1994: Information brochure on the ìHall of Encounterî published.
1995: The ìHall of Encounterî at the Rehavia Gymnasium secondary school in Jerusalem is inaugurated as a meeting place for young Austrians and Israelis. The 250 young people at the opening ceremony were selected by holding an essay competition.
1997: The Jewish Welcome Service invites members of the International March of the Living organisation to visit Vienna for several days – a repeat of the event held in 1998.
1998: An invitation is extended to Jewish students from former Yugoslavia in cooperation with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Sixty survivors of Theresienstadt, Auschwitz and Riga are invited to a one-week meeting in Vienna.
1999: A chamber concert is given by six members of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra at the Jewish Museum in New York; this is followed by an introduction to the “Mauthausen Memorial 2000 project”. A launch event for the project is also held in London with the Vienna Philharmonic.
2000: The JWS participates in the organisation, planning and publicity for the Mauthausen Memorial concert by the Vienna Philharmonic on 7 May 2000 at Mauthausen. A reunion of the liberators and the liberated is held at the Vienna City Hall, with a welcoming address by Mayor Michael Häupl.
2001: The JWS, represented by Leon Zelman, attends the 35th anniversary celebration of the Jerusalem Foundation. Survivors of the “Kladovo transport” attend an exhibition at the Vienna Jewish Museum.
2002: The JWS welcomes some 30 former Viennese residents who were detained by the British Navy during their flight to Palestine and interned on Mauritius. It supports “Hakoah Lischot” – a documentary about the history of the Hakoah women’s swimming club.
2003: The JWS supports a research project entitled “Anthropology under National Socialism” undertaken by the anthropological department of the Natural History Museum Vienna.
2004: The JWS organises the “In Memoriam exhibition” and panel discussion about psychiatry under National Socialism at the Vienna MuseumsQuartier, staged in cooperation with the Medical University of Vienna.
2005: The film “A Life of Many Lives” by Helga Embacher and Hannes Klein is shown on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Ari Rath, an “Israeli with Viennese roots”. In continuation of the cooperation begun in 2003 with the Holocaust Memorial Service and the London Jewish Cultural Centre 14 survivors of National Socialism living in Britain are invited to stay in Vienna for a week. They give numerous talks at schools in Vienna and throughout Austria about their experiences as young Austrian Jews in 1938.
2006: The Jewish Welcome Service marks the 25th anniversary of its establishment with a ceremony at Vienna City Hall. The JWS supports a project on the Wasagasse gymnasium (grammar school) aimed at compiling the biographies of its expelled and murdered Jewish students and teachers. Wera Goldman, the last living and active Expressionist dancer, is invited to Vienna for her 85th birthday.
2007: The JWS assists a film project entitled “Vienna’s Lost Daughters” by inviting the protagonists to a showing in Vienna. The Herklotzgasse 21 project is launched. A festival is held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of the composer Erich W. Korngold. Korngold’s grandchildren are invited to the opening of the exhibition at the Vienna Jewish Museum. An event is held in conjunction with ESRA and DRAVA-Verlag to launch the book “Born in Vienna. Versuch einer Annäherung” by Communication Studies specialist Monroe E. Price.
2008 & 2009: The JWS invites 20 former residents of the 15th District during the Herklotzgasse 21 project – an exploration of Jewish life in Vienna’s Fünfhaus district. Meanwhile the Radetzky school project compiles the biographies of expelled and murdered Jewish pupils and teachers: the Jewish Welcome Service invites former pupils to Vienna. In 2008 the Jewish Museum mounts an exhibition on Friedrich Torberg (100th anniversary of his birth). An children’s festival is held to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel. The JWS supports the Alpine Peace Crossing initiative in remembrance of the flight of thousands of Jews over the Hohe Tauern Alps from Salzburg through Italy to Palestine/Israel (the “Krimml Exodus”).
2009: On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the S.C. Hakoah sports club the Jewish Welcome Service invites exiled ex-members from Australia, Israel and the USA to Vienna for several days, looks after the guests and organises receptions at the President’s office and City Hall. The JWS supports a performance of the children’s opera Brundibár at a commemorative event held by ESRA and invites Greta Klingsberg (one of the few survivors of the Theresienstadt concentration camp) from Jerusalem to attend. In connection with the Vienna-Scheibbs-Wieselburg project members of the Porges family are invited from Peru and the USA, and a commemorative plaque is unveiled in Scheibbs. As part of a school project entitled Weggewiesen 1938 (Expelled in 1938) the JWS pays the travel expenses of former pupils of the Kandlgasse grammar school to enable them to attend a commemoration. The JWS also supports a project run by psychotherapist Heidi Behn that assists Jewish holocaust survivors at the Hogar Villa Israel senior citizen’s home in Santiago de Chile. A book entitled Das Buch von Liebe und Tod. Fragmente jüdischen Lebens in Chile (The Book of Love and Death. Fragments of Jewish Life in Chile) is published as part of this project.
2010 & 2011: Living history invitation to the symposium “Jewish Migration in New Zealand” (co-organized by Jewish Welcome Service in co-operation with the Society for Exile Research and the University of Vienna). Support for the presentation of the book “Sag’ nicht, du gehst den letzten Weg. Fragmente europäisch-jüdischer Lebensgeschichten” with ESRA, written by the psychotherapist Heidi Behn, who accompanies Shoah survivors at the “Hogar Villa Israel”, a Jewish retirement home in Santiago de Chile. Living history invitation to the schools project “Re-educated on 28 April 1938” (Academic Secondary School) and invitation from Kelsen’s granddaughter to the exhibition “Hans Kelsen and the Austrian Constitution” at Josefstadt District Museum, support for the projects “Jazz at the Jewish Museum” and “Turned Away in 1938” (Kandlgasse school project). New design of Jewish Vienna brochure in cooperation with Vienna Tourist Board and Press and Information Services (publication beginning of April 2011).
2011: A new edition of the “Jewish Vienna” service brochure together with the Press and Information Services of the City of Vienna and the Vienna Tourist Board: The brochure provides information about Jewish organizations in Vienna and Austria and the main focus of their activities. Also a new edition covering the European Maccabiah Games, held in Vienna for the first time from July 5–13. In May JWS invited 15 students between 18 and 22 years of age to Vienna in cooperation with the United Israel Appeal Federations of Canada (UIAFED). In September 15 young adults were invited to visit Vienna and Austria in cooperation with the Chicago Anti-Defamation League (ADL), one of the oldest human rights organizations in the USA, and the Austrian Consulate General in Chicago. Furthermore: Support for the academic secondary school projects “Retrained on April 28, 1938″; ROOM 28, the girls from room 28, L 410, Terezín (www.room28.net): Support for the Strasshof working group association (www.vas-strasshof.at).
2012: February: In collaboration with the KonaK association (Society for Continental American and Caribbean Studies) Shoah survivors from Baranquilla, Colombia, were invited to Vienna, giving eyewitness accounts at Stubenbastei secondary school and taking part in a joint search for traces of the past. May 10: A Festival to Alice Goldin. Invitation by the painter Alice Goldin on the occasion of her 90th birthday Born in Vienna in 1922, expelled from Vienna in 1938, Goldin is today a leading painter and fixed star of the South African art scene. The events staged in Goldin’s honor in Vienna included an exhibition at the Künstlerhaus (“A Festival for Alice Goldin”) – in cooperation with the Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town (www.irmastern.co.za). UIAFED: May 16-24, “Celebrate Jewish Life and Culture in Vienna” was the motto of a joint venture between the Jewish Welcome Service, Hillel Canada and the United Israel Appeal Federations of Canada (UIAFED)that was continued due to its tremendous success in 2011.
The Jewish Welcome Service invited ten students to visit Vienna. May 25, 2012: Award of the Theodor Kramer Preis to the writer Eva Kollisch On this occasion invitation to the writer and her son Uri Berliner. AJC ACCESS: Global Diplomacy & Bridge Building for a New Generation: June 10-17: Following the tremendous success of the “Next Generation” visit to Vienna and Austria by ADL Chicago in fall 2011, a delegation from AJC ACCESS New York traveled to Vienna. Together with ACCESS and in cooperation with the Press & Information Service of the Austrian Embassy in Washington, the Jewish Welcome Service organized a program focusing on Vienna.
