Misrachihaus on Judenplatz in Vienna's old town, where the Judenplatz Museum is located, financed. The memorial for the Austrian Jewish victims of the Shoah , or Holocaust Memorial for short, stands on Judenplatz .

Other sponsors of the JWS include sponsors from the Viennese economy, including the Vienna Insurance Group (Wiener Städtische Versicherung).

The mayor of Vienna traditionally acts as the president of the JWS, currently Michael Ludwig as the successor to long-term president Michael Häupl . The Viennese City Councilor for Culture Veronica Kaup-Hasler is, like her predecessor Andreas Mailath-Pokorny , who was active until 2018 , as a member of the board, as well as City Councilor Kathrin Gaál . The general secretary of the association was Leon Zelman from 1980 until his death in 2007 ; his assistant Susanne Trauneck followed him. In April 2016, the new director of the Wien Museum , Matti Bunzl , was accepted into the association's board.

Publications

In 1984 the JWS acted as the publisher of the Versunkene Welt catalog , edited by Joachim Riedl , edited by Hans Peter Hofmann, published for the series of events of the same name: Exhibition in the Künstlerhaus Vienna from October 30 to December 3, 1984, Judaism and Film series in the Künstlerhaus-Kino from November 15-29, 1984 and international symposium Yesterday's World - Memories and Premonitions , Vienna City Hall , November 19-22, 1984.

An editorial association affiliated with the JWS publishes the magazine Das Jüdische Echo annually in the Viennese Falter-Verlag . After Leon Zelman, Marta S. Halpert was the editor-in-chief of the sophisticated magazine from 2008-2013 ; Her successor is the book author and former profil and Der Standard editor Erhard Stackl.

Jewish Museum Vienna and JWS, most recently as of May 2015, in cooperation with WienTourismus and the Press and Information Service of the City of Vienna , are publishing the German-English brochure Jewish Vienna designed by Danielle Spera and Alfred Stalzer . Heritage and Mission / Jewish Vienna: Heritage and Mission . The JWS also operates a website in English.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 1st edition October 1984, 2nd expanded edition November 1984, ISBN 3-9005-5701-2