… for Dialogue and Understanding
The prize
Based on an idea of City Councilor for Culture Andreas Mailath-Pokorny, the prize is awarded once each year in memory of Leon Zelman and his work as the longstanding director of the Jewish Welcome Service and publisher of the periodical The Jewish Echo.
- Prize donated by: City of Vienna
- Cash prize: € 5.000,-
The aim
To award projects and organizations in the spirit of Leon Zelman and the Jewish Welcome Service. The prize money is intended to contribute to the continuation of the respective project/initiative.
The Jewish Welcome Service is an essential link and often also the point of contact for the concerns and projects of many organizations and initiatives.
Criteria for awarding the prize
Projects and organizations that work actively in the spirit of Leon Zelman for remembrance, its exploration and “the fight against forgetting and for the dialog between present-day Austria and the survivors of National Socialist persecution, and in particular their descendents, as the basis for a shared future” (see also text on memorial plaque for Leon Zelman at Palais Epstein). This includes above all a commitment to civil society; standing up against anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia; education and youth work as well as projects that promote intercultural dialog.
In the future, the prize will also be awarded to young, up-and-coming individuals, projects, or institutions that have distinguished themselves in line with the spirit of the prize’s namesake and the Jewish Welcome Service. The goal is to establish a new generation of scholars and educators in the field of memorial and remembrance culture—in addition to the group of individuals who have been eligible for the prize thus far—and to honor them through the awarding of the Leon Zelman Prize.
The prize winners 2013 – 2025
The jury since 2026
- Dr. Gabriele Anderl, Historian, Journalist, Provenance researcher
- Isolde Vogel, BA BA MA; Historian, Research, Monitoring, and Documentation in the Field of Right-Wing Extremism, DÖW
- PD Mag. Dr. Michaela Raggam-Blesch, Historian, Deputy Head of the Center for Holocaust Studies, IfZ, Institute for Contemporary Munich-Berlin
- Mag. Dr. Florian Wenninger, Historiker und Politikwissenschafter, Director of the IHS (Institute for Historical Social Research)
- Mag. Daniel Löcker, MA; Board member of Jewish Welcome Service; Science Advisor to the City of Vienna
Chair/Administration
Susanne Trauneck, Secretary General of the Jewish Welcome Service
The jury 2013 – 2025
- Dr. Sophie Lillie, art and contemporary historian
- Martina Maschke, until 2023 BMBWF (Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, The Arts and Culture); head of department for International Bilateral Affairs – Education; long-time chairwoman of the association www.erinnern.at
- Dr. Michaela Raggam-Blesch, historian, Leon Zelman Prize 2022
- Peter Schwarz, Member of the Board of the Jewish Welcome Service; former managing director of the ESRA association (psychosocial center for people persecuted under National Socialism)
- Armin Thurnher, publisher and editor in chief of “Der Falter”; author of the autobiography “Leon Zelman. After Survial”
Chair/Administration
Susanne Trauneck, Secretary General of the Jewish Welcome Service
Ari Rath (1925 – 2017) and Heidemarie Uhl (1956 – 2023)
