Progressive Judaism in Austria

Abstract

The article describes the historical circumstances and context of the beginnings of Progressive Judaism in Central Europe in the nineteenth century, with the rabbis I.N. Mannheimer and A. Jellinek and the famous cantor Salomon Sulzer in the historic Viennese city temple (which still stands today) as the main protagonists. In the interwar period, the founding of the Verein für fortschrittliches Judentum in Vienna, its president Heinrich Haase (1864–1943) and its dissolution (in 1936) are discussed, and biographies of Liberal rabbis in Vienna and in some parts of the Austrian provinces are presented. After 1945 the focus is on the history of the Liberal Viennese community Or Chadasch, founded in May 1990, which is celebrating twenty-five years in November this year with a Festschrift and a Festakt with a keynote speech by Anat Hoffman.