At the start of November, a group of 30 Jews visited Vienna as part of the JWS invitation program for Jews expelled from their homeland. The guests, hailing from the US, Canada, and Israel, not only undertook some extensive family research, but were also received by party chairman Josef Taucher at City Hall and at the Federal Chancellery.
In addition to a sightseeing tour and a city walk to places of significance for Vienna’s Jewish history, the program also included visits to the Jewish Museum, the old and new Jewish Cemetery at the Vienna Central Cemetery and the exhibition “For the Child” at the Kindertransport Museum. Moreover, the group visited the Shoah Wall of Names Memorial at Ostarrichi Park and took part in the “Light of Hope” event at Heldenplatz in remembrance of the November pogroms.
For Susanne Trauneck, General Secretary of the Jewish Welcome Service, the impact of the Israel-Hamas war was clearly noticeable on the activity of the JWS for this group of invitees too: On the one hand, organising such trips is challenging, as the majority of airlines have stopped flight operations from and to Israel. On the other, the global rise in antisemitism and attacks on Jews and Jewish establishments requires increased safety measures.
Video impressions of the group’s visit on Facebook:
