Viennese Sephardim
As a Viennese Sephardim are Sephardic immigrants, mostly from the Ottoman Empire Coming settled in Vienna and called their descendants.
Sephardic Jews (also called Sephardim or Sefarden) are the descendants of the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 after the Alhambra Edict and from Portugal in 1496. These mostly settled in Ottoman-controlled areas such as the Balkans and the west coast of Anatolia, as well as numerous other places. After 1718 there were waves of immigration, which ultimately resulted in the Sephardic community in Vienna.
history
The Peace of Passorowitz and the first beginnings
The Peace of Passorowitz of 1718, which ended the Venetian-Austrian Turkish War , is considered to be the cause of the Sephardic immigration. The subjects of the Sultan, including Jews, were allowed to stay and move freely in the Habsburg lands. They were also under the official protection of the Sultan. Their legal position was much better than that of the Ashkenazim , who at that time made up the great majority of Jews in the Habsburg Empire. The first Turkish Jews to settle in Vienna were Abraham Camondo (from Istanbul ), Aaron Nissan, Naphtali Aschkenasi, Aaron Samuel Nissim, Juda Amar and other members of the Mago and Benevisti families. They were mostly traders and had left their families behind in the Ottoman Empire, so that the number of Sephardi always remained small, even after the Peace and Trade Treaty of Belgrade in 1739, when more Turkish-Jewish merchants settled in Vienna. In 1761 there were 17 Turkish Jews living in Vienna, including a woman and a child; in 1767 there were 19. From this point of view, the development of a fully functioning community in this period is excluded, but religious life was continued. Diego d'Aguilar often gathered enough Turkish Jews in his home to pray together. Diego d'Aguilar was a Sephardic Jew with a Portuguese title of nobility, who moved from Lisbon to London in 1722 and was called to Austria in 1723, where he created a tobacco monopoly.
Origin of the community and heyday
When there was a strong increase in the last quarter of the 18th century, a Sephardic-Turkish community organized itself in Vienna. The oldest document that testifies to the existence of a Turkish-Jewish community in Vienna is from 1778. In the early years Jakob Nachmias served as head of the community, Rabbi Aaron Abner and Israel Moses and Abraham Russo acted as prayer leaders. The first prayer houses were built, one was on Obere Donaustraße (burned down in 1824) and another on Taborstraße, in Leopoldstadt . But the community continued to grow, in 1818 there were 57 families (217 people), in 1840 there were 569 people, so that in 1860 a piece of land at Zirkusgasse 22 (at that time still Große Fuhrmanngasse) had to be acquired. Construction of a synagogue began there , but it had to be demolished in 1885 due to structural defects.
A new building in the Moorish style was built from 1885 to 1887 according to plans by Hugo von Wiedenfeld . The inauguration of the Turkish Temple took place on September 18, 1887.
As for the internal organization, seven chiefs were elected, who themselves chose a community chief. The deficits in ward spending were often met by wealthy members or leaders. There were also a prayer house overseer and a religion teacher. In the 19th century, more and more Sephardic immigrants from the Balkans came to Vienna, which was also known as "Sefarad on the Danube". The growth of the community created the basis for the development of its own Sephardic culture, which was strongly influenced by the city's intellectual milieu. Thus Vienna became the center of the Sephardic Haskalah .
Although Vienna became home to the Sephardic Jews for about two centuries, most remained loyal subjects of the Sultan until the early 20th century. They had close diplomatic ties with the Ottoman Empire
Through the Israelite Law of 1890, the Turkish-Jewish community was incorporated into the Israelite religious community. Due to the resistance of the Sephardic Jews, an agreement was concluded after years of negotiations. The Turkish-Jewish community lost its independence status as its own independent community, but remained partially autonomous. She was allowed to appoint a Sephardic committee for religious matters and her own rabbi. The community was given the name "Association of Turkish Israelites in Vienna". A member was therefore everyone who kept the Sephardic rite.
20th century
Church life continued to flourish in the last century. This is how associations such as the Sephardic Israelitischer in Vienna came into being. On June 27, 1918, the board of the community presented the statutes of the women's charity. The approval to found the association followed on August 30, 1918. The purpose of the association was to support the women living in poverty, the widows of dead front soldiers and the upbringing of the children. The club's address was Zirkusgasse 22, in the Turkish Temple.
Important members included Rabbi Michael Papo, who came from Sarajevo and who was in office until 1918, and his son Manfred Papo . Besides Michael Papo, Rabbi Nissim Ovadia was also active. Papo was followed in 1918 by Rabbi Salomon Funk, who worked until 1925. From 1925 Gabriel Meir Mehrer acted as a rabbi.
The increasing anti-Semitism of the interwar period reached its climax with the annexation of Austria to the German Empire .
National Socialism
Apart from the anti-Semitic race laws that came into force immediately and the attacks by the SA , SS and partly by the civilian population themselves, November 9th and 10th were a dark chapter for the community. During the November pogroms in Vienna, all but one synagogue and prayer house were destroyed, desecrated and set on fire. The temple shared the same fate as all other synagogues that were set on fire on the morning of November 10, 1938. The fire department later had to intervene because the fire threatened other buildings.
The community was formally dissolved in 1939 and the members - if some of them had not already fled abroad - were housed in collective apartments in a confined space with other Jews under inhumane conditions until they were all deported and perished in concentration or extermination camps .
today
Few former parishioners returned after the Shoah . After 1991 there were steady influxes from the areas of the former Soviet Union . Some of the East Jews were Ashkenazi , but mostly Mizrachim ( Bukhars , Mountain Jews or Georgian Jews ). The Sephardic community therefore has five synagogues and a Sephardic center, under which the "Association of Bukharan Jews" is incorporated, as well as numerous clubs, associations and organizations.
Buchars
The chief rabbi of the Bukhars, Rabbi Israelov, says: "The Sephardim are also oriental Jews" and emphasizes that their order of prayer and customs are Sephardic. Most of the Bukhars came to Vienna from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in the early 1970s . Today, according to Rabbi Israelov, there are 500 Jewish Bucharian families in Vienna with around 3000 members. In 1992 they founded the "Sephardic Center", which is now in Tempelgasse, on the site of the former Leopoldstadt temple .
Georgian Jews
The Georgian Jews, also called Grusiners, maintain the Sephardic rite. The chief rabbi of Georgian Jews, Yaakov Hotoveli, puts the number at 150 families and around 600 people.
Mountain Jews
This small group with around 80 families belongs to the Sephardic community. Mountain Jews are Caucasian Jews who mostly come from the Eastern Caucasus , i.e. from Azerbaijan and Dagestan . This minority also runs its own house of prayer.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christoph Lind: Jews in the Habsburg countries 1670-1848 in: History of the Jews in Austria . S. 351-353 .
- ^ The Sephardic Community in Vienna , inn: Jewish Social Studies. Volume 10/4, 1948, pp. 359-396.
- ^ A b Synagogue of the Union of Turkish Israelites Sephardim 2, Zirkusgasse 22 - Vienna History Wiki. Retrieved May 10, 2020 .
- ↑ Ursula Prokop: On the history of the Turkish temple in Vienna and its architect Hugo von Wiedenfeld , David, issue 92, April 2012, accessed on May 10, 2020
- ↑ § 2 of the law of March 21, 1890 regarding the regulation of the external legal relationships of the Israelite religious society, RGBl. No. 57/1890 (original version) ALEX Historical Legal and Legal Texts Online, Austrian National Library, accessed on May 31, 2020
- ^ Synagogue of the Association of Turkish Israelites Sephardim 2, Zirkusgasse 22 , www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at, City of Vienna, accessed on May 10, 2020
- ↑ Network - VBJ. Retrieved on May 10, 2020 (German).
- ↑ a b c Ida Labudovic: Sephardim in Vienna: The unknown Jews. In: Die Presse (Internet edition). July 7, 2009, accessed May 10, 2020 .