http://wien.orf.at/news/stories/2534116

Claire Fontaine The weeping wall inside us all ©Yanai Toister, Courtesy EP Privatstiftung. Sopurce: http://www.jmw.at/foreigners-everywhere

Beginning with May 24, 2012, the Jewish Museum Vienna will show photographs and installations from the collection of Eduard Pomeranz. The exhibit, “Foreigners everywhere” aims to investigate the influence of Jewish collectors on the Viennese art scene.

Jewish Community invited all interested parties for the first time to “show that we do not live secluded”

Vienna – The Jewish Community of Vienna held an open house day for the first time in its history. “I would like to position the Jewish community as a part of Austrian society”, explained Oskar Deutsch, President of the Community. People should be familiarized with Jewish holidays and traditions. And “we also want to show that we do not live secluded”, said Miriam Tenner of the organizing committee.

A new exhibit at the Jewish Museum Vienna explores a series of portraits of important Jewish personalities of the twentieth century created by Andy Warhol in 1980.

Please visit the Museum's website for more information.

German original: http://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/panorama/chronik/443014_Faymann-sagt-finanzielle-Absicherung-fuer-Gedenkdienste-zu.html

Vienna. “The victims are the only ones who have the right to forget”. With these words Federal Chancellor Werner Faymann began his speech on the occasion of the general assembly of the Austrian Friends of Yad Vashem.  Barbara Prammer, President of the National Council, and Honorary President of the Austrian Friends of Yad Vashem since 2010, had invited them to the Austrian Parliament. Keynote speakers besides Mr. Faymann included Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor Michael Spindelegger, as well as Avner Shalef, who travelled from Jerusalem to Vienna and has served as the chairman of Yad Vashem in Israel for 19 years.

Vice chancellor and Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger directed these clear words at the General Assembly of the Austrian Friends of Yad Vashem on March 12,, which marks the 74th anniversary of the rise to power  of the National Socialists in Austria. Yad Vashem is Israel’s national memorial site for the remembrance of the persecution and assassination of six million Jews during the Holocaust.

April 1945: a group of Hungarian Jews is led through an Austrian village. They are supposed to go to Mauthausen, but have to stop in the village for a few days. Unable to proceed, the Jews are locked into barn of a local family. Affected by their suffering, the owner of the barn Mrs. Fasching and her Farmhand Poldi take pity on the Jews and bring them food and water. Among the group of captivated Jews is Lou Gandolf, an opera singer. He offers to mount an operetta as a thank you gesture for Mrs. Fasching, which doesn't sit too well with Mr. Fasching and the rest of the village.

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Vienna  - “We want to open the doors”: Oskar Deutsch, who was elected to succeed Ariel Muzicant as president of the Jewish Community (IKG) this past Tuesday, wants to open the community for others. “We want to present ourselves as part of Austrian society” he said Wednesday. An open house day, planned for May 13, 2012, as well as a Facebook presence and the use of new media are to demonstrate a “vibrant Jewish life” in Vienna. In order to keep things this way, Deutsch also wants to tackle the problem of emigration of Austrian Jews. “We can only counter this through a big enough community where everyone can find a partner”.

Oskar Deutsch wants to move the Jewish Community closer to non-Jewish society. A change of course towards the FPO is ruled out.

Oskar Deutsch, the successor of Ariel Muzicant as president of the Austrian Jewish Community (IKG) wants to increase efforts to open the Community for non-Jews. “We would like to present ourselves as part of Austrian society”, Mr. Deutsch said at a press conference on Wednesday, where the new board of directors was presented.