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November 26, 1993 - Image 89

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1993-11-26

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

New Jewish Museum

Opens In Vienna

Vienna (JTA) — The city of
Vienna, following through
on a promise made seven
years ago by its mayor, has
built the city's first Jewish
museum in almost 100
years.
The new museum is the
repository for precious
Judaica collections that
have had no adequate home
for several decades.
The museum's main goal
is to become the "spiritual
meeting point of Jews and
non-Jews for an exchange of
views and for better under-
standing," said Professor
Julius Schoeps, the muse-
urn's founding director.
Professor Schoeps, who
teaches German Jewish his-
tory at the University of
Potsdam, Germany, has a
close link to Vienna. Among
the works he has published
are the letters and diaries of
Theodor Herzl, the founder
of Zionism.
The museum is housed in
an ornate baroque city
palace in the heart of
Vienna, in the city's anti-
ques shop quarter.
Teddy Kollek, the outgo-
ing, longtime mayor of

One Jewish group
worried about the
nature of the
project.

Jerusalem and a native of
Vienna, will be the guest of
honor at the museum's open-
ing. Mr. Kollek and Vienna
Mayor Helmut Zilk will
jointly participate in the
opening ceremony.
With this museum, Mr.
Zilk fulfills a promise he
made seven years ago in
New York.
Mr. Zilk vowed to open a
Jewish museum in Vienna
on the occasion of the open-
ing of an exhibit on turn-of-
the-century Vienna at New
York's Museum of Modern
Art.
He made the promise at a
time when many Austrians,
including Mr. Zilk, were
bent on correcting the coun-
try's anti-Semitic image in
the world as presidential
candidate Kurt Waldheim's
Nazi past was being reveal-
ed daily.
The campaign against Mr.
Waldheim created an anti-
Semitic backlash among

many Austrians, who later
elected Mr. Waldheim presi-
dent.
Mr. Zilk's promise was a
serious one, and a search for
a proper location began.
Nevertheless, his
endeavors were met with a
lot of skepticism and even
opposition from within the
Jewish community.
"When Jewish com-
munities disappear, then
Jewish museums are found-
ed," Paul Grosz, president of
the Jewish community, said
in a rather pensive mood.
Jewish officials argued
that the funds necessary for
a museum could be put to
better use to solve more
pressing needs, such as so-
cial projects.
Jewish community leaders
pointed out the need for
renovating the Jewish home
for the elderly, enlarging
and financing the Jewish
school and other projects.
Another Jewish group
worried about the nature of
the project itself.
One Jewish figure said,
"We do not need a museum
for or about the Jews be-
cause this could degenerate
into a memorial to the dead,
with too little emphasis on
the living,"
Mr. Schoeps' conception
should help to allay some of
these worries.
"The Austrian visitor has
to be confronted here with
his past. This confrontation
is meant for the non-Jewish
visitor," Mr. Schoeps said.
He described his aims for
the museum, once the home
of a Jewish family named
Eskeles, as a place filled
with many activities for
people from all walks of life.
The building, located on
Dorotheergasse, is called the
Palais Eskeles. •
"Teitelbaum does not live
here anymore" is the motto
of one of four exhibitions
ready for the museum's
opening. The exhibit is a
tour of former Jewish areas
of the city.
"The Viennese telephone
directory of 1938 listed 16
Teitelbaums — the current
one of 1993-94 has no men-
tion of that name," the mu-
seum's guide pamphlet says.
A city map of 1931 is laid
out on the floor, leading the
museum visitor to Jewish
personalities, their inven-
tions and their memories.
Two exhibits center
around Sigmund Freud. ❑

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