The Austrian Jewish Museum is located on Unterbergstraße 6 in

Eisenstadt Eisenstadt (; hu, Kismarton; hr, Željezni grad; ; sl, Železno, Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ''Eisnstod'') is a city in Austria, the state capital of Burgenland. It had a recorded population on 29 April 2021 of 15,074. In the Habsburg ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. The museum was founded in 1972 by Kurt Schubert, and was the first Jewish museum to open in Austria after 1945.

History

Schubert was a Catholic professor who chaired the Judaic studies department at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

during the post-World War II era. Due to the climate in Austria following the war, many projects regarding Judaism were private enterprises, as was the museum. It was situated in Eisenstadt, rather than Vienna, due to budgetary constraints. It catered to an academic clientele, rather than the general public, and initially were focused around annual symposiums held by the museum. Its creation paved the way for later museums in Austria dealing with Jewish topics, such as the Jewish Museum Vienna. The museum is housed today in the Wertheimerhaus, also called the Wertheimer'schen Freihaus, which was commissioned and financed by Esterhazy family and built by

Samson Wertheimer Samson Wertheimer (17 January 1658 – 6 August 1724) was chief rabbi of Hungary and Moravia, and rabbi of Eisenstadt. He was also an Austrian financier, court Jew and ''Shtadlan'' to Austrian Emperor Leopold I. Family Wertheimer was born in ...

in 1719, who earned the commission through service to the aristocratic family. Wertheimer was an important businessman and served both the court in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and the high rabbi in Hungary. This house was built in

during his own service as a high rabbi and housed a private synagogue with a separate room for women only. The synagogue is part of the museum exhibition.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Eisenstadt Museums in Burgenland Oberlander Jews 1972 establishments in Austria Museums established in 1974 Jewish museums in Austria Synagogues preserved as museums 20th-century architecture in Austria