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The Jews in Vienna: A Troubled History, and a Warning for Today (PART ONE)
The Jewish community of Vienna has a fascinating but tragic history. It’s a city where Jews were powerful financiers, advisors, Nobel prize winners, and world-renowned psychologists. Yet, in this same city, the Jews were expelled three times, their homes and synagogues destroyed, and even in the best of times, they lived in an environment of open antisemitism. It is no coincidence that Hitler was an Austrian who lived in Vienna for years, and that many of his ideas came from that period.
Although a Jewish presence existed in Vienna as early as the 10th century, the first recorded Jews arrived in Vienna in the late 12th century. The first Jew, known as Shlom (Solomon), was a mint master and financial adviser to Duke Leopold V and his presence was documented by 1194. In a cruel pattern that would repeat itself in Vienna’s history, in 1196, Shlom and 15 other Jews were murdered by Christians from the Third Crusade.
In 1238, Emperor Frederick II granted Vienna’s Jews a Charter of Privileges, identifying Jews as “chamber serfs” — meaning that the legal status of Jews was that they “belonged” to the Roman-German emperor. Six years later, Duke Frederick II issued the “Charter of the Jews,” spelled out terms for their protection and money-lending guidelines.
During the Black Death epidemic in 1348-9, Vienna was one of the few cities that did not blame the Jews for causing the plague. Consequently, it became a haven for Jewish refugees, which will be seen again in Vienna’s history. During the 14th century, Jews comprised about five percent of the city’s population.
During this period, Vienna’s community was led by world-famous rabbinical leaders. Rabbi Yitzchak of Vienna (circa 1200-1270) was a student of the Tosafists of France and Germany. He brought a high-level Talmud study to Vienna, the standard hallmark of a learned Jewish community. He is renowned for his tome, Ohr Zarua, a work of Halacha (Jewish law) quoted by scholars since he published it.
His son, Rabbi Chaim Ohr Zarua, also served as a rabbi in Vienna. He adapted his father’s classic Ohr Zarua to make it more accessible, including only the decisions without the complete justification.
Rabbi Meir ben Baruch Halevi (1320-1390) served as the Rabbi of Vienna for the last 30 years of his life, and instituted a requirement that a Talmudic student could not officiate as a rabbi unless he had ordination from a properly ordained rabbi. This practice requiring rabbis to have ordination was accepted by Ashkenazi communities in the succeeding generations, and it continues to this day.
Rabbi Yisrael Isserlin (1370 to l440) is considered the last great rabbi of medieval Austria. He authored the classic work Terumas ha-Deshen and a super-commentary on Rashi’s Torah commentary.
Toward the end of the 14th century, antisemitism began to rise among the burghers, likely due to jealousy of their Jewish neighbors. In 1406, during a large fire that destroyed the synagogue, the burghers used the opportunity to attack Jewish homes.
The persecution soon became far worse. On May 23, 1420, Duke Albert V issued the Vienna Decree, ordering all Jews of means imprisoned and their possessions confiscated. Jews who were impoverished before the Vienna Decree were forcibly expelled to Hungary. The imprisoned Jews were tortured, and attempts were made to forcibly convert them to Christianity. Children were separated from their parents and given to monasteries for conversion. After the Pope spoke out against the forced baptisms, the duke responded by having the remaining Jews — 210 men and women — burned at the stake on March 12, 1421. Even the synagogue was not spared; its stones were used to build a new faculty building for the University of Vienna.
The Jewish community of Vienna was utterly destroyed, and Jews were forbidden to live in Vienna.
The leading Ashkenazi sage, Rabbi Yaakov Moelin (1365-1427), known as the Maharil, who lived in Mainz, Germany, at the time, recorded the horrific events and sharply referred to Austria as “the land of blood.”
In 1451, a few Jews were permitted to return to Vienna and were given special protection from the Hapsburg Emperors. By 1512, there were 12 Jewish families in Vienna. A small number of Jews continued to live in Vienna during the 16th century, although they lived with the constant threat of expulsion hanging over them.
In 1624, Emperor Ferdinand II limited the Jews of Vienna to a ghetto on the present-day Leopoldstadt quarter site, consisting of 15 dwelling houses. Their numbers steadily increased; by 1670, 136 dwellings housed 500 families. When Jews of Ukraine faced the infamous Chmielnicki Massacres in 1648-49 known as Tach v’Tat, some chose to escape to the safety of Vienna.
For a time, the community of Vienna resumed its respected position in the Jewish world and the rabbis of the renewed community were once again world-famous leaders. Among them were Rabbi Yom Tov Lipman Heller, known as the Tosfos Yom Tov (1579-1654), and Rabbi Shabsai Sheftel Horowitz (1590-1660), the author of Vavei Amudim, who was renowned for his expertise in both Halacha and Kabbalah.
Renewed Hatred
The second expulsion of Jews from Vienna took place in the middle of the 17th century.
Bishop Kollonitsch, a conniving and influential antisemite, served as the Lord Chamberlain to Emperor Leopold I (1658-1705). At his urging, Emperor Leopold decreed to expel the Jews of Vienna, despite the tremendously negative financial impact this would have on his kingdom, because the Jews were his financiers and advisors.
The influential Jews of the community did their utmost to stop or limit the expulsion. They tried giving the emperor the enormous sum of 100,000 florins but were refused. They asked Queen Christina of Sweden to intervene, but although she did, her words were ignored. On March 1, 1670, Emperor Leopold ordered all the Jews to leave Vienna and all of Austria. The deadline was August 1, and the last Jews of Vienna were exiled in the month of Av. The Great Synagogue was converted into a Catholic church, and the Jewish area was renamed Leopoldstadt in honor of Emperor Leopold I’s success in removing the Jews from Vienna. (And that name remains to this day.) As an aside, Bishop Kollonitsch continues to be revered by Viennese citizens, and a giant statue of him stands in front of the town hall in Vienna.
The Court Jews of Vienna
Within a short time, the expulsion began to negatively impact Vienna’s economy.
The first Jew allowed back into Vienna to reside was Samuel Oppenheimer, who was officially permitted to reside in the city in 1676. Those accompanying him became the nucleus of the very small, not-legally recognized community. They were not permitted to have a synagogue, and all services had to be held in private homes.
Oppenheimer provided needed supplies for the Austrian army, including uniforms, food, horses for the cavalry, and even supplies for the hospital. Yet, despite all he accomplished on behalf of Austria, he still suffered from antisemitism. Bishop Kollonitsch accused Oppenheimer of trying to murder Samson Wertheimer, and Oppenheimer was jailed. Only after paying an enormous sum was he released, and his claim of innocence was accepted. Oppenheimer supported many Jewish scholars and built synagogues and yeshivas in various communities. He also redeemed Jews taken captive in Turkish wars. After he died in 1703, his son Emmanuel appealed to have the debts owed to his father repaid by Austria. In response, rather than pay Emmanuel the six million florins they owed, the state claimed that Emmanuel needed to pay them four million florins. This wealthy family was left penniless.
Along with Oppenheimer, a very limited number of Jews were permitted to return to Vienna. In all, 10 wealthy families — mostly known as Court Jews — resided in Vienna. They initially paid 300,000 florins for this privilege, and an additional tax of 10,000 florins each year.
Despite the antisemitism and lack of civil rights, the Viennese Court Jews’ influence increased. As a result, Vienna became a center for Jewish diplomacy and philanthropy for Jews throughout the empire.
Sephardic Jews and Diego D’Aguilar
In 1718, due to peace treaties with the Ottoman Empire, Turkish citizens were granted permission to travel to and temporarily reside in Austria. Ironically, although Austrian Jews could not reside live in Austria, Turkish Jews could. The Sephardic Jews from Turkey formed a legally recognized community in Vienna. (With typical Jewish ingenuity, there were Austrian Jews who traveled to Turkey, obtained Turkish citizenship and passports, and returned to reside legally in Austria.)
During the reign of Maria Theresa, a Jew from Lisbon retained a particularly powerful position in the Empire. Diego D’Aguilar was born to a Converso family in Spain and was forcibly taken from his parents as a child and raised to become a Catholic Priest. After he was ordained, his mother managed to obtain an audience with him and emotionally reminded him of his Jewish roots. His sister had been caught practicing Judaism, and his mother hoped he might be able to stop her being burnt at the stake.
Although he was unable to save his sister, this meeting reawakened in him a desire to return to the Judaism he barely knew, and he and his mother escaped to Vienna. In Vienna, D’Aguliar became a full-fledged observant Jew and was financially successful due to his reorganization of the tobacco industry. Ironically, he became a favorite of the antisemitic Empress Maria Theresa. He raised tremendous amounts of money for government loans and rebuilt the Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna. He remained loyal to the Jewish community and was able to prevent the expulsion of Jews from Moravia and Prague in 1744.
Empress Maria Theresa made D’Aguilar’s a baron in recognition of his services to Austria. Due to his influence, she also abandoned her plans to expel Jews from the Empire in 1748.
D’Aguilar left Vienna suddenly in 1749 when the Spanish government demanded his extradition. He moved to London with his wife and a large family of 14 children. Before leaving Vienna, he presented the community with beautiful silver crowns for the Torah scrolls, upon which his name was inscribed.
Despite her positive feelings towards D’Aguilar, Empress Maria Teresa remained an ardent antisemite. Aside from the 12 prominent families, no Austrian Jews were permitted to live in Vienna, and all antisemitic decrees remained in place.
Emperor Joseph II: Increased Tolerance of Jews
The slow process of removing restrictions on the Jewish community began in November 1780, when Joseph II, Maria Teresa’s successor, became Emperor and ruled the Hapsburg Lands from 1780-1790. In 1781, he discontinued the Leibmaut poll tax, which had been paid by Jews to enter certain cities since the Middle Ages. (This was a particularly degrading tax, as it was a property tax and made the statement that Jews were property and not people.)
In 1782, Emperor Joseph II proclaimed an Edict of Tolerance to make the Jews “of better use to the state,” as was stated in the prologue to the resolution. Jews no longer had to wear a yellow band, they could attend schools and universities (although they were still limited in their choice of professions), and they could live anywhere in Vienna (although they could not own property). He took steps to assimilate the Jews into society, requiring that Hebrew and Yiddish be replaced by the country’s national language in public discourse and forbade documents and textbooks to be printed in Hebrew. He also required Jews to take on last names approved by the Austrian officials.
Many Jews took advantage of the new opportunities granted them, but in the process, many also lost their Judaism. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, salons of assimilated Jewish hostesses served as meeting places for the rulers of Europe. One of the most famous hostesses was Fanny Arstein, who had a salon attended by the prominent personalities of the time, including the emperor and Mozart. In 1821, nine Jews of Vienna were knighted and raised to the nobility.
With newly acquired rights, the Jewish community hired renowned architect Josef Kornhäusel to construct the Stadttempel, the central synagogue of Vienna, which was the first legal synagogue to be opened since 1671. The magnificent synagogue was inaugurated in 1826, but in deference to the law, it was built hidden from the street view.
Despite all the “tolerance,” the Jews continued to exist as a non-community, as they were forbidden by law to establish themselves as a community, until 1867, when Jews were recognized as equal citizens.
Rabbi Menachem Levine is the CEO of JDBY-YTT, the largest Jewish school in the Midwest. He served as Rabbi of Congregation Am Echad in San Jose, CA from 2007 – 2020. He is a popular speaker and has written for numerous publications. Rabbi Levine’s personal website is https://thinktorah.org. A version of this article was originally published by Aish.
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Robert Kraft’s Super Bowl LIX Commercial to Help Combat Hatred Features Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady

Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady in the new Super Bowl commercial from FCAS titled “No Reason to Hate.” Photo: Screenshot
The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS), founded by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, will air its second ever Super Bowl commercial on Sunday and the 30-second spot this year features rapper Snoop Dogg and former Patriots legend Tom Brady.
The ad is titled “No Reason to Hate” and will air during Super Bowl LIX between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. In the clip, released on Monday, Brady and Snoop Dogg face each other while make spiteful digs and giving examples of the, often stupid, reasons why you might hate someone.
“I hate you because we’re from different neighborhoods,” Snoop Dogg says. “I hate you because you look different,” Brady replies.
“I hate you because I don’t understand you … because you talk different … Because you’re just different,” Snoop Dogg says. Brady responds by saying, “I hate you because people I know hate you … Because I need someone to blame … Because you act different.”
At the end of their face-off, a line appears on screen that says: “The reasons for hate are as stupid as they sound.” Snoop Dogg then concludes by saying, “Man, I hate that things are so bad, we have to do a commercial about it.” Brady replies, “Me, too.” The duo then walk out of frame and the final message on the screen says, “Stand up to all hate.”
Some Jewish activists criticized the commercial on social media for not mentioning antisemitism or Jews at all. Snoop Dogg’s involvement in the ad also received backlash in light of a hateful image he posted on Instagram in 2020 that compared America to the Nazis.
Kraft released a statement about FCAS’ decision to bring Snoop Dogg and Brady together for the commercial.
“Their shared commitment to this cause speaks to the strength of and amplifies the foundation’s continued message: no matter where we come from, there is no place for hate in our world,” Kraft explained. “Together, with their leadership, we’re reminding everyone that the fight against hate is a fight we can all win.”
“The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism is doing incredible work, and I’m honored to stand with them in the fight against hate,” Brady added. “This Super Bowl, football is on my mind, but so is something even bigger – building a world where hate has no place. The ‘No Reason to Hate’ campaign isn’t just a message; it’s a movement. I’m proud to be a part of it, and I hope you’ll join us.”
As part of its “No Reason to Hate” campaign, FCAS, which launched in 2019, will additionally host its first Unity Summit at the Xavier University of New Orleans, Louisiana, on Friday. As part of the foundation’s Unity Dinner series, and in partnership with United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and Hillel International, the event will bring together more than 100 Black and Jewish college students who want to combat hate.
FCAS debuted its first Super Bowl commercial last year and directly addressed hatred targeting the Jewish community. It starred Clarence B. Jones, a prominent civil rights leader who helped draft Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic speech “I Have a Dream.” Last year’s commercial ended with the tagline: “Stand up to Jewish hate.”
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US Imposes Sanctions on Individuals, Tankers Shipping Iranian Oil to China

US Department of Treasury headquarters in Washington, DC. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
The US Treasury said on Thursday it is imposing new sanctions on individuals and tankers helping to ship millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil per year to China.
The move comes after US President Donald Trump earlier this week vowed to bring Iran’s oil exports to zero as the US tries to prevent the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
The Treasury said the oil was shipped on behalf of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff and its front company Sepehr Energy, which the US designated in late 2023. This sanctions target jurisdictions, including China, India, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as several vessels.
Treasury said it imposed blocking sanctions on the Panama-flagged CH Billion tanker and the Hong Kong-flagged Star Forest tanker for their role in shipping Iranian oil to China.
The US said the tankers “onboarded” Iranian crude from storage in China as part of a scheme involving Iran’s military, which stands to profit from the sale of the oil.
The sanctions block access of the individuals and entities to any of their assets in the United States and prohibit US foreign assistance.
“We will use all tools at our disposal to hold the regime accountable for its destabilizing activities and pursuit of nuclear weapons that threaten the civilized world,” Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokesperson said about the sanctions.
The sanctions designated Iranian national Arash Lavian, which the US said helped support Sepehr.
The US also designated Marshal Ship Management Private Limited.
In addition, Young Folks International Trading Co and Limited and Lucky Ocean Shipping Limited were designated for operating in Iran’s petroleum sector.
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The Future of Syria Is Uncertain; Here’s What Israel Should Be Doing (PART TWO)

Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, waits to welcome the senior Ukrainian delegation led by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Part One of this article appeared here.
Former UK Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sachs referred in one of his articles to the book Radical Uncertainty by British economists John Kay and Mervin King. The book makes a distinction between risk and uncertainty. Risk can be calculated, but uncertainty cannot. Therefore, in situations of uncertainty, the authors recommend focusing on understanding the situation. This should be accomplished not by calculating probabilities but by observing what is actually happening on the ground with eyes that are open to new perspectives and new threats.
This approach should apply to the current shake-up of the regional system in the Middle East.
The Turkish orientation towards the leadership of al-Julani, leader of the rebels, warrants great concern. Turkish President Erdogan has never hid his ambition to renew the Ottoman Empire. The prospect of an occupation of Damascus by Sunni Muslim forces has an exciting power that could reunify radical Islamic forces to the point of reestablishing an al-Qaeda state in Syria. The third purpose of the IDF’s operations in the region is to focus on these concerns.
Meanwhile, under Erdogan’s leadership, the Kurdish region east of the Euphrates River is under threat of a military attack meant to eliminate it. This will test the ability of the American administration to stand up for its Kurdish allies.
With the collapse of the state order built with the Sykes-Picot Agreements at the end of World War I, an opportunity has arisen to correct an injustice. The international community’s concern for the right to self-determination of minorities has focused over the past century mainly on the Palestinians — but some 30 million Kurds have been trapped for a century without any possibility of a state.
The United States, as a superpower, is facing an unprecedented challenge to its ability to influence emerging trends in the regional chaos that has arisen in Syria.
In all of Israel’s past wars, including the War of Independence, the end of the war was determined by agreements with countries with a recognized identity that existed before the war and continued to exist after it. Now, for the first time, the State of Israel is facing an unknown reality.
Israeli disillusionment in Syria
The collapse of the Assad regime and the trends emerging in Syria in recent weeks required the State of Israel to respond immediately, which entailed abandoning its longstanding security perception of the “villa in the jungle.” In addition to needing to defensively penetrate the expanses of the buffer zone between Israel and Syria, Israel had to assign a special strategic purpose to the effort to maintain Israeli control of the Syrian space in front of the border: to project Israeli military power onto the trends developing in Syria.
This expressed the understanding that if Israel were to take a passive position of simple observation in defending the Golan Heights border line without daring to go beyond the “walls of the villa,” it would not have the appropriate levers to create a position of influence and bargaining to secure Israeli security interests in the emerging system in Syria and Lebanon. Miraculously, the developments in Syria forced Israeli security policy to shatter the barriers of the “villa” perception that had bound it.
A controversy from the beginning
From the beginning of the Zionist enterprise, the Jewish community both openly and covertly struggled with the tension between the two trends — convergence to the borders of the “villa” or integration into the Arab space. This tension was also expressed architecturally. While the settlements of the first aliyah were built along a main axis, such as Kfar Tavor and Yavne’al, in a way that allowed the movement of Arabs and Jews through the colony, the settlements built in the third aliyah and onwards were built off the main road in the form of a closed camp. As a result, with the confrontation of events (especially those of 1936-39, and the activity of Yitzhak Sadeh and Orde Wingate’s field companies), a dispute arose over the question of exiting the fence into the space.
In her book The Sword of the Dove, Anita Shapira describes the way in which Wingate tried to lead his men into active defense activities outside the fence. Wingate’s approach provoked resistance among the kibbutzim of the Jezreel Valley, stemming from this question: where is the line along which it is clear to everyone that they are defending their existence? Is it the fence line or is it beyond it? This debate was not only conducted in the moral dimension. It began as an operational issue. Sadeh’s and Wingate’s concept of defense required engaging in friction in the space outside the fences of the settlements. This was the concept of the guards at the beginning of the formation of the Hebrew defense force. For them, free movement in the space outside the settlements was not only a necessity to fulfill the defense mission but an expression of their desire to integrate into the space in the cultural dimension as well.
Recognizing the need for active regional integration, the State of Israel, under Ben-Gurion’s leadership, turned to proactive activity in areas outside the country’s borders in its early years. While Israel was still under a regime of economic austerity, Israeli delegations operated in African countries in the fields of agriculture and security. In the 1960s, Israeli paratroopers assisted the Iraqi Kurds in fighting against the Iraqi army.
The essence of the perceptual gap
Between the approach that confines itself within the borders of the “villa” and the approach that requires active involvement in the space beyond the borders, there is a deep gap in the perception of reality. The aspiration for confinement is based on the assumption that a country’s security situation can be stabilized by creating a status quo of borders, with each country limiting itself to activity within those borders. Switzerland, for example, succeeded in maintaining a status quo that is perceived as final and permanent within European historical circumstances.
The second approach does not hold with the assumption of the ability to preserve one’s existence in a stable and final status quo. Human reality, certainly in terms of the system of ties between countries, is subject to change and unexpected upheaval. The strategic position of a country is examined in this approach not only by what it manages to stabilize within its sovereign territory, but also by the alliances it maintains with entities in the space and its ability to actively engage in spheres of influence that shape regional trends. This is how Turkey operates in Libya and the Horn of Africa and is the thinking behind its current moves to establish military bases in the heart of Syria. Egypt has recently been involved militarily in Somalia, and Qatar, through its financial capabilities, is operating both in the region and far across the ocean.
The Mossad and its agents have operated and continue to operate with distinction in both close and distant circles outside the State of Israel. However, an overt presence is also required. The trend of Israeli confinement within the borders of the “villa” — with its security and cultural implication — has been revealed as a failure. In this dimension as in others, the Israeli national security concept requires a fundamental update.
Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen is a senior research fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. He served in the IDF for 42 years. He commanded troops in battles with Egypt and Syria. He was formerly a corps commander and commander of the IDF Military Colleges. A version of this article was originally published by The BESA Center.
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