Еврейская религиозная община (г. Вена)

In 1852, the Austrian authorities gave de facto recognition to the Jewish Religious Community as the sole organization authorized to conduct religious, educational, and charitable operations among Jews in Vienna. The community's charter was ratified in 1867 and revised in 1890. The community oversaw the maintenance of various components of Jewish religious life — including the rabbinate, religious education, synagogues, cemeteries, kosher food, and charity — and oversaw the keeping of birth registers. The community was the unofficial representative of Jewish interests vis-à-vis state entities and the city authorities. The community's budget consisted of dues paid by its members. The number of actual dues-payers, however, was small. In 1895, out of a Viennese Jewish population of 133,397, only 12,797 paid the 10-florin community tax, giving them the right to vote in community council elections. By 1924, with a general Viennese Jewish population of 201,000, the number of payers had increased to 53,000. The community council typically represented the wealthiest and most successful segment of the Jews of Vienna. For most of its existence, the community was dominated by adherents of liberal, Reform Judaism. Before the First World War, Orthodox Jews generally abstained from community council elections, and Zionist candidates were unsuccessful. Among its presidents in the imperial period were Ignaz Kuranda, Wilhelm Ritter von Guttmann, Heinrich Klinger, Joseph Ritter von Wertheimer, and Alfred Stern (1903-18). From 1920 to 1932, the president of the community council was Alois Pick, who represented a Liberal-Orthodox alliance. In 1932, the Zionist slate of candidates received the majority of votes, and Desider Friedmann became president. After the Nazi Anschluss of Austria on 13 March 1938, the Jews of Vienna, numbering by that time 115,000, fell victim to the Nuremberg Laws. During Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), 49 synagogues in Vienna were destroyed, Jewish property was looted, and several thousand Viennese Jews were deported to the Dachau concentration camp. Between the fall of 1939 and September 1942, the Jews of Vienna were systematically deported to ghettos in Nazi-occupied Poland, and, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, to occupied territories there, including the Baltics. The Jewish Community was officially dissolved in November 1942.