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"This is happening at the socially lower but intellectual level,"
says Orosz . "At the other extreme, we have some well-to-do, bour–
geois Jews, who sympathize with the Austrian People's Party [the
one that supported Waldheim's candidacy], who have little contact
with community affairs. They corroborate those Austrians who
wishfully think there is no anti-Semitism ."
Grosz, a furrier who has been president of the community for
only six months, wants it to represent all Jews . "The majority are
elderly. We have to integrate the Soviet Jews, most of whom are
Sephardim, in order to guarantee our survival. It sounds grotesque,
but the Russian Jews, among them some who have even returned
from the U.S ., Canada or Israel, say they feel
heimisch
in Austria
because it is closest in character to the Soviet Union. The bureau–
cracy, the mentality make them feel at home here," Grosz explains
with an undertone of bitterness.
Before the Holocaust , nearly 200,000 Jews lived in Vienna.
Hundreds of Jewish shops and forty-eight synagogues were de–
stroyed in the
Kristallnacht
of November 9 and 10, 1938. Today, the
renovations of the Stadttempel in the Seitenstettengasse, established
in 1826, is being prepared for the historic year of 1988. This is the
only synagogue that "survived"
Kristallnacht,
because its facade looked
like an ordinary house and the Nazis could not distinguish it as a
synagogue.
Only one Jewish family, the father a physician, has left for
Israel in reaction to the latest upsurge of anti-Jewish feeling. The
religious people say their situation has not worsened . And Grosz
says he remains optimistic. "As president of the Jewish community
you have to be an optimist. But I feel that the recent developments
represent a historic chance that Austria will come to terms with its
past, that it will accept the bad things and react positively, and stop
pushing the unpleasant truth aside . The Jews have to share the
blame for this development. They have joined the Austrians for the
past forty years in saying, 'Don't let the past interfere with our pre–
sent.' We have a duty as Jews and as Austrians to take a stand in
order to be able to live in the present." Grosz, who doesn't belong to
any political party (he describes himself as "center-left") and who is
not religious himself, has proven that some Jews have learned a
lesson from the past .
When Orthodox Jews were molested in the streets following the
criticism of the papal decision to receive Kurt Waldheim, he iden–
tified with them and publicly protested the manifestations. And it
