Forgotten Places: A Look at Austria's Jewish History

ORF (Austrian Public Broadcasting), June 23, 2024
German original: https://orf.at/stories/3361136/

Before 1938, 200,000 Jews lived in Austria. During the Nazi era, tens of thousands were murdered and over 100,000 were driven out. Today, around 15,000 Jews live in the country. The Federal Office for the Protection of Monuments has now compiled a list of Jewish sites in Austria, from medieval prayer houses to Jewish cemeteries, reports ZIB1. ORF.at has created an interactive map from this list, which allows users to discover Jewish history.

One of these places is the Jewish cemetery in Frauenkirchen in Burgenland. The last burial there took place in 1956: a family had fled to freedom across Lake Neusiedl during the Hungarian uprising, but their little daughter drowned. The Jewish cemetery was the place where the girl could be buried according to religious rites. There is no longer a gravestone.

The Catholic basilica in Frauenkirchen is a popular destination for many day-trippers, but the Jewish cemetery in the immediate vicinity is abandoned and forgotten. Around 400 Jews lived in the Seewinkel district before the Second World War, but only one returned after the war. The Jewish community was wiped out by the Nazi regime.

Over 400 of these Jewish memorials and monuments, which the Federal Office for the Protection of Monuments has recorded in a directory, are shown on the interactive map above. The map includes around 300 places of worship and over 70 cemeteries, offering an insight into Jewish history. The memorials range from synagogues dating back to the Middle Ages to well-preserved cemeteries, such as the one in Frauenkirchen.

Few people visit the cemetery

In Judaism, the dead are not to be disturbed, and graves are not to be disturbed. They are believed to remain until the resurrection of the dead. To visit the cemetery today, you have to get the key for the cemetery gate from the municipal office. The number of gravestones shows how large the community once was.

Right next to the cemetery gate is a small, single-storey building: the Tahara House. This is where the dead were washed and prepared for burial. The cemetery caretaker had a small apartment in the building, and the entrance gate is a slight reminder of its former function: the round arch above the entrance is made of colored glass, giving it the appearance of a modest church window. The door itself is locked; the owner uses the building as a storage room and access is not permitted.

Hardly any Jewish returnees to rural communities

"In Burgenland there were the famous 'seven communities'," explains Paul Mahringer from the Federal Office for the Protection of Monuments in an interview with ORF. "There was a vibrant Jewish community here for centuries. Today, everything is owned by the Vienna Jewish Community. Hardly anyone from rural Judaism has returned to their old homeland." The seven communities, seven towns in what is now northern and central Burgenland, became places of refuge for Jews expelled from Vienna in the 17th century.

The Esterhazy princes granted protection to the "highly princely Esterhazy Jews", as they were officially known, in return for substantial payments. In most regions of Austria, Jews were not allowed to take up residence until the second half of the 19th century. It was only the 1867 Basic Law that granted them freedom of settlement. Before that, they were dependent on the goodwill of the local princes: they could place Jews under their protection and usually made a good profit from doing so.

Sheltered in the shadow of the castles

Just how necessary it was to protect the noble patron can be seen in Gattendorf, twenty kilometers north of Frauenkirchen. The "Judenhof" is built directly onto the baroque palace. This close structural connection shows, on the one hand, that the protection was meant seriously, and on the other hand, that the Esterhazy family owned enough palaces: Gattendorf Palace was no longer used as a residence by them very early on, but as a granary.

Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts wohnten jüdische Familien mit rund 250 Mitgliedern in diesem dörflichen Schutzgebiet und Ghetto. Es gab eine Synagoge und eine Mikwe – ein Bad für die rituellen Waschungen. Heute stehen nur noch die ehemaligen Wohngebäude, seit Jahrzehnten unbenutzt. Die Synagoge wurde im Jahr 1996 abgerissen – mit Genehmigung der zuständigen Behörden.

Hier habe sich in den vergangenen Jahren einiges geändert, so Mahringer. „Das hier ist der letzte Überrest des ländlichen, dörflichen Judentums des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts. Es ist das sozialhistorische Zeugnis einer Lebensweise, die ausgelöscht wurde. Es ist sozusagen eine dreidimensionale geschichtliche Quelle.“ Die jüdische Bevölkerung von Gattendorf und Frauenkirchen war arm. Aufgrund ihrer Religion waren sie von Handwerk und Landwirtschaft ausgeschlossen. Was blieb, war der Kleinhandel.

A testament to poverty and hardship

The "Judenhof" makes the poverty and hardship of life at that time tangible. The building is cramped and unadorned, completely lacking in the monumental features that one otherwise associates with the term "monument". According to Mahringer, at least the roof has been renovated. The owner had received funding from the Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments, but also had to meet certain requirements for the preservation of the building.

However, few people are happy when the monument conservationists come. "Can we finally tear it down?" was the first thing the neighbors said when we came for the first time to inspect it," says Mahringer. But the building was – unlike the synagogue – classified as worthy of protection. "That doesn't mean that it has to be made freely accessible. It doesn't have to be a museum," he explains, "but it can't be allowed to fall into disrepair any more.

The view of what should be preserved for future generations has changed. They are now also witnesses to everyday life, they are also a reference to poverty and the struggle for survival, not just to splendor and pomp.

A painful reminder of the Holocaust

The testimonies of Austria's Jewish history are still particularly sensitive in terms of perception: the family that owned a Jewish prayer house in a small community in the Vienna Woods refused to allow the ORF team to inspect the building – for fear of further visitors.

The relationship with Judaism is still a special one in Austria. It is a shared history, but it is not an easy one. The Jewish cemetery in Frauenkirchen shows this in an almost painful way: the only new stone at this otherwise abandoned place is dedicated to the Rosenfeld family: grandparents, mother, two little girls, born in 1936 and 1938. They all died on the same day, June 15, 1944, in the Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz.

Fritz Dittlbacher (text), ORF News, Sandra Schober (data), Lukas Krummholz (image), sofe (editing), all ORF.at

This report accompanies the program ZIB1, ORF2, June 23, 2024.

How a Poet from Lviv Speaks for the Victims of Babyn Jar

Der Standard, June 20, 2024
German original: https://www.derstandard.de/story/3000000225039/wie-eine-lyrikerin-aus-lwiw-die-opfer-von-babyn-jar-zur-sprache-bringt

Ronald Pohl

Marianna Kijanowska's band "Babyn Jar. Stimmen" gives the Jewish dead of the Kiev massacre of 1941 their right to be heard.

It is "Grandpa Yakov" who knows what is in store for him and the other Ukrainian Jews. The old man has been shot. The feathers of his pillow are "piercing through" his sickbed. In Marianna Kijanowska's collection of poems, Babyn Jar. Voices are subject to names like things, strictly lower case.

The Jews in Kiev had few possessions left in September 1941. The clothes they were wearing, including a wedding dress that no longer made sense after the groom had been murdered by the Nazis' special forces. Some of the elderly were clearing household items into the attic. But Grandpa Yakov "cries and begs us for death." He "asks quietly / whether we realize that it is now time for us to die too." Pause. "Then he screams, 'Get out of here, but kill the cat first.'"

The enormity of the massacre at Babyn Jar is based on the particular diligence of the Nazi murderers. 34,000 Jews, among them a disproportionate number of the elderly, women and children, were driven into a ravine on the outskirts of Kiev on September 29/30, 1941 and shot in large numbers.

It is one of the most infamous aspects of Soviet politics that for a long time no commemoration of this major crime took place. The Jewish victims were not singled out in any way, but rather the unity of all Soviet citizens was emphasized from a class point of view.

Shostakovich's setting

It took courageous "people's poets" like Yevgeny Evtushenko, who wrote a poem entitled Babi Yar in 1961, to provide the first clues, after which Shostakovich set the text to music in his 13th symphony. It immediately became a worldwide success.

Author Marianna Kijanowska, born in Lviv in 1973, trampled on the memory of the Jews in Ukraine: unintentionally, as a child she played with fragments of stone slabs in the marketplace. Only later did she realize that they were grave slabs from the Jewish cemetery, which had been abandoned.

Her memorial for the victims of Babyn Jar comprises 65 voices: the victims realize the inevitability of their fate. They accept it; often they examine the testimonies of themselves and their peers. Just by naming their names, a space of resonance is created: Alik, Avram, Khaviva, Yanyk, Yasha, Lyalya, Lyova, Mykola, Shoryk, Zilya, Zylunya... "The last cup will soon be handed out," it says in one of the heart-rending litanies.

In fact, some of these tentative poems resemble prayers. Claudia Dathe's translation weaves a dense web of phonetic references. She makes assonances (vocal consonance) audible. The effect is archaic, as both the author and translator make use of an elementary vocabulary based primarily on two- and three-syllable nouns. With sporadically interspersed verses such as "und blutschwarze mohnblüten quellen" (and blood-black poppy blossoms well up), the boundaries of good taste are almost reached.

Guilty respect

Who is authorized to speak on behalf of so many people who were killed – and yet not to inappropriately appropriate the fates of others? Through her project, which she pursues with great seriousness, Kijanowska pays her guilty respect to the victims. It was a large number of local militiamen who assisted the German murderers: they carry out their dirty work here under the cover and collective term "polizaj".

Babyn Jar. Stimmen was written in 2017, and Kijanowska says that the process cost her her hair. The book was distilled from hundreds of attempts. It is a pressing reminder to take up the history of Ukrainian collaborators. Such acts of self-reflection seem to be absolutely necessary – especially now, when the invasion of Russian aggressors on Ukrainian soil is costing countless victims, including those of war crimes.

"We are all Jews now," says one of the many breathtaking texts. It is not false appropriation that points the way to coming to terms with guilt and disinterest; it is the speaking of empathy, which only great, crazy authors can command. In a theologically unprecedented poem, one of the doomed speaks the following scandalous couplet: "The only thing that is difficult is that I could not say goodbye to God / so I have to believe, even if it is without salvation." (Ronald Pohl, 20.6.2024)

Marianna Kijanowska, "Babyn Jar. Stimmen". Poems in Ukrainian and German. Translation and epilogue: Claudia Dathe. €24.70 / 160 pages. Suhrkamp, Berlin 2024

International Jewish-Christian Council Meets in Salzburg

ORF (Austrian Public Broadcasting), June 19, 2024

German original: https://religion.orf.at/stories/3225514/

The annual conference of the International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ) is taking place in Salzburg this year from Sunday. The council is the umbrella organization of all Jewish-Christian societies.

The conference, which is being organized jointly with the Coordinating Committee for Christian-Jewish Cooperation in Austria and the University of Salzburg, is entitled "Holiness: A Religious Imperative and a Moral Obligation?" and will run until June 26.

The conference will open on June 23 with the presentation of the renowned Seelisberg Prize for outstanding services to Jewish-Christian dialogue. This year's prize goes to Edward Kessler, founder of the Woolf Institute in England, which specializes in interreligious dialogue.

Theologian: "Take up every interreligious thread of conversation

Theologian Gregor Maria Hoff, who is involved in Jewish-Christian dialogue, told Kathpress that the conference is particularly timely: "The fact that the ICCJ conference is taking place in Salzburg is a special opportunity for us to strengthen the Jewish-Christian dialogue in a way that will also have a public impact.

Particularly in times of increasing antisemitism and especially against the backdrop of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the task of picking up every interreligious thread of conversation arises. That is why Muslim participation is also planned for each panel of the conference."

Muslims also involved

The speakers include the Viennese pastoral theologian Regina Polak, the Linz-based fundamental theologian Isabella Guanzini, the Innsbruck-based Islamic religious education teacher Zekirija Sejdini, the Salzburg-based religious scholar Martin Rötting, the Bamberg-based Judaist Susanne Talabardon, the General Secretary of Religions for Peace, Azza Karam, and the Romanian Orthodox theologian and former General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, Ioan Sauca.

The invitation to the conference states that there are both overlaps and differences between the three major monotheistic religions in the concept of holiness. Thus, religious practices that are qualified as "holy" can "connect us in dialogue" and represent a "valuable resource of strength" – but they can also be abused politically.

"Right" and "wrong" concepts of holiness

"We know that extremist ideas of holiness can lead to violence, inter-communal conflicts, political intransigence and instability." The conference will therefore also address the question of how this danger can be adequately countered and how a distinction can be made between a "correct" and a "wrong" concept of holiness, according to the organizers.

In addition to the expert discourse, interreligious networks are to be established or strengthened and the Christian-Jewish dialogue is to be further deepened on a personal level through a combination of lectures, plenary discussions, workshops and a cultural program (such as a trip to the nearby European Capital of Culture, Bad Ischl), according to Hoff.

Award of the Seelisberg Prize

The Seelisberg Prize for outstanding services to Jewish-Christian dialogue will also be awarded for the third time during the conference on the opening evening (June 23). This year's winner is Edward Kessler, founder of the Woolf Institute in England, which specializes in interreligious dialogue, as the ICCJ announced on its website.

Kessler is not only the founder and president of the Cambridge-based institute, but also "a leading thinker in the field of interreligious relations, primarily in the field of Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations," the ICCJ said in a statement. Kessler is also socially and politically active – in 2022, for example, he founded an independent commission for the integration of refugees in the UK.

Seelisberg Prize awarded for the third time

He has written twelve books focusing on Jewish-Christian dialogue and published two explanatory podcasts on faith and the Holy Land ("An A-Z of Believing" and "An A-Z of the Holy Land").

The prize is awarded in cooperation with the ICCJ and the Center for Intercultural Theology and the Study of Religions at the University of Salzburg, with its project on Jewish-Christian dialogue under the direction of Hoff. In 2023, Joseph Sievers, an expert in Jewish history and a theologian teaching at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, was honored with the award.

red, religion.ORF.at/KAP

New Book Presented: Regular Guests at Semmering

Kurier, June 14, 2024

German original: https://kurier.at/chronik/niederoesterreich/neues-buch-praesentiert-stammgaeste-am-semmering/402912472

This was life on the Semmering during the summer holidays: carefree vacation days enjoyed in local costume, personal sports in the alpine air, celebrities, artists and merchants who made the Semmering the center of social life. But for Jews, this carefree atmosphere was increasingly clouded by antisemitism.

The new book "Stammgäste: Jüdinnen und Juden am Semmering" by Danielle Spera aims to shed light on Jewish life in Semmering for the first time. Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner initiated the project and spoke of the "importance of maintaining the Jewish culture of remembrance in Lower Austria."

There used to be many Jewish communities in the province. The author spent a lot of time researching the book in Semmering, she said at the presentation last week. She spoke about many touching, oppressive, but also exciting and joyful moments during the conversations for the book. In terms of content, it begins "in the Middle Ages, then moves on to Jewish influence in railroad and hotel construction, to the villas that were built, to Jewish medicine and sport."

At the presentation, actor Markus Freistätter read three excerpts from the book, which is published by Amalthea Verlag. The presentation was accompanied musically by singer Ethel Merhaut and répétiteur and composer Belush Korenyi.

Exhibition on the Robbery of the Jewish Population During the Nazi Era

Der Standard, June 6, 2024

German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000223218/ausstellung-ueber-die-beraubung-der-juedischen-bevoelkerung-in-der-ns-zeit

System of enrichment: the double exhibition “Robbery”, which sees itself as a temporary memorial, is running in the Vienna Museum and the Jewish Museum

Olga Kronsteiner

It is not just any Beethoven bust whose days in the Vienna Museum's collection are numbered. It was the only one made by Franz Klein in 1812 after a life mask of the composer and served as a model for later depictions. Until the National Socialists seized power, it belonged to Wilhelm Kux, a banker with good connections to Red Vienna.

In his private life, he was passionate about music: on the board of directors of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde and as a collector of string instruments, autographs and works of art. He was able to save most of his assets when he fled to Switzerland. But not the Beethoven bust, which was seized by the Nazi authorities and entered in the “Register of Nationally Valuable Works of Art.” Wilhelm Kux had no choice but to sell the bust to the municipal collections.

“Packing” and “unpacking”

This is one of twelve cases that exemplify the different forms of appropriation in a double exhibition: In twelve video installations each, the curators deal with the process of robbery as an act of “packing” in the Museum am Judenplatz (curator: Hannes Sulzenbacher) and that of incorporation as “unpacking” in the Wien Museum (curator: Gerhard Milchram).

The double exhibition is called Raub, although “Gier” would probably have been a more appropriate alternative, as Sulzenbacher notes. In any case, considering the historical circumstances, in which a system of enrichment was established even before the official orchestration, which not only benefited museums - but also neighbors who helped themselves to the inventory of refugees' homes, keeping some and selling others in the “Pfandl.”

In economic terms, the Dorotheum was even one of the biggest profiteers - with the forced auctions of Jewish women's jewelry, some of which were auctioned off directly in apartments. Not to mention all the art auctions that were acquired via the in-house appraisers, who had previously drawn up the appraisals for the declaration of assets.

Documents that could later have provided information about the origin of supposedly anonymous loot were destroyed until shortly before the auction house was privatized in 2001. The legally prescribed retention period had long since expired. In the end, 32 million dollars from the privatization proceeds flowed into the compensation fund.

Between 1938 and 1945, the Municipal Collections had acquired 1478 objects from the Dorotheum alone, the origin of most of which is still unclear even after 25 years of systematic provenance research since 1999: the previous owners of exactly 1205 objects are unknown.

Successful search for heirs

This was not the case with the Beethoven bust mentioned at the beginning, which Wilhelm Kux had to sell for 3000 Reichsmarks. To the delight of the then director of the Städtische Sammlungen, who was worried about competition, specifically from the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, which would probably “do everything in its power to get hold of this precious piece”.

In 2008, the Vienna Restitution Commission declared the bust “eligible for restitution”. The search for an heir proved difficult and a legal successor was not found until 2023. “The handover of the bust is currently being prepared”, as the exhibition catalog states. (Olga Kronsteiner, 6.6.2024)

Until 27.10.

“Robbery” at the Wien Museum

“Robbery” at the Jewish Museum

“Robbery:” Jewish Expropriation in a Video Show

ORF (Austrian Public Broadcasting), June 5, 2024

German original: https://wien.orf.at/stories/3259997/

The Jewish Museum Vienna (JMW) and the Wien Museum have realized an exhibition without original objects with their cooperation project “Robbery”. It focuses on the systematic expropriation and robbery of Vienna's Jewish population after the Anschluss of Austria.

It is an attempt to “tell the story of the Holocaust in a different way,” says JMW Director Barbara Staudinger. In museums, you only get to see the objects in a video installation. “Robbery” is an “unconventional exhibition” that was deliberately conceived as an “artistic installation” and a memorial, added Vienna Museum Director Matti Bunzl during a press tour on Wednesday. “I think this is extremely appropriate.”

Twelve exemplary cases were selected by the curator duo Hannes Sulzenbacher and Gerhard Milchram. From March 1938, a “gigantic robbery” was possible in Vienna. “People knew: now we have a clear path,” explained Sulzenbacher. “That's another reason why we considered whether we should perhaps call the exhibition ‘Greed’ rather than ‘Robbery’.”

Videos show robbery

But how to make the robberies carried out by both private individuals and institutions comprehensible and vivid? The decision was made to create videos about the cases. The focus is on the looted objects, from everyday objects such as watches to works of art, which are shown on the displays in the Jewish Museum and unpacked again in the Wien Museum.

Filmmaker Patrick Topitschnig is responsible for the visual concept, bringing the objects up close and having them carefully handled by gloved hands. The originals themselves, however, are not shown. “It's almost like a memory,” says Sulzenbacher. “The aim is to make the withdrawal tangible. We want to turn this absence into a presence.”

Personal stories and “anonymous prey”

Among the twelve cases and fates presented - the exhibition texts also present the personal stories of the original owners, and the QR code allows visitors to delve even deeper - are the sugar manufacturer Oscar Bondy and lawyer Siegfried Fuchs, as well as “anonymous loot” from the Dorotheum. The auction house was one of the biggest profiteers of the looting of the Jewish population at the time, as many objects were resold here.

Between 1938 and 1945, around 1,500 objects from the Dorotheum that were suspected to have come from Jewish owners went to the municipal collections. However, in many cases it is extremely difficult to determine the previous owners, not least due to the lack of records. Some of the objects were also mass-produced.

25 years of urban restitution research

In this context, Bunzl referred to the importance of provenance research, saying that museums must remain self-critical and ask themselves the question: “How do you deal with shortcomings in the history of your own institution?” Milchram in turn referred to 25 years of restitution research by the City of Vienna, on which a comprehensive publication was recently published and which also provided the impetus for “Raub”. He made it clear: “These 25 years are no cause for celebration, but rather an opportunity to reflect on how quickly a society can tip over into the inhumane.”

St. Pölten Illuminates Jewish Culture

ORF, June 5, 2024

German original: https://noe.orf.at/stories/3259982/

The "Jewish Weekends" will present a broad spectrum of Jewish culture away from clichés on the weekends of June 7-9 and June 14-16. The festival will take place at the former synagogue in St. Pölten, the Bühne im Hof and the Festspielhaus.

At the "Jewish Weekends," Austrian premieres of international ensembles will meet programs that local artists have designed especially for the festival, according to a press release. The programs range from Jewish Renaissance and Baroque music to classical music, singer-songwriters, jazz and avant-garde.

The first weekend is themed "Between Ghetto, Emancipation and the Eternal." In addition to the opening concert "From Romanticism to Broadway" with Sharon Kam on clarinet and Matan Porat on piano, visitors can also look forward to the Klezmer trio Kroke with "From Kazimierz to the World" and the world premiere of "Encounters with Splendor. A Journey through the Hebrew Alphabet" with the Michel Godard Quartet featuring Nataša Mirković.

"Being Jewish. Of Complex Identities" is the theme of the second weekend: historian Benjamin Grilj will talk about "Odessa's Jewish History. The Turbulent 20th Century." The Andrej Prozorov Trio will musically recall this period with "Am Schwarzen Meer" and Dan Rosenberg will talk about the creation of "Shoah and Survival in Poland. The 'Silent Tears' Project," while "Silent Tears. The Last Yiddish Tango" with Olga Mieleszczuk, Lenka Lichtenberg, Dan Rosenberg and the Payadora Ensemble will see an Austrian premiere.

Director Guy Nattiv: “The Hatred of Jews Remains, it Breaks my Heart”

Der Standard, June 4, 2024

German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000222449/guy-nattiv-ich-bin-nicht-mit-dem-einverstanden-was-netanjahu-macht

“Golda”, Nattiv's intimate play about Israel's ex-President Golda Meir during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, is currently showing in cinemas. How relevant is Israel's history?

Interview
Valerie Dirk

In 2018, Israeli director Guy Nattiv won an Oscar for his short film Skin, which deals with racist violence in the American neo-Nazi scene. The success opened the doors to Hollywood, and a feature-length version of the material was made by legendary indie studio A24 in 2019. At this point, the filmmaker, who was born in Tel Aviv in 1973, had already been living in the USA for several years. His film Golda, which is now in cinemas, portrays Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir at a crossroads in her career: during the Yom Kippur War in October 1973. British actress Helen Mirren plays Golda Meir with an Oscar-nominated mask and a constantly burning cigarette.

STANDARD: How are you doing at the moment, especially as an Israeli filmmaker in the USA?

Nattiv: It's generally a difficult time, both for Israelis and Palestinians. I've lived here for almost eleven years and feel more like a Jewish American than an Israeli. But the rise of antisemitism in the U.S. worries me a lot. As a descendant of Holocaust survivors, I am very aware of what my grandparents suffered in Poland and Romania. And now I am experiencing things that are similar to their stories. The hatred towards Jews.

STANDARD: How does this hatred manifest itself?

Nattiv: Shortly after October 7th, five minutes from my house, someone tried to break into the rabbi's house. He was naked and shouting “I will kill Jews, I will kill Jews.” Fortunately, it ended with his arrest, but it was terrifying. There were also some statements made during the student protests at the universities. When I moved here, I thought America was a safe place for Jews. But antisemitism is more present than it has been for a long time. Not only Israelis are experiencing this, but also American Jews. The war might end soon, but the hatred of Jews remains. That breaks my heart.

STANDARD: You spoke about the university protests. Can you also understand some of the demands?

Nattiv: I myself agree with the protesters on many points. I also don't agree with what Benjamin Netanyahu is doing. I am against this government, it is sick and extreme. Netanyahu should resign along with his extremist cabinet. I can understand the students, but it seems that half of the protest camps are not students at all. They are mainly activists who very often use antisemitic rhetoric. Many Jewish students told me that they wouldn't even come to campus without being called a “dirty Jew.” A Jewish professor from Columbia University was not allowed into his class. They go through hell. I'm a big supporter of free speech. But smashing windows, burning Israeli flags and writing “Zionism is Nazism - go back to Europe” is not freedom of speech. There's a big difference.

STANDARD: Your film Golda celebrated its world premiere at the Berlinale in February 2023 and is now being released in cinemas. What is the significance of a film about Israel's first and only female prime minister at this point in time?

Nattiv: The film is much more important now than it was before October 7, 2023. Golda Meir was stubborn, she didn't believe anyone. She stood at the head of a young, traumatized nation just 30 years after the Holocaust. People lived in constant fear of being wiped out and they fought hard against it. Golda made history as the world's first female prime minister, but her cabinet was the definition of a dysfunctional government. In 1967, after the Six-Day War, Israel believed itself to be unbeatable. They saw themselves as the king of the Middle East. Golda Meir received a massive slap in the face for this, and Israel realized that you can't do whatever you want in the region. That you have to give back conquered land.

STANDARD: Do you see parallels with the current government?

Nattiv: Absolutely. In both cases, it was a blind government that is unwilling to talk about what lies ahead. But the difference between Golda and Bibi Netanyahu is that Golda took responsibility and resigned. She understood that the Yom Kippur War was a huge failure. Bibi, on the other hand, is glued to his chair because he is afraid of going to jail as the man responsible for that failure. He will kill more and more people, even though he has already lost the war. That's the difference between Golda, who thought of her country, and Bibi, who only thinks of Bibi. Golda was also a friend of the Americans. And she knew how to talk to them. Bibi does the opposite, he does everything to humiliate Biden.

STANDARD: Golda Meir is also a controversial figure, especially in Israel.

Nattiv: That's because she was the face of failure. She also did not accept the Mizrachis, the Jews from Asia and Africa. Nor did it deal with the Palestinian issue because it was dealing with a war that threatened its very existence. In 1973, three Arab countries attacked Israel. The Munich assassination also took place during her term of office. Yes, she was controversial, but these are the most interesting figures.

STANDARD: Golda is not a classic biopic, but a condensed chamber play. Why this form?

Nattiv: When I came on board, Golda was planned as an 80 million dollar film by Amazon. Helen Mirren had already been hired and the script was ready. It was supposed to be a classic war movie. I then asked: Where is Golda? And why is it written as if it's about the British army, not the Israeli army? When I was revising the script, Covid came. Due to the pandemic, we lost the budget, and the screenwriter and I decided that we had to bring the war into the room instead of showing it.

STANDARD: Were there any role models?

Nattiv: I was very influenced by The Last Act, G. W. Pabst's movie about Hitler. I love these closed, claustrophobic war chamber plays. Golda couldn't go to the front because she was ill. This gave me the opportunity to make a study of this old, dying woman, while the worst war Israel has ever experienced is being fought outside. The sound was also very important to me, inspired by The Conversation by Francis Ford Coppola. The fact that we were allowed to use real sound recordings from the war was an asset.

STANDARD: Smoke, birds, archive recordings - you show a lot of metaphors and hidden meanings ...

Nattiv: Thank you for noticing that. The smoke is meant to symbolize the inability to see each other. It is the smoke of war. Golda's constant cigarette smoking also symbolizes her self-hatred. She smokes herself to death. And as the state of her body deteriorates, so does the state of the country. The birds are called freedom birds in Israel. Every October they come in flocks and are interpreted as a sign of the future. Just like the birds that were used in coal mines to indicate danger. So when these birds fly into the chimney, it points to the coming apocalypse. And the shows playing on TV in the background indicate the escapism that has taken place at the same time. They are silent because Golda couldn't be part of it.

STANDARD: How did you feel about the excitement surrounding the casting of Golda Meir with Helen Mirren, a non-Jewish actress?

Nattiv: Golda's grandson said he saw his grandmother in Helen. Not physically, but mentally, in that cleverness, wisdom and cheeky manner. When I met her and she told me that she had lived in an Israeli kibbutz for a year in the 1960s, and I saw that she understood what it was like in Israel back then, I felt at ease with her. I also put her in the middle of an ensemble of Israeli actresses. That felt right. (Valerie Dirk, 4.6.2024)

Guy Nattiv is a 51-year-old Oscar-winning director from Tel Aviv. His next project “Tatami” is about an Iranian judoka and is an Israeli-Iranian co-production. He lives in the USA with his wife, actress Jaime Ray Newman, and two daughters.

A New Wave of Hatred

Der Standard, June 1, 2024
German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000222359/eine-neue-welle-von-hass

Antisemitism and right-wing extremism are becoming more prominent again

Column
Hans Rauscher

In Saxony-Anhalt, in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, three young people burned a copy of Anne Frank's diary. The incident fits in with the recent accumulation of antisemitic, racist and Nazi-friendly events in Europe, especially in Germany and Austria.

But it has a special quality, of which more in a moment. The headlines are currently dominated by the “foreigners out” riots of the more or less privileged youth in discos on Sylt or in Carinthia. What is being spouted to the sound of an Italo hit could perhaps be explained as follows: Young people of both sexes are obviously letting out their deep-seated resentments about the immigration of young, often quite aggressive men from the Middle East; one could almost speak of “territorial warfare.”

Antisemitism, which is also rampant, has overlaps, but is not quite the same thing. On the one hand, there is of course massive antisemitism on the part of Muslim immigrants; but alongside this, there is a new antisemitism on the part of the “natives” that demands more intensive examination.

The East German boys between 15 and 16 must have been aware of the symbolic significance of the diary of Anne Frank, who was almost the same age: The girl from a German-Jewish family hid from the Nazis in a Secret Annex in Amsterdam and wrote down her thoughts before she was betrayed to the Gestapo in 1944 and murdered in 1945. And they must have deliberately obtained this world-famous book in order to make an antisemitic gesture.

A few years ago, members of the ÖVP-affiliated action group at the Juridicum Vienna shared photos of “Anne Frank nudes”. They showed a pile of ashes. However, this deeply misogynistic and antisemitic perversity was perpetrated by young members of the middle and upper classes.

A study by TU Berlin, which analyzed the comments in the online editions of middle to upper class media such as Süddeutsche and FAZ, Le Monde and the Guardian, fits in with this. According to the study, hate comments have tripled and the tone has become much more aggressive. “On 7 October 2023, antisemitism suddenly emerged that is specifically characterized by the glorification of violence against Jews,” says Matthias Becker, head of the study.

Strongly Entrenched Antisemitism

The antisemitism taboo based on the memory of the Holocaust is presumably weakening among young people. Social media act as a multiplication machine and accelerant. The excessive war waged by the Israelis in Gaza allows a distorted “right-wing narrative.” The wave towards the right in Europe and the USA is taking antisemitism with it. And ultimately, it is probably the case that what has always been there and has never completely disappeared is becoming more visible today.

In an extremely revealing survey commissioned by Parliament in 2020, twelve percent of respondents agreed with the sentence: “It is not just a coincidence that the Jews have been persecuted so often in their history; at least in part, they themselves are to blame.” This paradigm of blame reversal roughly illustrates the extent of strongly entrenched antisemitism in Austria. (Hans Rauscher, 1.6.2024)

Celebrity Lawyer Wagner Charged After pro-Palestine Rally

APA, Der Standard, May 24, 2024

German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000221489/nahost-promi-anw228ltin-wagner-nach-pro-pal228stina-kundgebung-angezeigt

The lawyer was charged with incitement to hatred. The meeting in Vienna's city center was broken up by the police on Thursday evening after slogans were raised.

Wien – Am Donnerstagabend ist in der Wiener Innenstadt eine Pro-Palästina-Kundgebung aufgelöst worden, nachdem Teilnehmende laut Polizei wiederholt einschlägige, gegen den Staat Israel gerichtete Parolen skandiert hatten. Vier Personen, die an der Versammlung teilgenommen bzw. dabei eine Rede gehalten hatten, wurden wegen Verhetzung angezeigt, teilte die Landespolizeidirektion am Freitag mit. Unter den Angezeigten befindet sich die Promi-Anwältin und Strafverteidigerin Astrid Wagner.

Im Gespräch mit der APA bezeichnete Wagner die Anzeige als "ungeheuerlich" und unterstellte der Polizei ein amtsmissbräuchliches Vorgehen. Sie sei von der Demo-Veranstalterin eingeladen worden, im Rahmen der Versammlung ihre "juristische Expertise" darzulegen. Sie habe dabei aus "Urteilen von Verwaltungsgerichten" zitiert, denen zufolge der Satz "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free ("Vom Fluss bis zum Meer wird Palästina frei sein") "nicht grundsätzlich illegal" sei, sondern "nur dann, wenn er in einem bestimmten Kontext verwendet wird", sagte Wagner. Das sei keine Verhetzung. Sie deswegen anzuzeigen sei nicht rechtens: "Das ist Amtsmissbrauch. Als Polizist muss ich wissen, was eine Verhetzung ist. Es gibt keinen Anhaltspunkt, dass da etwas Strafbares ist. Nie im Leben ist das eine Verhetzung."

Wagner will gegen Anzeige vorgehen

Die Polizei habe die Demonstration "willkürlich" und "ohne erkennbaren Grund" aufgelöst, so die Anwältin. Fünf schwerbewaffnete Polizisten hätten sie verfolgt und zur Identitätsfeststellung aufgefordert: "Das war eine absolut bedrohliche Situation. Ich bin behandelt worden wie eine Terroristin. In meinem ganzen Leben ist es mir noch nie so gegangen."

Wie die Landespolizeidirektion dazu per Presseaussendung mitteilte, war die Kundgebung an sich angemeldet und genehmigt worden. Als immer wieder antiisraelische Parolen ertönten, sei die Versammlung – die laut APA-Augenschein an Ort und Stelle friedlich verlief – mit 20 bis 25 Teilnehmenden gegen 18.30 Uhr behördlich untersagt und aufgelöst worden. Das Landesamt Staatsschutz und Extremismusbekämpfung (LSE) habe man über die Vorfälle verständigt.

Wagner will nun "mit allen rechtlichen Möglichkeiten" gegen das polizeiliche Vorgehen zu Felde ziehen. Gegenüber der APA kündigte sie eine Anzeige wegen Amtsmissbrauchs, eine Maßnahmenbeschwerde gegen die Amtshandlung und eine Klage wegen Kreditschädigung an. "Das lasse ich mir nicht bieten", insistierte sie. Sie erwarte sich für das, was ihr widerfahren sei, "eine persönliche Entschuldigung vom Herrn Innenminister". (APA, 24.5.2024)

Austria is Now Stepping Up Security at Jewish Institutions

Heute, May 19, 2024

German original: https://www.heute.at/s/oesterreich-bewacht-juedische-einrichtungen-nun-verstaerkt-120037348

On Saturday, the federal government announced that it would be stepping up its surveillance of Jewish properties and institutions, especially in Vienna.

The federal government has decided to take measures to further strengthen the protection of Jewish institutions in Austria, according to a statement from the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) on Saturday. The threat situation in Europe and Austria has changed since the “brutal and inhuman terrorist attack by Hamas on the state of Israel” on October 7, 2023.

Jewish institutions in particular have become the focus of radicals and extremists throughout Europe. The Federal Ministry of the Interior had already implemented increased security measures “in close consultation” with the Jewish Religious Society. These measures are now being further intensified in cooperation with the Austrian Armed Forces, it is said.

These are the new measures

• The Austrian Armed Forces will further strengthen the security police assistance mission for the protection of objects, especially in the federal capital Vienna.

• All measures will be permanently adapted to the current security situation - above all in close cooperation and collaboration with the Jewish Religious Society.

• The Austrian Armed Forces support the surveillance of objects worthy of protection and Jewish institutions in order to jointly ensure greater security.

“We are further strengthening the protection of Jewish institutions. We do not accept anti-Semitic harassment, attacks or assaults on Jewish institutions and will punish them with the utmost determination. The Jewish community in Austria has a reliable partner in the Federal Government,” said Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP).

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) added that both the police and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution were taking “consistent action against all forms of radicalization and extremism in Austria”. “An attack and agitation on and against the Jewish community is also an attack against our nation. We are therefore increasing the personnel resources of the Austrian Armed Forces by 50 people for the necessary protection of Jewish institutions,” concluded Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner (ÖVP).

In a nutshell

• The federal government has decided to strengthen the protection of Jewish institutions in Austria due to the threat situation following the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel

• Increased security measures will be implemented in cooperation with the Austrian Armed Forces to prevent anti-Semitic attacks

• Federal Chancellor Nehammer emphasizes the government's determination to punish attacks on Jewish institutions, while Interior Minister Karner and Defence Minister Tanner support the measures against radicalization and extremism

Rector of the University of Vienna: “We Must Prioritize the Safety of Our Jewish Students”

Der Standard, May 18, 2024

German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000220647/rektor-der-uni-wien-muessen-die-sicherheit-unserer-juedischen-studierenden-in-den-vordergrund-stellenInterview

Interview
Anna Giulia Fink, Oona Kroisleitner

Sebastian Schütze on the pro-Palestinian protests on campus, the rules of the discourse and hardened fronts

There is fierce debate and controversy at universities around the world. The protests for a quick end to the Gaza war began at universities in the USA. They have gradually spread throughout Europe - and have now even spilled over into Austria.

Activists recently camped out on the campus of the University of Vienna for three days to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people. Shortly after they pitched their tents on a meadow in the old general hospital on Alsergrund, hung up their banners and distributed flyers, the University of Vienna distanced itself from the protest. Two days later, the tent camp was cleared by the police.

The University of Vienna is the largest university in the country and has been headed by Sebastian Schütze as Rector since October 2022. It was his second occupation in his short time in office. Two years ago, hundreds of students occupied a lecture hall under the title “Earth is burning” - also on the grounds of the Old General Hospital. They demanded stricter measures in the fight against climate change.

Universities traditionally provide the framework for major social debates. But how much controversy does a university actually have to put up with? When can and when must the university management intervene? Who are the young people who claim to want to support the people in Gaza, but who others say are anti-Semites? In the STANDARD interview, Schütze explains the university's actions. Evictions, the ending of a protest by the university, are always only the “last resort”, he says.

STANDARD: The University of Vienna quickly distanced itself from the pro-Palestine camp. Nevertheless, it continued for a few days. How much protest does a university have to tolerate?

Schütze: A university must allow protest. That's why we always take a look first when something happens: What is it about? Who is involved? In which direction is it going? We did the same in this case. In the beginning, solidarity with Palestine was shown, but then it moved more and more in the direction of the intifada camp. Legitimate criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu's government or calling for solidarity with Palestine is of course fine. But if it goes in a direction that has anti-Semitic undertones, then that is not acceptable. As a university, we have to prioritize the safety of our Jewish students and staff.

STANDARD: The camp was based on the protests in the USA - also in its demands.

Schütze: The situation in the USA is completely different to that in Vienna. That also has something to do with our history. Regardless of that, a critical discussion doesn't start with banning things or, for example, canceling cooperation with Israeli universities or the Erasmus program with Israeli universities, as has been demanded. For me, that is the opposite of diversity of perspective. How do we want to remain in dialog if we no longer talk to each other and no longer ensure that people can see for themselves on the ground or come to us? That's the wrong approach. The call for a boycott of Israeli institutions is also one of the central demands of the BDS movement, which is clearly classified as anti-Semitic in Austria and Germany.

Various groups had called for the occupation of the Vienna campus, including the BDS movement mentioned by Schütze. The “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” movement is a loose international association that advocates a boycott of Israeli goods. Der Funke is also said to have been significantly involved in the campaign. The Trotskyist organization is repeatedly criticized for its positions on Israel. Among other things, it has called for an “intifada until victory”.

A group calling itself “Palestine Solidarity Encampment Vienna” raised demands on social media, while “Camp4Palestine” organized the day's programme on site. According to the police, around 100 people, some of them organized, others students or people who sympathized with their positions, followed the call at the beginning on 6 May. In the end, there were still around 40 when the police carried out the eviction on the night of May 9. Prior to this, the security authorities had identified a radicalization at the Altes AKH.

STANDARD: But how does the university actually decide that it has gone too far?

Schütze: Issues like this are highly complex and characterized by a great deal of sensitivity on all sides. That's why we took a close look at the camp. We also followed the international protest that started in the USA and is now taking place throughout Europe. At a university, freedom of expression is a very valuable asset - evicting or ending a protest can only ever be the last resort.

STANDARD: Where do you see the limits of freedom of expression at university?

Schütze: For me, the limits are reached when the freedom of one person comes into conflict with the rights and freedoms of others. We have a very open space for discourse at the university, which we want to maintain. However, this requires rules. For me, these are no longer respected when freedom of expression is used for positions that are openly racist, openly anti-Semitic, openly glorifying violence; or for positions that argue directly against the foundations of our democracy. It should be possible for us to have objective, fact-based discussions - even on controversial topics.

The worldwide demonstrations against the Israeli military operation in Gaza began immediately after it started. People also took to the streets in Austrian cities to demonstrate against Israel's reaction to the massacre by the terrorist organization Hamas on 7 October.

Universities soon became the centers of these demonstrations - especially those in the USA. From mid-April, tents were set up at Columbia University and Harvard, rooms were stormed and halls occupied. This was followed by the University of Amsterdam, the Science Po in Paris, the Technical University of Berlin and the British University of Oxford - to name just a few examples. And finally: Vienna.

However, the University of Vienna is not the first university in Austria to be affected by the issue. At the end of last year, a video made the rounds that was recorded by the representative body of Jewish students in Austria (Jüdische österreichische Hochschüler:innen, JöH) as part of a protest action. It showed a speaker calling for the Hamas attack to no longer be mentioned: It had never happened. The filming JöH president Alon Ishay was urged to leave. He stayed. In the end, he had a “constructive conversation” there, Ishay said later. The art university distanced itself and condemned the “completely unacceptable” scenes.

STANDARD: Why are these debates erupting like this at universities?

Schütze: Traditionally, there has always been a lot of space and freedom for discussion at universities. That's right, and it will stay that way. The responsibility is great, we are fully aware of that.

STANDARD: In other countries, debates at universities are much more radical than in Austria. Are you worried that this “culture war”, as it is called in the USA and Germany, for example, will also become tougher in Vienna?

Schütze: We have done a lot to ensure that it is possible to talk to each other in a reasonable way and that this hardening of fronts, which then culminates in a so-called culture war, does not occur. It must be the aspiration of a university to find common ground in discussions, even when there are opposing positions. That is the responsibility of the university and also of those who study or teach here.

STANDARD: What can universities do to counter the growing radicalization?

Schütze: Even a university does not exist in a vacuum. We operate within a larger discourse space that we can only influence to a limited extent. What we can do is work within the university to ensure that positions are discussed with objective arguments and that it is also allowed if someone has a different opinion. However, especially with the war in the Gaza Strip and criticism of Israel, we can see that this radicalization is taking place. We are therefore considering which formats are suitable for enabling dialog at the university.

The slogans that were already written on posters in other cities were also found on the banners in Vienna. Among other things, Israeli warfare was criticized and a ceasefire was called for. Many banners accused Israel of “genocide” - and the University of Vienna of “complicity” due to its cooperation with Israeli educational institutions. According to most international law experts, the accusation of systematic genocide is unfounded. In its response to South Africa's complaint, the International Court of Justice also did not declare genocide to be plausible, but that the Palestinians were entitled to protection from genocide.

Photos of banners with the inscription “Student Intifada Camp” also circulated on Twitter. The term “intifada” refers to the Palestinian uprisings against Israel that began in 1987 - initially against soldiers - and led to a wave of terrorist attacks against civilians from 2000 onwards. Since then, Hamas has repeatedly called for a new intifada - even after October 7.

Some condemn the protests against the Gaza war as an expression of hatred of Jews. Others see this as an attempt to discredit these voices. The fronts are hardening. However, this has not only been happening since the war in the Middle East flared up again. Opinions are already strongly divided on climate change, gender issues and measures in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Is this also dividing society?

STANDARD: What role do universities play in the overall social discourse and in the political structure?

Schütze: First of all, politicians are responsible for politics - this is a discourse space that is fundamentally different from ours. We have two different tasks with partly similar responsibilities and, if all goes well, similar intentions. For example, the university sees itself as having a very strong responsibility to promote democracy. But a university or academia has lost out if it gets involved in day-to-day business or allows itself to be taken over by certain political tendencies.

STANDARD: To what extent is it the task of a university to uphold and promote the rules of democracy?

Schütze: That is one of the central tasks of the university. Academically trained people contribute more knowledge and often also more commitment to civil society discussions, for example. This strengthens a democratic system. Education is one of the cornerstones of democracy and the preservation of democracy. This also includes a certain culture of discussion. However, this is becoming increasingly difficult in the wider political discourse. It is becoming more and more populist, less about the exchange of factual arguments and more about ideologies and confrontation. We will do everything we can to ensure that factual discussion can take place here, even on controversial topics, and hope that this will serve as a model for society.

A space of knowledge, fruitful exchange and progress - that is one view of the universities and the debates that students and lecturers conduct there. Another assessment is that the issues that universities, as well as the arts and cultural sector, deal with are increasingly elitist and unrealistic.

STANDARD: How great is the discrepancy between what is discussed at universities and what the general public is interested in?

Schütze: The two sides are not congruent and never will be. Nevertheless, universities make an important contribution to society - even with things that are not always immediately obvious what they are good for. It's about forming theories, developing new methods and discussing alternatives. One of the fundamental principles of science is I put forward a hypothesis in order to verify or falsify it. Falsifying it is also an important result because it makes the next step possible. Innovation and progress are based on this.

STANDARD: In the natural sciences, however, this process is often more comprehensible than in the humanities and social sciences.

Schütze: Let me give you an example: one of our major future topics that affects everyone is artificial intelligence. It is wrong to assume that it is enough to deal with the technology or the algorithms behind it. We also need to look at the ethical and legal issues that arise. We will not be able to tackle the topic without a social science perspective. And that applies to a great many topics. The same applies to climate change, for example.

STANDARD: Climate change, corona or genetic engineering, for example, are also topics where scientific skepticism is clearly evident.

Schütze: The debate about scientific scepticism must be conducted in a differentiated manner. It is true that it has increased or at least become more visible. But a large proportion of the population has also seen what science can achieve - for example in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. However, it is sometimes difficult to convey that it is part of the DNA of science to change your mind based on new findings.

Most of the courtyards on campus are now closed overnight due to “disruption and damage”. At least for the time being, this is to remain the case. The large courtyard where the demonstration took place and where several pubs are located will remain open. More security personnel are now patrolling there. (Anna Giulia Fink, Oona Kroisleitner, 18.5.2024)

Chancellor Spoke With Religious Representatives About Antisemitism

ORF (Austrian Public Broadcasting), May 14, 2024

German original: https://religion.orf.at/stories/3224996/

Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) invited religious representatives to a round table on Tuesday to discuss current issues. The effects of the Middle East conflict and the increasing number of antisemitic attacks were also discussed.

All participants agreed that the churches and religious communities in Austria will continue to work towards peaceful and safe religious coexistence, the Chancellery announced. The tenor of the meeting was that all believers, especially Jews in Austria, must be able to practice their faith without fear, celebrate masses and events together and wear religious symbols in public.

“Preventing extremism and terror”

“We must do everything we can together to prevent extremism and terror. Religion must not be misused by extremist ideologies - we stand firmly against this,” the Chancellor was quoted as saying in a press release.

In addition to Nehammer and Culture Minister Susanne Raab (ÖVP), the Roman Catholic Archbishop Franz Lackner, the Evangelical Lutheran Bishop Michael Chalupka, the Christian Orthodox Metropolitan Arsenios Kardamakis, President Ümit Vural of the Islamic Religious Community and the President of the Jewish Community of Vienna, Oskar Deutsch, took part in the meeting. A central topic was also the intensification of interfaith cooperation.

Van der Bellen: Not every criticism of Israel is antisemitism

Austria's Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen explained with regard to the Middle East conflict that not every criticism of the Israeli government can be identified as anti-Semitism. “I think the Israeli government makes it too easy for itself in some cases,” said the head of state on Ö1-Mittagsjournal. At the same time, he warned of burgeoning anti-Semitism in Europe. In Austria, efforts are being made to “nip this in the bud”.

“It really is a serious problem,” said Van der Bellen about the anti-Semitic protests across Europe, some of which have been registered worldwide since the terrorist massacre by the radical Islamic Hamas on October 7 and Israel's military response to it.

red, ORF.at/Agencies

Pro-Israeli Demonstration Against Protest Camp on Vienna University Grounds at the Old AKH

Der Standard/ David Krutzler, May 9, 2024

German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000219346/proisraelische-demo-gegen-protestcamp-auf-wiener-uni-areal-im-alten-akh

Around 200 police officers on the grounds of the AKH. A pro-Israeli demonstration against the protest camp took place beforehand

The police began clearing the pro-Palestine protest camp on the campus of the University of Vienna on the grounds of the Altes AKH in the Alsergrund district late on Wednesday evening. This was confirmed by a police spokesperson to APA. Activists had previously reported by email that “around 200 police officers” had surrounded the students' camp and given the protesters 15 minutes to leave the site.

According to an APA cameraman, more than 100 people gathered in front of the campus to show solidarity with the protesters. They chanted slogans and blocked traffic on Alser Straße. It was initially unclear whether they were new arrivals or whether they were pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had already left the camp.

According to the police, 100 people had pitched their tents on the campus of the University of Vienna at the Altes AKH following a “pro-Palestine” demonstration on Monday. The University of Vienna “firmly” distanced itself from the protesters' concerns. Camps had also previously been set up and buildings occupied at universities in the USA and Europe. Violence broke out in some cases during their eviction.

Counter demonstration in the afternoon

On Wednesday afternoon, a counter-demonstration against the protest camp set up by pro-Palestinian activists took place with a massive police presence. The police set up barriers at several entrances to Courtyard 1 of the university campus to separate the two groups. Numerous students had to plan detours on the way to their lecture halls. Around 70 to 80 people responded to the call for a counter-demonstration by the Jewish Austrian University Students (JöH) and the Alliance against Anti-Semitism (BGA) Vienna, which was distributed via social media. They were separated from the pro-Palestinian activists by only around 15 meters behind police barriers and protective fences at the start of the demonstration at around 1 pm. While the protest camp loudly chanted slogans such as “Free, free Palestine”, “Uni Vienna shame on you” and “Israel is a Terror State”, the counter-demonstrators' camp remained quiet for the time being.

Initially, Israel flags were waved, one poster read “Rape is not Resistance” and the hashtag #BringThemHomeNow was used to call for the release of the Israeli hostages from Gaza. It was not until around 1.20 p.m. that slogans from the camp of the counter-demonstrators followed: “Against, against anti-Semitism”, “Shame on you” or “Free Gaza from Hamas”. In the protest camp, where more than ten tents had already been set up, the reaction was a poster reading “Jews against genocide”.

Isolated Criminal Complaints

The police used loudspeaker announcements to point out that the demonstrators had to keep a safe distance. According to the Assembly Act, a safety zone of 50 meters must be maintained between demonstrations, the Vienna Provincial Police Directorate also announced via the X news service.

This was by no means the case at the beginning, later the police tried to enforce this on the side of the counter-demonstration. This had not been registered, police spokesman Mattias Schuster said in response to a STANDARD inquiry. “After the request was not complied with by everyone, we also had to respond with identity checks and individual reports.” There was no encirclement. The demonstration was gradually breaking up at around 3.15 p.m. According to the police, there had been no riots up to that point.

Officers from the State Office for State Protection and Counter-Extremism (LSE) were also present at the demonstration. According to the police, the content of the slogans, some of which were also spoken in Arabic at the protest camp, was being examined for possible criminal content. In the call for the counter-demonstration, the Jewish Austrian University Students pointed out that speeches at the protest camp called for a “student intifada” and spoke of a “Zionist entity”. The protest camp was led “by the anti-Semitic groups Dar-Al-Janub, BDS Austria and Der Funke”.

Around 100 people were at the protest camp on Wednesday afternoon. According to the police, there were initially “no reasons to disperse”, said spokesman Matthias Schuster. However, the situation would be evaluated on an ongoing basis. On Wednesday afternoon, the University of Vienna once again “firmly distanced itself from the ‘Student Intifada Protests’ on campus” via Platform X. An eviction was “currently not possible according to the assessment of the executive”. However, the university had “continued to examine all legal options” in coordination with the Vienna Provincial Police Directorate.

IKG President Deutsch criticizes the actions of the police

Oskar Deutsch, President of the Jewish Community of Vienna (IKG), strongly criticized the actions of the police. “Where do we live? There are calls for terror against Jews at the Intifada camp and the police don't intervene. The next day, students protest against the calls for violence, and the police protect the terror supporters, arrest the peaceful people holding up signs with inscriptions such as 'Free Gaza From Hamas' and report them.” The officers had thus contributed to “greater fear among Jews in Austria”, Deutsch said in a statement to STANDARD. He pointed out that protest camps had been broken up in other cities abroad. “That's why it's now time to scrutinize the operations management on the campus of the University of Vienna, replace it if necessary and finally dissolve this intifada camp.” (David Krutzler, 8.5.2024)

More Than a Bad Joke

Die Presse, guest commentary Dr. Florian Herb, May 9, 2024

German original: https://www.diepresse.com/18448348/mehr-als-ein-schlechter-scherz

Anti-Semitism. The paint bag attack on Minister Edtstadler proves that the anti-Israeli protest has reached Vienna

Not a terrorist attack, just a paint bag from a bucket. Nevertheless, anyone who sees an “attack” at close range in the middle of the day in Vienna's city center is initially in shock in these difficult times. The possibility of acts of violence is too strongly imprinted in our minds. Hybrid wars and politically motivated crime are worrying us. In Germany, the lead candidate of the Social Democrats for the European elections has just been seriously injured by four unidentified people while putting up posters. Attacks on politicians are on the increase.

At 9.15 a.m. on Monday, a well-known activist targeted Karoline Edtstadler, Minister of the Constitution, with fake blood in front of the Academy of Sciences in the city center. The minister opened the renowned and important anti-Semitism conference a few minutes later. The activist, himself a member of the Jewish community in Vienna, is no stranger to anti-Semitism. In January 2023, he blocked a street in Vienna as a radical climate activist, a member of the “Last Generation”. His loudly shouted protest was directed “against the normalization of genocide” and for a “ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip. After he threw himself on the ground, he was taken away by the police, who were already standing by.

Such actions do no favors for seriousness. After all, anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise not only in Vienna, but throughout Europe. As the European Commission summarizes: “Europe's Jews are living in fear again. We are witnessing a resurgence of anti-Semitic incidents and anti-Semitic rhetoric within the European Union and worldwide: Molotov cocktails are thrown at a synagogue in Germany, Jewish stars are thrown at public buildings in France, a Jewish cemetery is vandalized in Austria, Jewish stores and synagogues are attacked in Spain, while protesters chant hate slogans against Jews.”

On October 7, 2023, Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel barbarically reinforced the existing “world disorder” outlined at the beginning and initiated a war - with a direct impact on us too. Anti-Semitism is spreading, in Islamism, in right-wing extremism and also in left-wing extremism. Minister Edtstadler only pointed this out shortly before the conference. Perhaps this is another reason why she should be “intimidated”?

Rifts are opening up

We know: The longer the Israeli campaign against Hamas lasts, the more rifts open up in Europe's societies. The strange statements made by climate icon Greta Thunberg, for example, show how strongly pro-Palestinian views are being lobbied and supported. Major protests have been taking place for weeks in many countries, especially at universities. However, only a small proportion of these have been directed against Hamas, but the majority against the reactions expected from Israel. The action in Vienna unfortunately fits in here and probably does not coincide with the setting up of a “Pro Palestine” protest camp on the university campus in the Old General Hospital. Of course, protest in a democracy is fundamentally desirable and legitimate, but the motives and the “how” should be critically scrutinized.

About the author:

Dr. Florian Hartleb (*1979) is Research Director at the European Institute for Counter-Terrorism and Conflict Prevention, where he has just published a study on the rise of anti-Semitism.

Nightly Eviction of the pro-Palestine Camp in Vienna, Several Arrests

Kurier, May 9, 2024

German original: https://kurier.at/chronik/wien/pro-palaestina-camp-universitaet-campus-wien-raeumung-polizei-aktivisten/402889022

After three days, the Old General Hospital site was cleared. Around 40 people were in the camp, three are in police custody.

The police cleared the pro-Palestine protest camp on the campus of the University of Vienna on Thursday night, with some of the demonstrators leaving the grounds of the Old General Hospital in the Alsergrund district voluntarily. This was reported by APA reporters on the spot. According to police spokesman Mattias Schuster, there were around 40 people in the camp at the time of the police action, who were repeatedly asked to leave the area. Only some of the activists complied.

The police then gradually cleared the protest camp. Some demonstrators, chanting pro-Palestinian slogans, allowed themselves to be carried away. According to Schuster, three of them initially remained in police custody for identification purposes. The activists had previously reported by email that “around 200 police officers” had surrounded the students' camp and given the protesters 15 minutes to leave the site.

The police were still busy clearing the area the following morning. However, everything remained calm.

Pro-Palestine sympathizers block roads

The announcement of the eviction triggered a mobilization via social networks. Around 100 pro-Palestine sympathizers - including activists from the camp itself who had packed up their tents - subsequently gathered in the Alser Straße/Spitalgasse area and blocked both streets. According to APA reporters, they waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans such as “Palestine from the river to the sea”, “Free, free Palestine!” and a “Shame on you!” directed at the police.

Many were masked, for example with protective masks. The police also found violations of the ban on wearing masks. The atmosphere was loud but peaceful, reported the APA reporters. Over the course of the night, the demonstrators dispersed somewhat.

Special units such as the WEGA, the service dog squadron, the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN) and the State Office for State Security and Counter-Extremism (LSE) were also deployed on behalf of the police. A police drone was also used.

Night-time evacuation of the pro-Palestine camp in Vienna, several arrests

Violence broke out at times during the eviction

According to the police, around 100 people had set up their tents on the campus of the University of Vienna at the Altes AKH following a “pro-Palestine” demonstration on Monday. The University of Vienna “firmly” distanced itself from the protesters' concerns. Pro-Palestine camps had also previously been set up and buildings occupied at universities in the USA and Europe. Violence broke out in some cases when they were evacuated.

DSN and LSE had observed the situation at the Altes AKH campus from the beginning. At the beginning, the nature of the gathering was not such that the protest camp would have been broken up immediately, explained police spokesman Schuster. This changed, he said, because an increasing radicalization of the content was observed. Among other things, slogans glorifying the goals of the militant Palestinian organization Hamas and calls for an intifada (Palestinian uprising) were registered. “After considering all the circumstances and a final assessment by the DSN, the purpose of this gathering was no longer compatible with Austrian law”, Schuster continued.

Solidarity with the goals of Hamas

The DSN had come to the conclusion that the true purpose of the gathering was probably to show solidarity with the goals of Hamas and was therefore no longer covered by the right to freedom of expression. In addition, the protest on the grounds of the Old General Hospital was classified as a threat to public safety. “The priority is always public safety and health,” emphasized police spokesman Schuster. The security authorities had therefore decided to break up the rally. Hamas denies Israel's right to exist and is classified as a terrorist organization in the EU.

The Students' Union (ÖH) at the University of Vienna also distanced itself from the protest camp. Among others, “clearly anti-Semitic groups” such as “Der Funke” or the Israel boycott campaign BDS had called for this “emcampment”. Such protests make Jewish students feel increasingly insecure, it was claimed on Monday. Nora Hasan, Chairwoman of the ÖH at the University of Vienna, told APA on Thursday night: “We must provide a non-discriminatory space for everyone. It must not be the case that Jewish students cannot attend lectures and seminars.” Solidarity with Palestine is allowed, “but without anti-Semitism”, said the representative of the Association of Socialist Students (VSStÖ). “We work closely with the Jewish Student Union,” she emphasized.

On Wednesday afternoon, a counter-demonstration took place against the protest camp on the grounds of the Old General Hospital. More than 70 people responded to a call from the Jewish Austrian University Students (JöH) and gathered a few dozen meters away from the camp. The counter-demonstrators also chanted slogans such as “Free, free Palestine!” and “Israel is a Terror State”.

“Glorification of terror and calls for violence”

IKG President Oskar Deutsch welcomed the eviction of the camp. “The eviction by the police was the only right step in view of the glorification of terror and calls for violence! Now it is the turn of the judiciary to prosecute the agitators of the Intifada camp,” Deutsch said in a statement sent to APA on Thursday morning.

The chairman of the Vienna ÖVP, Karl Mahrer, spoke in a statement of a “clear reaction of the constitutional state”. He told the Vienna city government of the SPÖ and Neos parties: “The breeding ground for anti-Semitism must be removed. We therefore need the right and consistent measures in integration and education policy and, above all, in view of the recent incidents surrounding the Vienna Festival, a U-turn in cultural policy.”

Festival of Joy on Heldenplatz

ORF (Austrian Public Broadcasting), May 8, 2024

The Festival of Joy took place on Heldenplatz for the twelfth time on Wednesday evening. The Vienna Symphony Orchestra and a contemporary witness commemorated Austria's liberation from National Socialism. However, there were also some downsides.

For Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen, the celebratory mood was not unclouded in view of the sharp increase in anti-Semitic incidents. There must be “zero tolerance” for anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews. In his speech on Wednesday evening, he called for civil courage. “We must confront hatred of Jews and anti-Semitism with zero tolerance. Resolutely. Every day. Everywhere.”

Behind the statistics on anti-Semitic attacks are people who are shamed, insulted and, in the worst cases, physically attacked. The fact that a boy with a kippah was threatened with death by three youths on the streetcar, as happened some time ago, “simply must not happen in Austria”, he emphasized. “Jewish life belongs to Austria and, in particular, Jewish life belongs to our common home of Vienna.”

No IKG representatives at the celebrations

The Jewish Community (IKG) criticized the inadequate reaction to the march of an activist with a Palestine flag at the Mauthausen memorial service last Sunday. This was an “affront to all those murdered during the Shoah”. As a reaction to this and the, in their opinion, inadequate reaction of the Mauthausen Committee (MKÖ), no official representatives of the IKG will be present at the “Festival of Joy”, the IKG told APA.

An activist from the left-wing splinter group “Party of Labor” had turned up at the celebration with a Palestine flag and caused a stir. Because a concentration camp liberation ceremony is “no stage for such a show”, as one participant put it. It is fitting that the “Party of Labor” is considered a prime example of left-wing anti-Semitism and that after the Hamas massacre it was stated on its homepage that the “Palestinian resistance against occupation and oppression is a just cause”.

MKÖ Chairman Willi Mernyi reacted with regret to the cancellation: “For us, the focus on this day is on commemorating the victims and liberation from the Nazi terror regime. We regret that the IKG has canceled its participation in the Festival of Joy.”

Focus on the Nazi legal system

May 8 marks the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht exactly 79 years ago. In memory of the end of National Socialism, the Mauthausen Committee Austria (MKÖ) is organizing a solemn commemoration ceremony at Heldenplatz at 7.30 pm.

The Festival of Joy was organized this year with a focus on “Law and Justice under National Socialism”. The Nazi legal system was used specifically to persecute minorities. Criticism was nipped in the bud. Offenders were sentenced and executed without a fair trial, the Mauthausen Committee recalls.

This examination of the Nazi understanding of the law is intended to show how far apart law and justice can be. But it is not only the memory that counts, the present is also to be examined as part of the commemorative event, according to the organizers.

Speech by contemporary witness Rosa Schneeberger

Following the withdrawal of the IKG, the event is now being supported by the Gedenkdienst association and the Documentation Archive of Austrian Resistance. Together they want to inform, educate and, above all, sensitize the younger generations. The event will be hosted by actress Katharina Stemberger and Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen will give a speech. Contemporary witness Rosa Schneeberger will also speak at the event.

When Schneeberger was three years old, in 1939, her father and his brothers were arrested by the Nazi terror regime and deported to Dachau concentration camp and later to Buchenwald concentration camp. Rosa Schneeberger was five years old when she was arrested together with her mother and siblings as a Sintizza and deported to the Lackenbach camp. Schneeberger and her family survived in the Lackenbach camp until they were liberated by the Red Army in April 1945.

The eyewitness recounts what happened to her out of fear that history could repeat itself and that the atrocities of the Nazi terror regime could be committed again today. Schneeberger speaks to warn and admonish young people in particular and to appeal for a “never again”.

Concert in any weather

The free concert by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra will take place whatever the weather. Seating is limited and is primarily intended for the elderly and people with special needs. It is not possible to reserve seats. This year's concert will be performed by various chamber music ensembles of the orchestra. You can hear “Wiener Blut”, “I got rhythm” or the “Moritat” from the Threepenny Opera. This year's finale will once again be the “Ode to Joy” from Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

Omri Boehm Calls for the Nation State to be Overcome

ORF (Austrian Public Broadcasting), Gerald Heidegger, May 7, 2024

German original: https://topos.orf.at/wiener-festwochen-omri-boehm100

Those who want to defend human dignity cannot do so in the categories of the nation state. The German-Israeli philosopher Omri Boehm appeared on Vienna's Judenplatz on Tuesday evening with a perspective on how universal values could also overcome the sovereignty claims of victim groups. His “Speech to Europe” was accompanied by protests. At the beginning, Boehm called on the protesters from the Jewish community standing in front of him to listen and respect each other. He would also listen to them.

Boehm also positioned himself in the current dispute over the interpretation of the Middle East crisis with a call to abandon one's own myths and to defend one's own universal values against the burden of one's own history. His “Speech to Europe” (“Shadows of History, Spectres of the Present: The Middle East War and Europe's Challenge”) was held in front of Rachel Whiteread's Shoah memorial on Vienna's Judenplatz amid protests from Jewish groups. The Jewish Community had raised serious concerns about Boehm's speech at this location last week.

Anyone who wants to defend human dignity today must abandon the concept of national sovereignty, Boehm said, also referring to the history of Israel's founding based on the experience of the Holocaust. “We must respect history because we are committed to its ideals,” said Boehm. However, ideals could degenerate into myths, not least “national myths”. Now that right-wing governments are using national myths, the unifying ideals of history must once again be upheld, said the philosopher, who also recalled that the personal history of his wife and her expelled Jewish family from Vienna connected him to the Judenplatz.

“The proposal to begin an Israeli constitution not with the sovereignty of the Jewish people, but with respect for human dignity as the origin of law, would, so the argument goes, amount to imposing European cosmopolitan ideals on them, thus calling Jewish sovereignty into question. One side interprets such a universalist policy as racism or colonialism, the other as anti-Semitism. And since all sides see this sovereignty as a zero-sum game and a condition of their own existence, these doctrines are now no longer just in conflict, but on a collision course: the situation is so violent and the debate so heated, not because the two sides are so different, but because they are so similar. It is our task to understand where this logic comes from and to overcome it.”

- Omri Boehm at Vienna’s Judenplatz

If Europe proclaims that human dignity is inviolable, then it must see this against the backdrop of its own history and the transgressions of this history. Because even the sentence that human dignity is inviolable can quickly turn into a myth.

Europe and the overcoming of national sovereignty

In its founding, the European Union was the only productive answer to the question of what would become of the world after the end of the great empires. It is not the national sovereign, but the overcoming of this principle that is Europe's mission.

The decisive question for Boehm was whether the European doctrine of overcoming national sovereignty could also be applied to the victims of European history, specifically the Jews and the Holocaust. For only in a sovereign nation, according to the victims' doctrine, was it possible to escape systematic persecution and murder. And how, according to Boehm, could an Israeli constitution be based on historical experience, not first and foremost on the sovereignty of the Jewish people, but on universalizable human rights? This question is now being applied by some to the situation of the Palestinians - what, some Europeans ask, could lead us to criticize the Palestinians in their use of violence when they themselves are not protected by any law?

If Europe's answer to the downfall of empires is that human rights should be the guiding principle, the victims on the other side have always relied on the right of national sovereignty. Europe could only stand by its universal principles in the face of this conflict. The constant focus on its own historical responsibility could ultimately only lead to the contradictions described above.

“You are lying”, some of the Jewish demonstrators on the square countered Boehm. Some of their placards described October 7 as a continuation of the Shoah. On the square, the executive made an effort to give all voices their due and to maintain the boundaries between lecture, audience and protest.

ORFOmri Böhm also recalled the fate of his wife's family, who came from Vienna, on Vienna's Judenplatz

Milo Rau is surprised that Boehm is polarizing

The speech is jointly organized by the Institute for Human Sciences and the Festwochen. The First Foundation recently withdrew its support following protests from the Jewish Community.

In his introductory remarks, the new director of the Festival, Milo Rau, was surprised that a speaker “who wants to reconcile” like Boehm had led to the negative reactions in the run-up to the event. Rau also recently stated in an interview with journalist Heinz Sichrovsky in the magazine “News” that anti-Semitism was being “carelessly used and instrumentalized”.

“The term anti-Semitism has recently been extended by right-wing parties to more or less any position that doesn't suit them. But anti-Semitism is a crime, the term stands for the desire to persecute, marginalize and exterminate Jews all over the world. [...] The justified sensitivity of the two perpetrator nations, Germany and Austria, is being instrumentalized here, which is completely counterproductive and also absolutely transparent. Especially for me, who also has Jewish family roots, this is terrible and unacceptable. We have lost our moral compass in the political infighting between left-wing and right-wing parties.”

- Milo Rau in the current issue of “News”

Boehm sticks to his ideas on the Middle East

In the run-up to the event, Boehm defended the concept and the Judenplatz as the venue for his speech. “I am deeply connected to the history of the Holocaust and therefore also to the need to pay respect to its memory,” Boehm said on ZIB2 on Sunday evening: “But I believe we have developed ways of being disrespectful to this memory when we sometimes misuse it for the wrong purposes.” The Jewish Community (IKG) had spoken out in favor of moving Boehm's speech.

The philosopher maintained his criticized view of the Middle East conflict and the future vision of a “binational Israel” in the TV programme. He argued that the Middle East conflict could only be resolved through an Israeli-Palestinian federation, even if this was currently difficult to imagine. A two-state solution was unrealistic for various reasons.

The philosopher also told the “Standard” (Monday edition): “I understand the doubts about the federal direction, which I support. The situation has become unbearable since October 7. But it would be much further from reality to speak of a two-state solution today. Or that there is no need for mediation. These two illusions have led us to the current catastrophe.” His demands are more realistic than a two-state solution, which also breaks down in reality, for example when land claimed by Israel leads to Palestinians being “deprived of their democratic rights” at the same time.

In his book essay “Israel - A Utopia”, published in 2020, Boehm sees a blatant contradiction between a Jewish state and a liberal democracy. He advocates the vision of an “ethnically neutral state”, which would also overcome its Zionist foundation.

“It is perfectly consistent that he should actually say that as a utopia it must be possible, desirable and aspirational for Jews and Palestinians to live as equal citizens in a democratic state at some point. I understand anyone who says that this is too utopian for me, I have objections, I have a need for discussion, but I cannot understand someone who then says that it is a disgrace that such a person should step forward, appear and speak in this or that place.”

- Daniel Kehlmann on Ö1-Mittagsmagazin

Muzicant against Boehm in the run-up to the event

If he were 30, he would go to Vienna's Judenplatz and throw eggs. This is how the former president of the Jewish Community (IKG), Ariel Muzicant, commented on Boehm's appearance on Vienna's Judenplatz in the run-up to the event. Muzicant, currently Interim President of the European Jewish Congress and Vice President of the World Jewish Congress, considers the square to be an unsuitable location for the Jewish philosopher's speech. According to his own statements, he intervened with the City of Vienna and the Erste Foundation, one of the sponsors of the event. This was successful with the Erste Foundation (which withdrew its support for the event), but unsuccessful with the City of Vienna. City Councillor for Culture Veronica Kaup-Hasler was in New York when the debate broke out and discussed the roots of anti-Semitism in Vienna around 1900 at an international conference.

Boehm called Muzicant's criticism “disrespectful” because it could encourage people to throw eggs at this very place of remembrance. “People like Muzicant” who complain that he introduces post-colonial thinking into the Israeli context are ill-informed, Boehm said: “I am a vocal opponent of post-colonialist thinking, theoretically and in the Israeli-Palestinian context. What seems to bother Muzicant about my position is not my alleged 'postcolonialism', but the fact that, with Kant, I represent the universalism of the Enlightenment. That is of course legitimate, albeit worrying.”

Edtstadler: “Pure anti-Zionism and therefore anti-Semitism”

IKG President Oskar Deutsch recently criticized the fact that requests to postpone Boehm's speech had been rejected. Sharp criticism was also voiced on Monday by Constitutional Minister Edtstadler, who is currently holding an international conference on anti-Semitism herself. It is high time to reconsider actually giving someone who criticizes Israel here, which is not criticism of Israel, but pure anti-Zionism and therefore anti-Semitism, a stage in the middle of Vienna, Edtstadler was heard saying on Ö1-Mittagsjournal.

The difficult mission for peace: Interpreted by British artist Banksy in Bethlehem 2007 | Jim Hollander / EPA / picturedesk.com

Kehlmann outraged by Muzicant

Boehm's companion Daniel Kehlmann defended Boehm's approach on Ö1-Mittagsjournal on Monday. According to Kehlmann, Boehm represents the idea that ethical norms, rights and human dignity cannot be divided into groups in any way: “And for this reason, it is completely consistent that he must actually say that as a utopia it must be possible and desirable and aspirable that at some point Jews and Palestinians live as equal citizens in a democratic state. I understand anyone who says that this is too utopian for me, I have objections, I have a need for discussion, but I cannot understand someone who then says that it is a disgrace that such a person should step forward, appear and speak in this or that place.”

Of course, according to Kehlmann, Boehm's proposals touched on an internal Israeli debate. “But there are also many Israeli intellectuals, such as my close friend Etgar Keret, who also say that there must be a way to live Jewish lives safely and peacefully in Israel without having to define the state as Jewish in any way.” There must also be the idea that Israel can be a state like any other, without having to put up with threats of violence when advocating this position. “Anyone who throws eggs is quick to throw something else. I find that absolutely outrageous,” said Kehlmann, addressing Muzicant.

Color Attack on Edtstadler at Antisemitism Conference, Harsh Criticism Before Boehm Speech

Der Standard/ Eric Frey Ronald Pohl Clara Wutti, May 6, 2024

Constitutional Minister Edtstadler and IKG President Deutsch bring the Jewish philosopher close to anti-Semitism. He is due to speak on Judenplatz on Tuesday evening.

Vienna - The annual international conference against anti-Semitism will be held in Vienna on Monday and Tuesday. On Tuesday, the German-Israeli philosopher Omri Boehm is to give this year's “Speech to Europe” as part of the Vienna Festival. Both events caused controversy on Monday.

Early on Monday morning, an activist allegedly tried to throw red paint on Constitutional Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) in front of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), where the anti-Semitism conference is taking place. This was reported by the Kurier and Kronen Zeitung newspapers. The activist is said to have held a poster that read “genocide”. According to a spokesperson for the minister, Edtstadler was only able to escape the attack because an employee warned her at the last second. “The attack was clearly aimed at her and the conference against anti-Semitism,” the spokesperson told Kurier and Kronen Zeitung. She assigns the man to the “left-wing spectrum”.

Pictures show large sheets of red paint on the ground in front of the ÖAW. Other conference participants such as Oskar Deutsch, the President of the Jewish Community of Vienna, are said to have been brought into the building via other entrances after the attack. Edtstadler thanked the Vienna police for their swift intervention. “It is shameful that a conference in Austria, which is dedicated to international networking in the fight against anti-Semitism, can no longer be held without police protection”, said the Minister. Only last week, she had warned of increasing left-wing anti-Semitism.

Activist of the “last generation”

The activist was a former member of the “Last Generation” protest movement. The protest was directed against the “normalization of genocide” and for a “ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, activist David Sonnenbaum told APA. “This is not about anti-Semitism. This is about suppressing any criticism of the actions of the state of Israel,” said Sonnenbaum, who is himself a member of the Jewish community in Austria.

Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) expressed his shock at the color attack on Edtstadler and the other conference participants on the sidelines of the Europe Day ceremony. “Anti-Semitism is the poison of every democracy”, emphasized the Chancellor. Everything must be done to combat anti-Semitism in society. Violence would be prosecuted by the police. Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler also commented on X and spoke of a “completely unacceptable attack” that was “to be condemned in the strongest possible terms”. Kogler identified an “anti-Semitic breach of taboo”.

National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP) also condemned the paint attack in the strongest possible terms. “Just last weekend, an SPD politician in Dresden was the victim of an attack with a right-wing extremist background and had to be seriously injured and operated on in hospital. We must not allow extremists of any persuasion to use brute force to enforce their crude views and world views. A clear stance is needed here too, and not just fine words,” said Sobotka in a statement to APA.

“Pure anti-Zionism and therefore anti-Semitism”

On Monday, Edtstadler also commented on Omri Boehm's controversial speech on Vienna's Judenplatz, which is due to take place on Tuesday, and accused the German-Israeli philosopher of anti-Semitism. It was “urgently time to reconsider whether someone who criticizes Israel, which is not criticism of Israel, but pure anti-Zionism and therefore anti-Semitism, should actually be given a stage in the middle of Vienna”, she was quoted as saying on Ö1-Mittagsjournal. At the anti-Semitism conference, Oskar Deutsch also intensified his attacks on the Vienna Festival, which had invited Boehm, and also criticized the City of Vienna in this context.

Boehm, who advocates a common state for Jews and Palestinians in his books, represents neither Israelis nor Jews and would “pave the way for anti-Semites all over the world”, said Deutsch. The fact that the festival held on to the speech on the highly symbolic Judenplatz despite all the protests was a “sign of bad faith”. He also wondered why the City of Vienna, the sponsor of the festival, was allowing this, said Deutsch. The fact that Boehm himself was Jewish did not change anything, Deutsch said, drawing a comparison with the former mayor of Vienna Karl Lueger, a radical anti-Semite who was nevertheless friends with Jews and justified this with the popular phrase: “I decide who is a Jew.”

Deutsch concluded his speech at the conference with the words: “We cannot accept that those who stir up hatred against Israel and Jews are invited.” In his book Israel - A Utopia 2020, Boehm spoke out in favor of a binational federation as an alternative to the ongoing occupation and also to the two-state solution. He also criticizes the instrumentalization of Holocaust remembrance for political purposes, especially by the Israeli right, and speaks of “Holocaust messianism”. He teaches at the left-progressive New York New School. In March, he was awarded the “Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding” for his latest book Radical Universalism. Beyond Identity.

Common basis of equality

Boehm's argument is based on an extremely conscientious interpretation of Kant's concept of universalism: before assigning people nationalistically, one must be aware of the indivisibility of their dignity. Only by reflecting on the “common” possession of fundamental rights is it possible to critically exchange opinions. According to Boehm, it is the common basis of equality on which the idea of friendship can flourish. With a view to Israel's future, but also to Europe, Boehm speaks of the need for a coexistence that is organized federatively.

The “Speech to Europe” is taking place for the third time on Vienna's Judenplatz, where the Holocaust memorial is located, and has not caused any controversy in previous years. Boehm's speech is to deal with the Middle East conflict and the challenge for Europe, the exact content is not publicly known.

Due to massive pressure from the IKG and the President of the European Jewish Congress, Ariel Muzicant, the Erste Foundation has withdrawn as a sponsor. Muzicant had attracted attention with the remark that if he were 30 years younger, he would be throwing eggs at the speech. The author Daniel Kehlmann, who published a book of conversations about Kant with Boehm, described Muzicant's statements on Ö1-Mittagsjournal as an “incitement to violence” and “absolutely outrageous”. Muzicant had never explained what really bothered him about Boehm.

Kehlmann described the entire debate as a “laughable misunderstanding” and said he was watching what was happening with “amazement and incomprehension”. He sees Boehm as a “compromise candidate that everyone could actually agree on”. Boehm is an “absolute representative of universalism”, so it is only logical that he is in favor of “Jews and Palestinians being able to live as equal citizens in a democratic state at some point”. (Eric Frey, Ronald Pohl, Clara Wutti, APA, 6.5.2024)

Philosopher Omri Boehm: “Opponents are Bothered that I Represent the Enlightenment”

Der Standard/ Interview by Ronald Pohl, May 5, 2024

The Israeli-German thinker gives a “Speech to Europe” on Vienna's Judenplatz on Tuesday. He counters criticism with a reference to Kant.

In his book Radical Universalism, he took the wind out of the sails of overly zealous advocates of identity politics with dazzling arguments. Now the Israeli-German philosopher Omri Boehm has received fierce criticism in advance: He is giving a “speech to Europe” on Tuesday evening on Vienna's Judenplatz. The donation of ideas initiated by IWM and Wiener Festwochen is taking place at an allegedly “inappropriate” location. Ariel Muzicant (former president of the IKG) even spoke of a “wrong speech in the wrong place”. The reason: Boehm unwaveringly advocates the future vision of a binational state of Israel. But what does the universalism he advocates mean?

STANDARD: In your book Radical Universalism, you retell an Old Testament biblical scene with reference to Kant: Abraham basically refuses to sacrifice his son Isaac. The idea of absolute justice ranks even higher than God's omnipotence. Is the idea of universal justice only made visible through disobedience?

Boehm: It is not disobedience that makes the difference. The idea of absolute justice is not revealed through it. Obedience always involves various authorities. Disobedience only becomes possible through another superior authority. If we are disobedient, we are obeying someone. Even if Abraham disobeys God, he obeys an even higher authority. This is above God.

STANDARD: Absolute justice.

Boehm: The question arises as to whether this is still obedience. This is where Immanuel Kant comes into play: If I am autonomous, I obey something unconditional, but not in the sense of an external authority, because I obey the rules that I impose on myself. Kant taught us that only a law that we give ourselves can be absolute. However, this does not mean that I merely follow my subjective will or some whim. By giving myself a law and following the categorical imperative, I am following my own will. That is not obedience.

STANDARD: The general, mediated by personal insight into its necessity?

Boehm: Exactly. The beings that are capable of imposing a law on themselves, namely human beings, possess dignity.

STANDARD: You are giving a “Speech to Europe” in Vienna. How do you manage to create a community of like-minded people on a European level? Of people of good will?

Boehm: The idea of equality is of the utmost importance because of dignity. Equality presupposes that human dignity is inviolable. This applies above all to our basic rights. But thank God we are not all like-minded. When we respect the dignity of others, we do so even and especially when we are not of one mind. If a person thinks something completely different from me, the best way to honor them is to acknowledge the following: Their purposes are very different from mine, but they are considered important by me. This is why the idea of friendship, which I tried to explain in my lecture in Leipzig for European understanding, is crucial: it shows us what it means to consider another person's purposes as important, even if they are not our own. We always respect the views of others up to a certain limit, of course. That limit is reached when the opinion in question violates human dignity. I don't accept that, and that makes an opinion illegitimate.

STANDARD: What does this mean with regard to the withdrawal of the Erste Foundation, which suddenly no longer wants to support your “Speech to Europe”? Because Vienna's Judenplatz now seems “inappropriate” as a venue for the event?

Boehm: You should ask the Erste Foundation that. I would add that if the legitimacy of this speech is called into question, it is not because I am against human dignity, but because I support it. This trend should worry us, I think, especially if we are concerned about Europe amid the rise of the nationalist populist right.

STANDARD: What do you mean by that?

Boehm: People like Ariel Muzicant, who complained that I am introducing post-colonial thinking into the Israeli context, are ill-informed. I am a vocal opponent of postcolonialist thinking, theoretically and in the Israeli-Palestinian context. What seems to bother Muzicant about my position is not my alleged “postcolonialism”, but the fact that, with Kant, I advocate Enlightenment universalism. That is of course legitimate, albeit worrying.

STANDARD: With regard to Israel and future coexistence in the Middle East, you propagate a “realistic binational utopia”. Doesn't this seem more utopian than ever after October 7, 2023 and the expansion of the Gaza war?

Boehm: I understand the doubts and questions of the federal direction, which I support. Since October 7, the situation has become unbearable. But it would be much further from reality to speak of a “two-state solution” today. Or that there is no need for mediation. These two illusions have led us to the current catastrophe. My argument was never just “utopian”, but also “dystopian”: if we don't develop alternatives to the widespread illusions, we will cause a catastrophe. People thought I was exaggerating. They should think again when they now offer the two-state solution or no solution and pretend that this is reasonable or somehow realistic.

STANDARD: And we are currently experiencing this catastrophe?

Boehm: Unfortunately, yes. And it is precisely those who cling to the two-state illusion who are making the catastrophe worse by still not calling for a ceasefire. Those who are interested in a political, not a military solution, must begin to steer the talks on two-statehood in the direction of a federation.

STANDARD: What do you do with all the potential partners who don't have the slightest interest in Israel's right to exist?

Boehm: Of course Israel's right to exist is beyond question. The question is how to maintain the vision of a democratic Jewish state, even if there is no two-state solution and the majority of the Israeli population is de facto not Jewish. We need to think in terms of a federation - which, by the way, also touches on the issue of Europe. Such a federation should be based on the idea of human dignity. Every national identity, every commitment to it, should be maintained precisely out of respect for human dignity. Precisely because it is indispensable for preserving his dignity. The recognition of national sovereignty cannot be placed at the beginning - and human dignity only added afterwards. That's what both sides are doing today, and it leads to disaster. That is the logic I am trying to break through, also in my “Speech to Europe”.

STANDARD: Does that mean on a concrete level?

Boehm: Who could be the potential partners in such an agreement? Small steps in the right direction could be taken by the Israeli Palestinians, i.e. by Israeli citizens. There are initiatives such as “A Land for All”, in which Jews and Palestinians have been working together for several years. Those organized there are not explicitly against a two-state solution, but they are not repeating the old rhetoric of the Oslo Accords either. The model for such new ideals of thinking is what I am doing with Haifa Republic. The makers of “One Country for All” are very close to my thinking and we are looking forward to working together. How such thinking can be transferred to the West Bank, to Gaza, is really not easy. It was possible to hold such talks in the West Bank - before October 7, of course. It's just much less realistic not to keep these options.

STANDARD: What would you say to skeptics today?

Boehm: Skepticism is based on the mistaken assumption that reality is simple. The situation is very complex, almost impossible, and therefore it is unrealistic to believe that the solution can be simple and familiar. True skeptics are those who question their own assumptions; the “skeptics” here are too often dogmatists who refuse to do so. If they did, they might take positions that are difficult and far-fetched, but more realistic. (Ronald Pohl, 5.5.2024)

The Israeli-German philosopher Omri Boehm (45) - who teaches at the New School for Social Research in New York - was awarded this year's Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding for his book “Radical Universalism”. On Monday, he will be speaking about Immanuel Kant together with Daniel Kehlmann at the Volkstheater in Vienna under the title “Der bestirnte Himmel über mir” (8pm).