This year’s Leon Zelman Prize for Dialogue and Understanding is awarded to the Austrian Union of Jewish Students (JöH). The award honors its outstanding commitment to combating anti-Semitism and promoting intercultural dialogue.
In fall 2025, the Austrian Union of Jewish Students (JöH) will be bestowed with the Leon Zelman Prize, which is endowed with 5,000 euros, at Vienna City Hall. Funded by the City of Vienna, since 2013 the prize has been honoring figures or organisations that are actively dedicated to commemorating the Shoah, combating anti-Semitism and racism, and fostering intercultural dialogue in the spirit of Leon Zelman.
Always about dialogue and exchange
The jury justified its decision as follows: “The JöH has taken an exceptional position in the past year, be it by organizing empty Shabbat tables for the Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas since October 7, 2023, as part of the initiative “Bring Them Home Now,” as descendants of Holocaust survivors by bringing visibility to certain ambivalences in the politics of remembrance and commemoration, be it the multi-day vigil at Heldenplatz before the National Council elections in fall 2024 (“Against the People’s Chancellor & Basement Nazis”), or be it the thought-provoking action at the Shoah memorial at Vienna’s Judenplatz against the laying of a wreath by the President of the National Council.”
The jury also highlighted the fact that, in the spirit of Leon Zelman, the JöH consistently advocates for dialogue with other student groups and is involved in joint activist alliances against anti-Semitism, right-wing extremism, and racism. The prize is a tribute to Leon Zelman (1928-2007), the founder and long-time director of the Jewish Welcome Service and publisher of the magazine “The Jewish Echo.”
