Source: IKG Wien, Ioh Schmidl

Source: IKG Wien (in German)

Since 2012, the Youth Commission of the Jewish Community Vienna organizes the memorial march "Light of Hope", with which it commemorates the November pogroms. With these events, the youth ignites a light of hope and is the focus of the march. This is the new generation of youth and young adults who are the future and who are actively fighting against forgetting. The words "Never forget" become actions and the memories, stories and tales are held high. The young people demonstrate how important it is to maintain the generational chain and that commemoration is not only part of Jewish culture, but is a task and responsibility of the entire civil society.

Time: 09.11.2023, 19:00 - 22:00

Meeting point: Heldenplatz | entrance of the "House of History" Closing rally: Judenplatz.

"Light of Hope" started as an internal event of the Jewish Community Vienna and has grown over the past years. In 2016, due to the AG JUS scandals, the Jewish Community Vienna decided to open the memorial march and the subsequent rally to the public for the first time. By opening it up, the event has grown and gained more and more interest from the media as well. With the 2018 commemoration year, we reached a new high with about 2,500 participants and attendees. 2019 was another highlight, together with the Haus der Geschichte we organized an exclusive event including a sound installation at Heldenplatz as part of the exhibition opening. During the march, memories of survivors were also played and echoed through the streets of Vienna. In 2020 and 2021, the "Light of Hope" could unfortunately not take place as usual, so it was all the more important for the young people to make their contribution to commemoration in digital form.

With 1500 participants, last year's Light of Hope was one of the biggest ever organized by our youth. The Jewish youth of Vienna under the umbrella of our Youth Commission, together with very many, mostly young people, sent a strong signal for remembering the crimes of the November progroms and for the fight against anti-Semitism today. The march formed at the House of History and moved through the center of Vienna to Judenplatz where the final rally took place.

This year we want to continue the success of the last years and invite all Viennese, Jewish or not, young or old, to commemorate together and participate in the march. It is in the hands of all of us to never let the events of the past be forgotten and to take action against anti-Semitism, racism and any form of exclusion.

We want to continue the success of the last years and invite all Viennese, Jewish or not, young or old, to commemorate together and participate in the march. It is in the hands of all of us to never let the events of the past be forgotten and to take action against anti-Semitism, racism and any form of exclusion.